Online Workshop: Engineering Design Process
Posted on May 10th, 2010 by ASEE
This online workshop was developed by NASA and PBS’s DESIGN SQUAD for educators and afterschool leaders who want to build skills and confidence in guiding students through engineering activities. Participants gain strategies for strengthening kids’ critical-thinking abilities and getting them excited about using the design process–the series of steps engineers use to arrive at solutions.
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Tags: Design, Engineering Design Process, NASA, PBS, Web Resources
High school students throughout the United States are invited to participate in NASA’s 2010-2011 Interdisciplinary National Science Program Incorporating Research Experience, or INSPIRE, a multitier year-round program designed for students in grades 9 to 12th who are interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. Applications are being accepted through June 30, 2010.
When the Space Shuttle program is grounded later this year, after nearly 30 years of service, quite a few scientists, engineers, and technicians could find themselves jettisoned into the ranks of the unemployed. So why not turn some of them into teachers? That’s the notion behind the proposed Space to School Act introduced in Congress by Democratic Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, of Florida, reports the Orlando Sentinel. 
What more fun way to demonstrate Newton’s Third Law – every action has an equal and opposite reaction – than through a balloon-powered rocket car? In this lesson from NASA Quest, students grades 4-8 construct their cars from simple materials, test them along a measured track, then work to modify them for improved performance.
A recent event for high school inventors from across America at NASA’s Ames Research Center was not your average science fair. The 2010 Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award Summit handed out top prizes of $5,000 in grant money to winners of four categories — aerospace, renewable energy, green building and space nutrition — while finalists received $1,000. Students also got to talk to potential investors.
In this simple, exciting demonstration of Newton’s Laws of Motion, students in grades 5-8 construct a rocket powered by the pressure generated from an effervescing antacid tablet reacting with water. They undertake the work of aerospace engineers in exploring design elements that can affect a spacecraft’s performance.
