Lesson Plan Page
Loop Design Airplane Lesson- to introduce the design process and to demonstrate the forces of aerodynamics. Students are given a challenge to design an airplane out of two strips of paper and a straw. They will then use the data to calculate the class mean, median, and mode. You can follow up with graphing the class data by hand or on excel.
Paper Airplane Design - to help teach the design process and to demonstrate the forces of aerodynamics. Have students investigate various types of designs and have a contest to determine the longest flight.
Bridge Building Lesson - to learn about bridges, bridge forces and the design process. Students will be in groups of 3-4 to decide how to build a bridge to span 12 inches using balsa wood, tape, glue, string, scissors, and a ruler. All of the items have a unit price and the groups must figure out how much they should spend to accomplish the task. The group who designs the most stable bridge spending the least amount of money are the winners.
Boat Design- to help learn the design process. Students are in teams of 4-5 students and are challenged with trying to design a boat made of tin foil that can hold as many pennies as possible. Each team is given 3 pieces of 4x4 inch heavy duty tin foil, a bowl of water, and approximately 30 pennies.
Invention - to introduce the design process. Students work in pairs to think of a problem they would like to solve or an improvement they would like to make. They must think of 3 possible solutions for the problem and then choose one. They will draw a sketch of their invention or improvement, labeling the special features. The invention can be futuristic. Students will then be asked to write a letter to a person or company who may be interested in purchasing their new invention. They are allowed to make up any name or address - even if it is out of this world. Students have a lot of fun making up funny names and coming up with wild reasons why someone should buy their product.
The lesson to learn about the process for all communication systems begins with an introduction to the vocabulary and a review of the Universal Systems Model. Students are then sent with a partner to various stations set up in classroom. At each station there is a different type of communication system and they must fill out a worksheet labeling each part of the process. The stations are made up of cup & string, microwave, walkie talkie, telephone, camera, printed material, and satellite. A test of vocabulary knowledge is given through a crossword puzzle. Students will then choose a type of communication system, and after some research, the activity will culminate with the creation of a brochure identifying each of the parts of the process, as well as the inventor and 2 other interesting facts.
A fun way to learn about the business terms (manufacturing, R&D, Quality Control, etc) is to have a matching game (cut out the terms and definitions and laminate). The students are working in pairs and each receives an envelope containing the terms and definitions. On the teachers mark, the students open the envelope and match the terms with the definitions. The first group to get the correct matches wins!
They also enjoy doing a crossword puzzle of the terms.
Research on the computer to learn about the different departments is also a good tool.
Role Play is another good way for the students to try and handle business issues. Students are in groups of 4-5 and work out a workplace situation put forth by the teacher. The students decide who is the President, Vice President, etc. and solve the issue at hand.