“Testing” Curriculum: An introduction to open ended design challenges
Educational Goals
 Students gain an understanding of the concept of testing and are able to apply the results of
testing to engineering problems.
 Students are introduced to user centered design and learn to consider usability testing
 Students become familiar with and comfortable with building and prototyping
Organizational Guidelines
 The curriculum fits within the typical STOMP schedule for one semester. That is approximately 1
hour a week for 6 weeks. Some material can be covered by classroom teachers outside of the
regular STOMP time
 Both classroom teachers and STOMP fellows contribute to the teaching of each lesson
 Curriculum is based around open-ended testing and design challenges. These start with
mechanical testing and grow to include consideration of usability.
For materials, could use the new materials catalog with some additions. Basic measurement devices
should be included (rulers, tape measures, spring scales, stop watches, protractors) and an assortment
of simple LEGO pieces for building mechanisms (beams, axels, pins, bushings).
Lesson 1: Introduction to testing (2 weeks)
1. Warm up activity: product comparison (20 minutes): The purpose of this introduction is to frame
the activity and get students thinking about why there are differences between products and
that use determines design.
a. Possible products to use, feel free to choose your own series of items
i. Flashlights (small press to turn on keychain light, standard flashlight, headlamp,
lantern type omnidirectional light)
ii. Water bottles (camelback style flexible bladder, disposable bottle, plastic
nalgene type reusable bottle, metal reusable bottle, pop-top sport type bottle)
b. Start off discussion with questions relating to picking something out when shopping.
Such as how do you choose one particular item out of all the similar items on the shelf?
How do you compare products?
c. Lead the class in a discussion of how the products differ. Think of different categories
for comparison. A matrix or chart on the board could be used to document the
discussion.
d. Give students a brief amount of hands on time with the products.
e. Close the activity by posing different usage scenarios to the class and asking which
product would be best for that situation and why. For example, if choosing a flashlight
to use while cooking the in dark the headlamp would be great because it’s hands-free.
2. Introduction
a. Start with series of open questions to get students thinking. Don’t direct or focus the
discussion this is more of a poll to gauge students’ initial thoughts on the subject
i. When you are making a decision about something, how do you figure out which
option is the best? What do you look for? (use familiar examples such as walking
around the store when trying on shoes, choosing cereal at the grocery store)
ii. What do you think it means to test or evaluate something?
b. Introduce the central task of the lesson, evaluating different LEGO cars. Students are
presented with 4 to 6 different cars
i. Cars will not have motors or sensors
ii. Cars will vary in size, sturdiness, etc.
iii. Another option would be parachutes or something similar. It’s important to
have multiple qualities/properties vary
c. Instruct the class that the goal for the lesson is to determine “which car is the best.”
Then start the discussion by asking “what makes a good car?”
i. The goal of this discussion is to obtain a list of different testable properties and
qualities.
ii. Any property that is feasible to evaluate should be included in the list. They
could range from subjective attributes like attractiveness, which could be
evaluated with a user survey, to mechanical properties such as weight.
d. This lesson is going to focus on mechanical testing and later lessons will address more
subjective and usability related qualities. Chose one mechanical property from the list
created in the previous discussion. Ideally this will be a more complex property to test
like speed, and not something simple like weight.
e. Break up the class into groups and instruct each group to create a method for testing
the chosen property and then to test each car using that method. Hand out and explain
the materials catalog.
f. Comment on the importance or recording testing results. No worksheet is necessary but
each group needs to write down their results
3. Prototyping/Testing
a. After reviewing plans with a teacher, each group can begin building any necessary
testing apparatus and then perform the testing
b. This may require more than one class period
4. Conclusion
a. Each group presents their testing method and their results
b. As results will likely differ, this can be used to introduce the idea that testing and
measurement are not exact and repeatable
i. Explain that this happens all the time in science and engineering
ii. Ask each group if they repeated any tests. Did they perform multiple trials for
each car? If so, ask if the results were similar across the trials. Talk about how
and why scientist and engineers almost always perform multiple trials in a test
or experiment.
c. Students should keep anything they build for future lessons
Lesson 2: Use testing to support design (2 weeks)
This lesson continues to focus on mechanical testing but requires students to use the testing results to
improve their designs. For materials, you could use assorted LEGO and NXT parts (no motors or sensors),
found materials, or a combination.
1. Introduction
a. Lead a brief discussion of the previous lesson.
b. Review a limited list of testable properties that was generated in the previous lesson.
Only include the more mechanical properties
c. Present the lesson goals
i. Each group will pick 2 of the properties from the list (cannot use the property
tested in lesson 1)
ii. Using the materials catalog, each group will design a car to perform well on
tests of their chosen properties
iii. Groups will design tests for their 2 properties and then test their car
iv. Using results from the tests, groups will redesign and then retest their cars
2. Building and testing
3. Conclusion
a. Each group presents their testing methods and their final car design
i. Ask students what they changed from the first to the second car designs.
ii. Did their second round of tests show an improvement?
Lesson 3: Introduction to usability (2 weeks)
Testing for usability is introduced through peer reviews of designs
1. Warm up activity: product comparison (20 minutes)
a. Introduce designing for usability by comparing ergonomic and non-ergonomic versions
of a product
b. Possible product examples (STOMP will have a set but you are welcome to come up with
your own ideas)
i. Oxo cookware (comfortable to hold, rubber handles provide safe and secure
grip) versus generic cookware (could compare spatchulas, ice cream scoops,
etc.)
ii. Toothbrushes. One generic flat plastic toothbrush and another with angled
head, rubber handle, etc.
c. Pass products around class for students to hold and use.
d. Lead discussion of how they differ by asking questions like which one is easier to use?
Which one is more comfortable to hold?
e. Introduce usability by talking about when designing something, it’s important to
consider who will be using it and how they will be using it. Refer back to product
examples
2. Introduction
a. Present the design challenge for this lesson
i. The users for this project will be classroom students
ii. The goal is to build a toy that relates to a subject recently taught in the
classroom, discuss with the teacher beforehand to get ideas. For example, a
class studying ancient Egypt might build a toy showing how the pyramids were
constructed.
3. Building
4. Focus groups
a. Form the students into 3 groups. The classroom teacher will have one group each fellow
will have a group.
b. Students will take turns presenting their design to the group.
c. The prototype will then be passed around the group for other students to use and
evaluate.
i. The goal of this discussion is for students to start thinking about human factors
and usability by giving constructive feedback to their classmates.
ii. As students try the prototypes, ask questions such as “Is it easy to use? Is it
comfortable to use? Could you easily tell someone else how to use it? Is it fun?”
5. Redesign based on feedback from focus groups. Encourage groups to do their own testing as
well.
6. Conclusion
a. Students present their final prototypes and share how they changed their design in
response to the focus group feedback