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Sample Projects for Your Classroom
Following are several sample projects that you can try in your own classroom. Feel free to
modify them to suit the needs of your own students.
You will see that these projects make use of design technology, in which students
are asked to solve a problem, often called a “design challenge,” by constructing a product
or process that meets stated specifications. Design technology has become increasingly
important during the information technology revolution. Students are surrounded by
various types of designs for web sites, computers, computer software and accessories,
cellular telephones, video and audio equipment, and digital devices of all types. The impact
is felt in many fields of learning—in the humanities as well as the sciences—and there is a
growing need to integrate design technology into the school curriculum.
Project 1: Design Your Own Logo
This project engages students in the process of design while utilizing their mathematical
skills. It can be used in many curriculum contexts, even as a “warm-up” for a unit on light
and vision. It is most suitable for students in grades three and higher.
The project challenges students to construct a personal logo that enables them to
tell something about themselves to the viewer. It also helps students understand that design
may be an individual or a group process, but it is certainly not a process in which all
participants are doing the same thing at the same time. The project helps convey the idea
that we can have meaningful experiences by expressing individual creativity and then
gathering and sharing our results as a class.
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At the end of the challenge, students can explore the ways in which their own
designs are the same as and different from their classmates’. Students need to see
themselves as knowers, thinkers, and doers. This design challenge helps them do that.
Teacher’s Introduction
Have you ever thought about who designs the symbols for the various products we buy and
find in stores? (Show the students some brand-name products such as Coke, Kleenex,
Pepsi, Tropicana Orange Juice, and so on.) Everything from hotel chains to canned and
bottled sodas has a recognizable symbol that we call a “logo.” Now is your chance to
design a logo to sell yourself!
Design Challenge
Design a logo using the letters of your first name.
Specifications
„ Your logo must tell the viewer at least three things about you. Suggestions: your
talents, hobbies, special strengths, goals, and appearance attributes (gender, hair color,
and so forth).
„ Dimensions should be less than 20 cm by 15 cm.
„ Your logo should be readable from 3 meters away.
„ Your logo must be freestanding.
Constraints and Materials
The following materials are available:
„ Pieces of foam board, 20 cm by 15 cm
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„ Felt-tip markers
„ Wood glue
„ Construction paper
„ Wood Popsicle sticks
Brainstorming and Research
„ Ask yourself: What do I know about the problem? What do I have to find out?
„ List the attributes that can be part of your personal logo.
Sketching Your Ideas
Make at least one rough pencil drawing of your design before you construct the final
product.
What Do You Need to Make Your Design?
„ Materials: List the materials you will be using.
„ Tools: List the tools you will need.
Extending Your Design
Using a scanner, scan your logo into a file on your computer. Save your design for a
PowerPoint presentation about yourself.
Evaluating Your Design
Answer the following questions:
„ Which aspects of the design are you happy with, and why?
„ If you did the project again, what would you change or improve, and why?
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Project 2: Finding the Best Potato Chip
This project has been done in middle school as a way to engage science students in
designing investigations that are accurate and give fairly reliable results. In this design
challenge, the students are designing a process rather than a product.
Design Challenge
Working in your group, establish criteria for the “best” potato chip. What are the attributes
of such a chip? Design replicable procedures to test for each attribute.
Specifications
The processes that you design must be easily replicable.
Constraints
„ What are your limitations in the classroom as you design your investigations for testing
your criteria?
„ Do you have the correct tools and materials for your investigation?
Brainstorming and Research
At this stage, you may want to do research by eating several types of potato chips to define
the attributes. Some examples are crunchiness, dip-ability, and saltiness. Your group has to
reach consensus about the attributes of your favorite potato chip.
Test Procedures
What procedures will you follow to test the potato chips for each of your criteria? Describe
each of your potato chip attributes and specify a scientifically fair test for it.
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Evaluation
„ Are these processes repeatable? Reliable? Would you recommend them to the
manufacturer?
„ Do some tests seem more reliable than others? Which ones? Why?
„ If you had one test to do over, which one would it be? Why?
Project 3: Building an Electrical Game Board
This project can be integrated into an elementary science unit on simple electrical circuits.
It is most appropriate for grades four and higher.
In many classrooms, students use “hidden circuits” to make a game board out of
manila folders and brass fasteners. In the traditional form of this activity, students follow
teacher-directed steps, creating simple circuits by using bell wire to connect two rows of
brass fasteners on the back of a folder. Each student constructs the same type of circuit
board. There is no element of design or student-directed learning.
This project represents an important variation of the activity. Students will create
several different types of game boards using nonlinear designs. They can work as partners
or in small groups. Although this version specifies that the game involve mathematics
questions, you could adapt it for other subjects as well.
Design Challenge
Using your understanding of simple circuits, design a mathematics game board that
includes questions and answers arranged in an interesting pattern. Your pattern may be an
abstract design or a drawing of an actual object.
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Specifications
„ The game board you design can be no larger than 30 cm by 22 cm.
„ The electrical circuit paths must be hidden so that the user of the game board cannot
see them.
„ The board must represent five mathematics questions, with correct answers.
(Depending on the grade level, the teacher may stipulate which topics the mathematics
questions should address: for instance, fractions, ratios, multiplication.)
„ A light bulb must light brightly when the user answers a question correctly.
(Depending on availability of materials, students may instead be asked to make a bell
ring or a buzzer sound.)
Constraints and Materials
The following materials are available:
„ Manila folders, 30 cm by 22 cm
„ D-cell batteries and battery holders
„ 1.5-volt bulbs (flashlight bulbs), bulb holders, and copper bell wire
„ Brass fasteners
„ Masking tape, 1 inch wide
„ Felt-tip markers, pencils, and centimeter sticks
Brainstorming and Research
„ Ask yourself: What do I know about the problem? What do I have to find out?
„ How many D-cell batteries do you need to make the bulb light with a bright glow?
„ Draw your tester circuit. Think about how it works as a tester.
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„ What design will you use? Will it be a picture of something or an abstract design?
„ Where will you place your brass fasteners?
Sketching Your Ideas
„ Make at least one rough pencil drawing of your design before you construct the final
product.
„ Include your mathematics questions and answers in the drawing.
What Do You Need to Make Your Design?
„ Materials: List the materials you will be using.
„ Tools: List the tools you will need.
Evaluating Your Design
Answer the following questions:
„ Which aspects of the design are you happy with, and why?
„ If you did the project again, what would you change or improve, and why?
Teacher’s Follow-up
„ Ask the students to exchange their game boards with other pairs or groups. This is an
excellent collaborative activity for groups of four.
„ Challenge the groups to answer the mathematics questions on their classmates’ game
boards.
„ Ask the groups to use their knowledge of the correct answers to draw the hidden
circuits on a piece of paper.
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Project 4: Building a “Chest Vest”
For a unit on human body systems—typical of second grade or higher—students can be
asked to design and construct models of body systems using available materials. The
“chest vest” consists of a large paper bag with a hole on top for a student’s head to poke
through and an armhole for each arm. Attached to the bag are three-dimensional models of
the organs found inside the chest cavity. When the students wear their vests, they can be
asked to describe each organ and its function and to talk about why the organs are situated
where they are.
Design Challenge
Using what you know about the organs in the chest cavity, design your own model of the
chest organs by making a “chest vest” that you can wear.
Specifications
„ Your chest vest must include a model of the lungs, windpipe, branching air tubes,
heart, stomach, and food tube.
„ The organs must be placed on the vest and connected together properly.
„ Your chest vest must be designed so you can wear it.
Constraints and Materials
„ The chest vest must be made from a supermarket brown paper bag with a hole cut in
the top for your head and holes in the sides for your arms. (Your teacher will have the
bags pre-cut.) Make sure your head and arms can come through.
„ The following materials are available:
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—Glue, tape, felt-tip markers, pencils, and centimeter sticks
—Construction paper
—Paper towel tubes
—Old socks
—Play-Doh
—String and yarn
Brainstorming and Research
Ask yourself questions like these:
„ Where are my heart, my lungs, and my food tube in my chest cavity?
„ Is my heart in front of or behind my lungs?
„ Where can I find pictures of the inside of my chest cavity?
„ How are the windpipe (trachea) and air tubes (bronchi) connected to my lungs?
„ How is the food tube (esophagus) connected to my stomach?
„ Which is in front, the windpipe or the food tube, or are they next to each other?
Sketching Your Ideas
Make at least one rough pencil drawing of your design before you construct the final
product.
What Do You Need to Make Your Design?
„ Materials: List the materials you will be using.
„ Tools: List the tools you will need.
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Evaluating Your Design
Answer the following questions:
„ Which aspects of the design are you happy with, and why?
„ If you did the project again, what would you change or improve, and why?
Teacher’s Follow-up
„ Ask each student to make a presentation to the class while wearing his or her vest.
„ Ask other class members to locate the organs on each student’s vest.
„ Lead a discussion about the organs’ functions and possible reasons for their particular
locations. (For example, what would happen if the stomach were next to the lungs
instead of below them?)
Project 5: Designing an Explorer’s Backpack
When students in middle school study the weather, they often construct models of weather
instruments, such as barometers, hygrometers, weather vanes, anemometers, and
thermometers. As an extension of this exploration, this project asks students to design a
backpack that an explorer could take on a visit to a far-off location. In completing the
project, students begin to understand the ways in which weather all over the world affects
how people live and work.
Design Challenge
With your group, design a model backpack that you would take to one of the following
regions to explore the area on foot. The regions are: Juneau, Alaska; Dallas, Texas; Oslo,
Norway; Puebla, Mexico; Perth, Australia; and Bangor, Maine.
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Specifications
„ Your backpack must have provisions to sustain you for five days.
„ You must consider the climate of the region as well as the weather at this time of year.
„ Your backpack must weigh no more than 10 kilograms and must include models of
food, clothing, and an exploration device.
„ The food you choose must have an adequate nutritional value to sustain you while
hiking.
„ Your backpack cannot be more than 75 cm long and 60 cm wide and must be easily
transportable in your region.
Constraints and Materials
„ Your backpack must be made from materials found in the classroom technology
corner.
„ No real food is acceptable; you have to construct models from the empty cans and
boxes provided.
„ The depth of the backpack is up to you, but the entire construction needs to fit through
the classroom door!
Brainstorming and Research
„ Ask yourself: What do I need to know about the climate and weather of the location, as
well as the food an active person needs for five days?
„ Ask yourself: How will the “backpack” be transported? (Hint: It does not need to be
carried on the back, although that is one option.)
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„ In your group, brainstorm possible sources for this information, and then do your
research.
Sketching Your Ideas
Make at least one rough pencil drawing of your design before you construct the final
product.
Evaluating Your Design
Answer the following questions:
„ Which aspects of the design are you happy with, and why?
„ If you did the project again, what would you change or improve, and why?
Teacher’s Follow-up
Ask each group to make a presentation to the class describing its backpack and the weather
and climate conditions for which it is adapted.
©2010, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning