History of Design Evolution Research Project
Author(s)
Evin Gamal Prather
Subject(s)
Technology / Engineering Design
Grade Level
9
Duration
Six 70-minute class periods
Rationale (How this relates to engineering)
1. Engineers must frequently research state of the art AND developing
technologies in order to stay current and be knowledgeable about
technological advancements.
2. This skill must become second nature for most any professional or careeroriented individual because the generation of new information occurs on a
daily basis.
3. This skill is applicable to any situation in life where one desires to acquire
information that is not currently known to them.
Activity Summary
Day 1:
This activity will begin with a lecture about the history of design (egp_derp_hod.ppt).
Day 2:
The students will be paired into teams (it may be more effective, depending on your
students’ behavior, to have them work individually). The students will be provided
with current periodicals to assist them in choosing a consumer product to research
and given time to make their selections.
Consumer products are items that can be purchased from a store, establishment or
vendor (note: sports are NOT consumer products; sporting goods ARE consumer
products). Students will be given a Presentation Packet explaining their assignment,
which consists of the following


A 5-minute oral presentation of


Answers to 7 questions contained in the Design Evolution
Project Packet (the PowerPoint slideshow should be used as the
visual aid for answering the 7 questions)


A timeline containing information about the history of their
product (students should be required to use 18” x 24” poster
board)


Submission of research notes (i.e. from encyclopedias and internet
information)


Submission of the Presentation Packet
Student will begin their research.
Day 3:
Continue and complete research using the Internet and library.
Day 4:
Students will be given tips for how to create an effective PowerPoint slideshow
(egp_derp_pt.ppt). Students will also be shown an example of how to construct a
timeline (by hand) to visually represent the progression of their chosen product.
Students will begin creating their PowerPoint slideshows and timelines.
Day 5:
Finish PowerPoint slideshows and timelines
Day 5:
Begin student presentations
Day 6:
Finish student presentations
Teaching Philosophy
I think this lesson should be taught in a conversational style (see the narrative
below) for several reasons. It’s been my experience as an engineer and as a
designer in my graduate and undergraduate education that a different type of
learning takes place when topics are being discussed versus when they are lectured
to a group of students. I wanted students to really think about why we were doing
what we were doing, so I figured the best way would be to walk them through as we
talked. It was also pretty easy for me to gauge who was picking up the information
by the expressions on the students’ faces and by their participation level in the
discussion.
Objectives
1. Students will understand and carryout the steps involved in performing
research
2. Students will gain experience using PowerPoint as a visual aid for making an
oral presentation
3. Students will learn how to create a timeline by hand
Ohio Department of Education Standards Met by this Lesson
Science

N/A
Math

N/A
Technology

Standard 1 (Nature of Technology)
o
Benchmark A: Synthesize information, evaluate and make decisions
about technologies.

Grade 10

Nature of Technology Indicator: Articulate and cite
examples of how the development of technological
knowledge and processes are functions of the setting.
o
Benchmark C: Examine the synergy between and among technologies
and other fields of study when solving technological problems.

Grade 11

Innovation and Invention Indicator: Predict changes in
society as a result of continued technological progress
and defend the rationale.

Standard 2 (Technology and Society Interaction)
o
Benchmark A: Interpret and practice responsible citizenship relative to
technology.

Grade 9

Technology and Citizenship Indicator: Review how
different factors, such as individual curiosity,

advertising, the strength of the economy, the goals of a
company and the current trends, contribute to shaping
the design of and demand for various technologies.

Grade 10

Technology and Citizenship Indicator: Understand that
the development of technology may be influenced by
societal opinions and demands, in addition to corporate
cultures.
o
Benchmark C: Interpret and evaluate the influence of technology
throughout history, and predict its impact on the future.

Grade 9

Technology and History Indicator: Describe how some
technological development has been evolutionary, the
result of a series of refinements to basic inventions or
innovations over time.

Technology and History Indicator: Select a technology or
tool and predict how it will change in the future.

Grade 10

Technology and History Indicator: Examine the
social/economic climate for invention and innovation in
different periods of history.

Technology and History Indicator: Explain how the
evolution of civilization has been directly affected by,
and has affected, the development and use of tools and
materials.
Background Knowledge
Students should have a working knowledge of the Internet and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Materials Required
1. History of Design PowerPoint presentation
2. Presentation Techniques presentation
3. Periodicals for distribution to students

At least one periodical per team such as Popular Mechanics, Discover,
Popular Science, International Design (I.D.), Metropolis, Car and
Driver, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan
4. 1 presentation packet per student
Scripted Procedure

Good morning, my name is Mr. Prather.

Today I’m going to talk with you about how to do research. We’ll be working
with this concept over the next couple of classes.

You might be wondering why in the world you, a freshman in high school,
would be worried about research, right?

Well, when do you do research?
o
When you don’t know something
o
You have a hypothesis or a guess about something and you want to
see whether or not it is true

o
You want to know specific information about something
o
You have a problem that needs to be solved
Well, what are you doing when you ask me or Mrs. Jenkins or any of your
other teachers a question?
o

You’re finding out information, aren’t you?
So, each and every time you ask a question, you are doing some research.
So that means that all of you have probably done a LOT of research over the
course of your lives and you didn’t even know it.

So, a lot of people think that engineers are just insanely intelligent people
that just know and remember everything. While that may be true of some
engineers, it isn’t true for the majority. The skill that they have developed is
learning how to quickly become an expert on a given subject. They have all
developed a reliable strategy for finding resources from which they can get
information about any given topic. This is the reason why engineers are so
valuable in the professional world. Research is a part of life as an adult or
young adult and it is unavoidable. However, it doesn’t have to be unbearable.
It can be enjoyable if you work in a field that you love.
o
Who (researches on a consistent basis)?





Doctors

X-rays

Medical journals
Lawyers

Legal documents

Case studies
Students

Reports

Studying
Designers

Identification of target users/market

Style / Trend analysis

New technologies and materials
Engineers

Corporate resources

Journals

Professional societies
o
Ok, so let’s develop a framework for our research.

What’s the first thing that we ought to do?


… Figure out what we are researching
What should we do next?

I would consider the amount of time that I’ll be
presenting. The reason that I do this is because I don’t
want to use time doing research that I won’t be able to
present to my audience. Time is very valuable to most
people, especially engineers.

Once you get more and more experience doing research
presentations and reports, you’ll be able to figure out
about how much time you ought to be spending

I would also try to come up with a list of queries or
similar names for the topic that I’m researching so that
when the first one doesn’t work, you immediately have
another to type into a search engine or library catalog.

Next I would try to identify which resources I planned to use to
find information about my research topic

Internet

Library
o
Books
o
Magazines
o
Journals
o
Newspapers

Peers and friends

Teachers

Parents and relatives

Television
o
Presentation


Peers

Teachers

Parents

Professionals

How much time do you have?

What media will you use to present?


Consider your audience

PowerPoint

Overhead transparencies

Poster
What type of visual aids will you use?

Pictures

Artifacts / objects

Diagrams

Graphs

Internet resource

Poster
PowerPoint (PP) Tips
o
Use PP like as if the slideshow is a set of note cards

Use phrases instead of sentences to remind you of what you
want to communicate to the audience
o
Each slide should have no more than 3 bullets

This means that students will probably have more slides, but
that is fine because the more that the screen is changing, the
more the audience is forced to pay attention.
o
It is generally quite effective to incorporate images into the
presentation so that presenter has something VISUAL to reinforce
his/her message
o
There ought to be a title slide followed directly by an overview slide
that contains an overview of the information contained in the
presentation.
o
Through extensive research, white or yellow text on a blue background
has been found to be the easiest for audiences to read.
o
It is less distracting if the slide design/background is kept consistent
throughout the entire presentation.
Note to Instructor
Please make the distinction between the PRESENTATION (meaning the oral
presentation) and the POWERPOINT SLIDESHOW (meaning the .ppt file created by
Microsoft PowerPoint). It has been my experience that it is confusing for students
when both of these items are referred to as a ‘presentation’.
Teacher Comments
“Once the students got the concept of using the Internet to search for information
instead of just using it for playing games, the majority of them created strong
PowerPoint presentations based on the notes they had taken. The problem of having
students work in teams is when one member has a poor attendance record because
one student is left to do the work of two. Surprisingly, they did have trouble actually
picking a product to research. The structure works well to emphasize the importance
of doing research and presenting it back to a stakeholder. For many students, this
was their first time presenting to a group, so I tried not to be too critical in their
evaluations.”
Student Exemplar Files
This project was conducted at the very beginning of the year. As such, many of the
presentations have a juvenile feel to them. Also, many of the students were
reluctant to change what they had typed (or copied and pasted) due poorly
developed work ethics. The best example is probably egp_derp_exemplar_a.ppt
because it presents information that is most similar to what is required according to
this lesson plan and the handout. Also, many of the accelerated students’ slideshows
were inadvertently erased by the IT department when as hardware was replaced in
the classroom.
Assessment of Student Learning
See egp_derp_r.doc
Student Assessment of the Activity
Please answer the following questions by circling the ONE of the numbers following
the questions using the following scale.
1 = Strongly Agree, 2 = Agree, 3 = Not Sure, 4 = Disagree, 5 = Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
5
I enjoyed this activity.
1
2
3
4
5
I feel more knowledgeable about the process of conducting research.
1
2
3
4
5
I feel more knowledgeable about the topic that I researched.
1
2
3
4
5
I feel more comfortable using PowerPoint to make presentations.
1
2
3
4
5
I feel more comfortable speaking in front of an audience.
1
2
3
4
5
I feel comfortable using the internet to conduct research.
1
2
3
4
5
I like being given the option to research the topic of my choice.
1
2
3
4
5
I understand how to construct and present a timeline.
1
2
3
4
5
This activity has positively changed my attitude about doing research.
1
2
3
4
5
The S.T.E.P. Fellow made this activity more interesting.
What did you like about this activity?
What did you dislike about this activity?
How can this activity be improved?
27% of students enjoyed this activity.
38% of students feel more knowledgeable about the process of conducting research.
49% of students feel more knowledgeable about the topic that I researched.
79% of students feel more comfortable using PowerPoint slideshows.
33% of students feel more comfortable speaking in front of an audience.
51% of students feel comfortable using the internet to conduct research.
83% of students like being given the option to research the topic of my choice.
74% of students understand how to construct and present a timeline.
38% of students felt this activity positively changed their attitude about doing
research.
74% of students feel that the S.T.E.P. Fellow made this activity more interesting.
Reflections
I think the project went well overall because the students gained new experience in
how they can use the Internet. I think that in the future, I would give them a list of
products to choose from because they had such difficulty picking one on their own,
despite the magazines we gave them to use a tool for choosing. The students’ lack
of exposure to products that existed in other regions of the US and the world became
apparent very quickly.
I would also emphasize note taking over simply copying and pasting from the
Internet because that occurred with great frequency. The students also had a
tendency to type out their PowerPoint presentations in sentence form, which is to be
expected of novice users. We presented about how to give an effective PowerPoint
presentation prior to this activity and also corrected as we went through the activity.
I might also provide an empty PowerPoint slideshow (egp_derp_emptystudent.ppt)
containing the correct structure for the slideshow because many students are not
very organized in their thoughts, much less in their notebooks and binders, which
tends to carry over to the creation of the PowerPoint slideshow. Or, an alternative
would be to walk them through the creation of the proper slides so they feel the
accomplishment of doing it for themselves.