Common structures

The modular nature of this curriculum is balanced by common structures to guide student's thinking and scaffold their development of problem-solving and design skills. Borrowed from the Massechusetts Science and Technology Standards, we adopt the following three overarching structures for instructional design:

1. Students employ the five elements of a technological system as an analytical tool:

• goal
• inputs
• processes
• outputs
• feedback

2. Power and energy are introduced consistently and with a coherent framework and representational tools across most modules.

The ideas below are my crude summation of the ideas of Greg Swackhamer, PhD and esteemed physics teacher from Chicago whose 2005 article, "Making Work Work," can be accessed here.

• A system is whatever set of objects and interactions you want to analyze. The system boundary is where we choose to separate the objects and interactions under consideration from other objects, the "environment," or the "rest of the universe." If there are no interactions across the system boundary, we can assume that the total energy in a system is conserved. When the entire universe taken as the system, energy is always conserved.
• Energy is a singular "substance" that can be stored in a variety of "containers" (forms) inside or outside a system. There are not different kinds of energy, just different ways of storing it. Some common ways energy is stored:
  • In moving bulk mass (translational and rotational kinetic energy)
  • In the random motion of atoms and/or molecules of matter (thermal energy)
  • In the temporary deformation of bonds between atoms and/or molecules. (elastic potential energy)
  • In the gravitational field that pulls masses towards each other. (gravitational potential energy)
  • In the electric fields that push and pull like/opposite charges away/towards one another (electic potential energy)
    • Voltage is a subcase of electic potential energy as measured PER unit charge between two locations. It is best understood as a "pressure difference" between two points.
  • In the bonds between atoms. (chemical potential energy).
  • In the bonds between nucleons. (nuclear potential energy)
  • In linked electic and magnetic fields that propagate through space (radiation energy, including solar, infra-red, and all E+M waves.)
• Solid representational tools include system diagrams, pie charts, and bar graphs to illustrate the different forms, amount of change, and direction of work done (energy flow) across the system boundary. (see Swackhamer article)
• Work ("working") is done when energy changes from one form to another.
• Power is the rate (in time) at which work is done.

3. When possible, units are structured to lead students explicitly through the following steps:

1. Identify the need or problem
2. Research the need or problem
   • Examine current state of the issue and current solutions
   • Explore other options via the internet, library, interviews, etc.
3. Develop possible solution(s)
   • Brainstorm possible solutions
   • Draw on mathematics and science
   • Articulate the possible solutions in two and three dimensions
   • Refine the possible solutions
4. Select the best possible solution(s)
   • Determine which solution(s) best meet(s) the original requirements
5. Construct a prototype
   • Model the selected solution(s) in two and three dimensions
6. Test and evaluate the solution(s)
   • Does it work?
   • Does it meet the original design constraints?
7. Communicate the solution(s)
   • Make an engineering presentation that includes a discussion of how the solution(s) best meet(s) the needs of the initial problem, opportunity, or need
   • Discuss societal impact and tradeoffs of the solution(s)
8. Redesign
   • Overhaul the solution(s) based on information gathered during the tests and presentation