C

This week we did an activity that focused on engineering while being environmentally aware. We started by talking about the engineering design process with the students. We discussed each step as a class and then handed out a worksheet where students designed a house that they were going to have to build out of LEGOs. The LEGO house had the following requirements: a LEGO figure had to be able to stand up and lie down in the house, and the house had to have four walls and a roof. We gave the students LEGOs and they built their houses. When the students finished building they were asked to put their houses on the table in the front of the room. When everyone had sat back down we asked the students to build another house out of the LEGOs they had left, while still meeting the requirements.

When the students learned that they had to build a second house they all said that they didn't have enough LEGOs left. Some groups asked for more LEGOs. We ended up letting groups pair up and combine materials to see if they could build a second house. Most groups were able to put together some sort of second house when they were paired with another group. We then had students fill out a worksheet that lead into a discussion about resource use. We talked about how engineers need to think about how many materials and resources they use when designing and building. We then talked about ways to reduce our personal resource use by using reusable materials, recycling, and not using excess materials, like paper or plastic waterbottles. Overall this lesson went well and fit nicely into a one-hour time block.