"The next time you want to integrate engineering practices into your classes, consider this book your own personal idea-starter. The 13 units in Creating Engineering Design Challenges provide innovative ways to make science and math relevant to middle and high school students through challenge-based learning and the engineering design process. Content areas include biology, chemistry, physical science, Earth science, and environmental science. Topics range from developing a recipe for cement to implementing geocaching to calculating accurate aim with slingshots and water balloons. You can be sure the units are classroom-ready because they were contributed by the same teachers who developed, used, and revised them. The teachers were participants in the Cincinnati Engineering Enhanced Math and Science program, a project funded by the National Science Foundation. They provide detailed accounts of their units as well as lesson plans and handouts. The book also offers guidance on fostering professional development to support and grow your school's engineering education practice. Creating Engineering Design Challenges can help you change your classroom environment, empower students, and move toward a more student-centered classroom culture that leads to deeper learning"--

Explore STEM concepts through making and tinkering!

Jane Yolen poetically reminds young readers that a simple box can be a child's most imaginative plaything as artist Chris Sheban illustrates its myriad and magical uses. Reviews -Booklist, November 2021 “A Box! A box is a wonder indeed. The only such magic that you’ll ever need.” This book offers gentle suggestions for what to do with a cardboard box, from the practical to the fantastical and from solitary to social.”

Design Genius, Jr.: Adventures in Engineering for Kids explores the future through problem solving, design thinking, and engineering in a science-fact world that most parents and kids don’t yet know exists. This book invites kids to take charge of the world they wish to create by designing inventions and solutions to challenges faced in an imaginary City X, the first human settlement on another planet. This adventure takes readers on an epic journey: humans are leaving Earth, arriving at a new planet, and creating the first settlement there, City X. It’s a journey of historic proportions, to a fledgling city on a distant planet, where humanity has a chance to start fresh and design a future that works for everyone. In settling another planet, humans discover a host of challenges, much like those faced on Earth: Challenges related to issues of energy, environment, transportation, security, food, safety, and health. Empowered by design thinking and advanced technology, their problems are to be solved by a vast team of young designers on Earth (your children!). With this book, you and yours will be able to develop the tools to explore, understand, imagine, create, and share your own irresistible futures through accessible real-world activities and awesome ideations. Without limits, what can kids create?

When a tornado leaves a farmer with a heap of scrap metal and no animals, his neighbors are sure it's all over for him. But the determined farmer refuses to admit defeat. His plans are big, and when his neighbors dismiss them with the words, "When pigs fly," they grow bigger still. The farmer sets to work to turn that scrap metal into some rather surprising creatures. Mechanimals will help all of us believe in our dreams, despite what the neighbors may say.

How do you create effective STEM classrooms that energize students, help them grow into creative thinkers and collaborators, and prepare them for their futures? This practical book from expert Anne Jolly has all the answers and tools you need to get started or enhance your current program. Based on the author’s popular MiddleWeb blog of the same name, STEM by Design reveals the secrets to successful lessons in which students use science, math, and technology to solve real-world engineering design problems. You’ll learn how to: Select and adapt quality existing STEM lessons that present authentic problems, allow for creative approaches, and engage students in meaningful teamwork; Create your own student-centered STEM lessons based on the Engineering Design Process; Assess students’ understanding of basic STEM concepts, their problem-solving abilities, and their level of engagement with the material; Teach STEM in after-school programs to further build on concepts covered in class; Empower girls to aspire to careers in STEM and break down the barriers of gender bias; Tap into STEM's project-based learning style to attract and engage all students. Throughout this user-friendly book, you’ll find design tools such as checklists, activities, and assessments to aid you in developing or adapting STEM lessons. These tools, as well as additional teacher resources, are also available as free downloads from the book’s website, http://www.stem-by-design.com.

Engineering challenges are design problems that require students to identify needs, define problems, identify design criteria and constraints, develop solutions, and evaluate their solutions. In these activities, there are more than one "right" answer. The right design is usually one that meets the engineering criteria and is built within the materials budget. Students will design, construct, and test their engineering design solution and collect relevant data (if applicable). They will then evaluate the solution in terms of design and performance criteria, constraints, priorities, and trade-offs while also identifying possible design improvements.This easy and exciting time and work saving book was developed to help middle and high school teachers with no engineering background teach engineering. By using the Engineering Design Process, students begin to look at problems, issues and constraints from multiple viewpoints and in relationship to an assortment of situations and scenarios. Good engineering design considers people's needs to determine the best solution. By solving problems that consider the needs of people, the doors to creativity open wide and student engagement increases. As students build skills in using the Engineering Design Process, they no longer need to sit back and wait for instructions. Instead, they explore, create, design, innovate, imagine, test and evaluate their solutions.

The humble dandelion. By roadside or mountainside, it flowers every month of the year throughout the world, a fitting symbol of life. Its journey is our journey, filled with challenge, wonder and beauty.

A counting book that leads readers through a day in the life of a construction worker building with bricks.

A guide to using the power of design flexibility to improve the performance of complex technological projects, for designers, managers, users, and analysts. Project teams can improve results by recognizing that the future is inevitably uncertain and that by creating flexible designs they can adapt to eventualities. This approach enables them to take advantage of new opportunities and avoid harmful losses. Designers of complex, long-lasting projects—such as communication networks, power plants, or hospitals—must learn to abandon fixed specifications and narrow forecasts. They need to avoid the “flaw of averages,” the conceptual pitfall that traps so many designs in underperformance. Failure to allow for changing circumstances risks leaving significant value untapped. This book is a guide for creating and implementing value-enhancing flexibility in design. It will be an essential resource for all participants in the development and operation of technological systems: designers, managers, financial analysts, investors, regulators, and academics. The book provides a high-level overview of why flexibility in design is needed to deliver significantly increased value. It describes in detail methods to identify, select, and implement useful flexibility. The book is unique in that it explicitly recognizes that future outcomes are uncertain. It thus presents forecasting, analysis, and evaluation tools especially suited to this reality. Appendixes provide expanded explanations of concepts and analytic tools.