Engineering Design Process - LED Card Design and Build

Arthur Morken, Central Washington University
Author Profile
Initial Publication Date: March 4, 2021

Summary

The LED Card lesson is an innovative, inquiry STEM lesson where pre-service teachers get to plan, and implement research based instruction to upper elementary students. The LED Card lesson is the Engineering Design lesson that allows for instructional planning, classroom management, and student collaboration strategies to be practiced in a mentor supported classroom. The outcomes of the LED Card lesson are threefold. The first outcome is to have pre-service teachers coordinate and adjust instruction during the lesson by assessing student understanding through classroom discourse, and engaging investigation. The second outcome is to build instructional confidence in these pre-service teachers whilst the upper elementary students experience two, if not more, cycles of the Engineering Design Process. The last outcome is for the upper elementary students to construct a working LED Card to take home and be able to explain not only the working circuit but the steps to the Engineering Design Process. The Engineering Design Process is supported by going through the cycle twice with a checklist of steps that emphasize problem solving through criteria, constraints, peer feedback and revisions of the LED Card.

The LED card lesson gives the opportunity for the upper elementary students to go through the cycle of the Engineering Design Process, a minimum of two cycles, with the emphasis of improving their solution based on their successes and failures. Based on the time available in the classroom students can make multiple iterations and utilize the 3-2-1 peer feedback form for incorporating these changes. The upper elementary students are provided with a choice in the type of LED Card they want to build that may include a holiday, thank you, or acknowledgment card resulting in ownership and engagement by the students. The students begin with a quick review of the three components of a working circuit (an energy source, connectors that transfer the energy, and an output) while going through each step of the Engineer Design Process provided with brainstorming, checklists, and opportunities to go through the process twice. Pre-service teachers review these steps through facilitating classroom discourse debriefing the process.

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Context

Audience

The LED Card lesson is being used as a STEM inquiry lesson for pre-service STEM majors in two introductory courses of a secondary (middle grades 4-9th) STEM teacher certification. These courses are part of the introductory phase of a STEM Teaching program leading to Washington State residency-level certification to teach science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). These exploratory courses provide opportunities to identify key elements of effective STEM instruction that builds on knowledge, skills, and dispositions developed in previous STEM content courses. A major focus of these courses is to learn how to effectively communicate STEM to elementary and middle grades children.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students will have experienced a lesson prior that gave them the opportunity to build a working circuit. Students were given an energy source, components to transfer that energy like wires or snap circuit connectors, and an output such as a light bulb, fan, or propellor to problem-solve through constructing a successful circuit. Students investigated the arrangements and requirements of these components to become a successful circuit. Students also get a chance to brainstorm and experience a pre-made commercial Energy Stick that lights up and buzzes. Pre-service teachers will also debrief the reasons why the circuit was not successful. Students will additionally need to comprehend the 5E instructional method, utilizing basic classroom management practices, introductory concepts of developing outcomes and objectives based on standards, and developing probing questions for implementing discourse and collaborative practices. The introductory teacher pedagogy is developed in the process of developing the lesson and field based experiences within teams.

How the activity is situated in the course

The pre-service teacher first learns and/or reviews what they know about basic circuits, including vocabulary and hands on lab experiences with either snap circuits, basic circuit materials (lightbulbs, writes and batteries) or energy sticks. There is an optional "Let there Be Light" lesson that describes reviewing circuits, this is part one of the activity. This is also the LED Card lesson #1. The pre-service teachers experience the LED card lesson in the courses as pseudo-elementary students and see effective instructional strategies modeled by the master instructor of the course. In LED Card Lesson #2 the iterative design process is emphasized for students to utilize multiple improvements based on peer feedback. The pre-service teachers then get to plan the lesson using a partially completed provided lesson template which requires them to add an instructional strategy script, students expectations, and intentional questions that will guide the exploration of the lesson. The pre-service teachers build the lesson around the 5E model of inquiry which is: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate students. Once the planning of the lesson is complete the pre-service teachers execute the lesson in a 50-70 minute upper elementary classroom where they are supported by a mentor teacher and master instructor of the course. Feedback is given by each of these two parties and the lesson is revised. The pre-service teachers then return to another upper elementary classroom where the cycle of teaching is done again.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

  • Use knowledge of STEM fields and exemplary sources of inquiry-based instructional models to adapt and teach engaging STEM lessons to elementary and middle school students.
  • Know and utilize the Engineering Design Process with emphasis on multiple iterations of improvement and utilizing peer feedback.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

  • Write performance objectives and assessments aligned with state and national standards and design assessment strategies to provide feedback to the learners.
  • Design questions to facilitate student explanation of thinking and determine students' acquisition of knowledge and guide student learning. Understand the Engineering Design Process through Iterative review and the continuous cycle of its use in the integration of STEM lessons.

Other skills goals for this activity

  • Describe professional teaching/management practices based on effective research on daily procedures and behavioral expectations or guidelines (e.g., safe classroom, mutual respect, professional conduct and appearance, effective use of technology, etc.) and analyze the impact of effective classroom management strategies and a positive classroom environment on instructional methods.
  • Observe and reflect on plans for implementing a safe and effective learning environment for all students in a diverse and digital classroom.
  • View the learner as a future STEM professional

Description and Teaching Materials

The teacher will demo the lesson with pre-service teacher students using two lessons. The first lesson (Part 1) gives students a chance to refresh or build their knowledge/understanding of how a circuit works. The second lesson (Part 2) builds on the circuit knowledge to have students design an LED card using teacher examples and support. It emphasizes teacher candidates to teach and use the Engineering Design Process as a continuous iterative cycle for generating and testing solutions to any problem solving with students. The teacher candidates go through a checklist of the Engineering Design process a minimum of twice to guide the students in the process with regard to available time and student success. The result is also to build teacher candidate confidence so that they feel comfortable teaching this lesson to 4th and 5th graders in their field experience.
Students then take the lesson outline and fill in the parts of the lesson that are highlighted as they design a lesson for their guest teaches. This LED card lesson could be split into one or two lessons depending on the students' prior knowledge of the working circuits and how many cycles of the Engineering Design Process needs to be experienced for students to understand its focus for successful solutions in problem solving.

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Teaching Notes and Tips

For inital background information students and instructors may want to utilize basic electrical circuit videos, or science lessons. Pre-Service teachers peer teach and recieve feedback from other students and faculty prior to teaching in the classroom. All lesson materials are reviewed for sequence of use and understanding of the iterative process.


Assessment

Exit tickets are supplied for each lesson. Each exit ticket has an outcome focusing on one of the following: initial circuit design, application of circuits, and Understanding of the Engineering Design Process.

References and Resources

Resources are described within the lesson plans or can be purchased here- https://makerspaces.samcart.com/products/paper-circuits-kit/