Iterative design can be a challenging concept for students. They are used to extremely structured activities where the steps are clearly set-out, information is readily available and where everyone arrives at the same end point.
Before embarking on student-led design projects, I wanted to give my class a chance to practice iterative design.
I chose to spend a few classes having students build air powered rockets. These rockets are very simple: A fuselage is formed by making a 1/2 inch tube out thin cardboard. One end of the tube is plugged with a cork, and voila you have a basic rocket that can be shot up to a height of 30 meters.
Of course, students spend quite a bit of time adding features to their rockets such as stabilizers and nosecones as well as tweaking variables such as mass.
The launcher (pictured below) is very simple to construct and the materials can be purchased for less than $10.
An 8 foot long piece of 1.2 inch PVC pipe is cut to form a 2 foot and a 6 foot section. These sections are joined using a 90 degree elbow and PVC glue or contact cement. A pop bottle is fit over the short end of the L-shaped launcher and students rockets are inserted aver the long end.
To launch, students simple hold the launcher vertically and stomp on the pop-bottle. For a simple design, these rockets can reach impressive heights.
I wanted students to practice self-directed learning with this project so I purposefully limited the amount of instruction around how to design an effective rocket. In fact, most of the instruction that students received was around how to report on their learning.
Since I'm hoping to have students use their personal websites to blog about their learning, I asked them to answer a series of questions during different steps of designing their rocket. I let them know that their blog post was the only part of this assignment that I was planning to mark. I emphasized that the design process was the main thing that we were learning about so, for example, if their rocket was not very successful but they were very insightful about what worked and what didn't, they could expect a good mark. The idea that their grade was not tied to how great of a rocket that they built was challenging for students and I had many students clarify throughout, "It doesn't matter how high it goes, right?"
Results:
I really liked this as a self-led design activity. Most students were engaged from start to finish. The best part of this activity was witnessing students testing their rockets to explore design improvements. Many students went through several prototypes before arriving at their final design. Because these rockets were fairly simple, students weren't afraid to dismantle their rocket to start form scratch.
The downside of this activity was timing. It took a lot longer than anticipated for most students to thoroughly complete the design cycle so we ended up working on these over the course of four 50 minute classes.
Some students struggled to meaningfully discuss the design process in their blog posts. This is a habit that takes practice and we will be building on this as the term progresses.
A Successful Launch:
Before embarking on student-led design projects, I wanted to give my class a chance to practice iterative design.
I chose to spend a few classes having students build air powered rockets. These rockets are very simple: A fuselage is formed by making a 1/2 inch tube out thin cardboard. One end of the tube is plugged with a cork, and voila you have a basic rocket that can be shot up to a height of 30 meters.
Of course, students spend quite a bit of time adding features to their rockets such as stabilizers and nosecones as well as tweaking variables such as mass.
The launcher (pictured below) is very simple to construct and the materials can be purchased for less than $10.
An 8 foot long piece of 1.2 inch PVC pipe is cut to form a 2 foot and a 6 foot section. These sections are joined using a 90 degree elbow and PVC glue or contact cement. A pop bottle is fit over the short end of the L-shaped launcher and students rockets are inserted aver the long end.
To launch, students simple hold the launcher vertically and stomp on the pop-bottle. For a simple design, these rockets can reach impressive heights.
I wanted students to practice self-directed learning with this project so I purposefully limited the amount of instruction around how to design an effective rocket. In fact, most of the instruction that students received was around how to report on their learning.
Since I'm hoping to have students use their personal websites to blog about their learning, I asked them to answer a series of questions during different steps of designing their rocket. I let them know that their blog post was the only part of this assignment that I was planning to mark. I emphasized that the design process was the main thing that we were learning about so, for example, if their rocket was not very successful but they were very insightful about what worked and what didn't, they could expect a good mark. The idea that their grade was not tied to how great of a rocket that they built was challenging for students and I had many students clarify throughout, "It doesn't matter how high it goes, right?"
Results:
I really liked this as a self-led design activity. Most students were engaged from start to finish. The best part of this activity was witnessing students testing their rockets to explore design improvements. Many students went through several prototypes before arriving at their final design. Because these rockets were fairly simple, students weren't afraid to dismantle their rocket to start form scratch.
The downside of this activity was timing. It took a lot longer than anticipated for most students to thoroughly complete the design cycle so we ended up working on these over the course of four 50 minute classes.
Some students struggled to meaningfully discuss the design process in their blog posts. This is a habit that takes practice and we will be building on this as the term progresses.
A Successful Launch: