Engineering
Adapted from the Massachusetts Science and Technology Curriculum Framework
Students in this course will learn how appropriate materials, tools, and machines extend our ability to solve problems and invent. They will identify materials used to accomplish a design task based on a specific property and explain which materials and tools are appropriate to construct a given prototype. Students will achieve a higher level of engineering design skill by recognizing a need or problem, learn different ways that the problem can be represented, and work with a variety of materials and tools to create a product or system to address it.
In this course, students will pursue engineering questions and technological solutions that emphasize research and problem solving. They will identify and understand the five elements of a technology system (goal, inputs, processes, outputs, and feedback). They will acquire basic skills in the safe use of hand tools, power tools, and machines. They will explore engineering design; materials, tools, and machines; and communication, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and bioengineering technologies. Students will begin to explore the topics of power and energy.
Students will integrate knowledge they acquire in their mathematics and science curricula to understand the links to engineering. They will achieve a more advanced level of skill in engineering design by learning to conceptualize a problem, design prototypes in three dimensions, and use hand and power tools to construct their prototypes, test their prototypes, and make modifications as necessary.
The culmination of each engineering design experience will be the development and delivery of an engineering presentation.
