Hands-on Activity Developing & Presenting Design Solutions:
Waves Go Public!

Learning Objectives

After this activity, students should be able to:

• Explain how humans are able to see colors.
• Explain what causes people to be color blind.
• Make an informative poster and brochure to communicate an engineering design.

Educational Standards

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards - Science

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association - Technology

State Standards

Materials List

Each group needs:

• 8.5 x 11-in (or A4) white copier paper, 1-2 sheets per group (have extra sheets on hand in case groups want to start over)
• poster board or large-sized paper for making posters
• coloring utensils
• ruler
• Go Public Brochure Guidelines and Grading Handout, one per student
• (optional) access to a computer and printer

Worksheets and Attachments

Pre-Req Knowledge

Content knowledge from lessons 1-5 in the Waves: A Three Color Mystery unit.

Introduction/Motivation

Get ready to "go public" with everything you have learned! Today, you will use the engineering design process and design devices to help color blind people distinguish colors. You will be responsible for communicating your design ideas through an informational poster, and marketing your final design idea through an informational brochure. You will demonstrate your understanding of the material we have covered throughout this unit by including in your final brochure and class presentation an explanation on how we see color and what causes a person to be color blind.

Procedure

Legacy Cycle Information: This lesson covers the Go Public aspect of the legacy cycle, which coincides with part of the engineering design process, wherein engineers design solutions to present to clients. In this activity, students design devices that could aid people who are color blind in distinguishing colors. This activity tests students' comprehension of light properties, wave properties, the electromagnetic spectrum, and how the human eye is associated with seeing color. Students prepare brainstorming posters and informative brochures to advertise their final designs; they are graded on their understanding of the topics covered as reflected by the information contained in their posters, brochures and presentations.

Before the Activity

• Gather materials and make copies of the Go Public Brochure Guidelines and Grading Handout.

With the Students—Restate the Challenge

Who can tell me what the engineering challenge is that we have been working towards in this unit? (Call on students; see who can remember.) Let me re-read you the challenge to jog your memories:

You just got your first job. You are now a stock person in the new Food Lion. You show up for your first day of work excited and ready to prove how good a worker you are. The manager greets you and assigns your first task. He takes you back to the delivery entrance and you see cases and cases of apples sitting on the loading dock. The manager waves his hand over the entire mess, and says, "These need to be put into the cooler. Separate the boxes by apple type and put the Granny Smiths on the left side, the Golden Delicious in the middle, and the Red Delicious on the right. Then put some of each out in the store in the produce section." Before you can ask any questions, an urgent summons for the manager comes over the intercom system and he rushes off. You look at the cases and see no labels on the boxes. "No problem," you say to yourself. "I'll just look in the boxes to see what's what." So you look in the boxes. However, you only see two different colors of apples, not three. The only identifying feature they have are numbers on stickers. Just as you are about to panic, another worker walks by. "How do you tell the difference between Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious apples?" you ask him. He gives you a strange look and says, "The Granny Smiths are green, the Golden Delicious are yellow, and the Red Delicious are red. Duh!" You think to yourself: Why can't I see three colors? Is it my eyes, or something else that affects how we are able to see? Can you apply engineering principles to design a device that could be used to help distinguish these three colors from one another?

We have done a lot of learning, experimenting, and research to gather the knowledge necessary to design solutions to this engineering challenge. And, now you are ready!

With the Students—Engineering Design Process, Poster and Brochure Creation, and Final Presentations

1. Explain to students that when engineers need to design solutions to problems, they follow use the engineering design process. Write on the board the steps of the engineering design process:

• Identify the problem
• Research the need or problem
• Develop possible solutions
• Select the best possible solution
• Construct a prototype
• Test and evaluate the solution
• Communicate the solution
• Redesign

2. Tell students that whether they realize it or not, they have already begun to employ the engineering design process throughout this unit! Ask students which steps they think they have done so far. Tell students that during the course of this unit, they "identified a problem," which they were reminded of in today's introduction. Explain that they also researched the problem through the lessons on waves, light properties, the electromagnetic spectrum, and eye structure.
3. Explain to students that in this activity, they will be going through the next two steps of the design process: "develop possible solutions," and "select the best possible solution." And then later, they will jump to the "communicate the solution" step. Explain that in the real engineering world, engineers would complete the process through all the steps, but that in this specific activity, students are really exploring and focusing on mostly the first half of the design process.
4. Divide the class into groups of two students each.
5. Explain to students that they will now begin the third step of the engineering design process by working as engineers to develop possible solutions to the engineering challenge.
6. Tell students that, working with their partners, they must come up with three design ideas that utilize mastery of the unit content to engineer a solution to the challenge at hand. Encourage unique and creative designs, and encourage students to use the notes they have taken during the unit lessons to help them with their brainstorming. Give the teams 20 minutes for initial brainstorming and sketching in their notebooks of preliminary drafts of three design ideas. Inform students that the teacher must approve the designs before teams can move forward with this activity.
7. Tell students that each group must create a poster that shows schematics of each design, as well as pro and con lists for each. Students are responsible to compare designs based on: cost, science (using the knowledge gained in the unit lessons), practicality, and usability. Require that they visually illustrate comparisons between design ideas on the posters. To make posters more professional, provide students with access to a computer lab, and require that all poster components are typed or illustrated by using the computer. Explain that quality visual presentation and professionalism are essential for success in real-world engineering.
8. Next, explain to students that they are now moving into the fourth step of the engineering design process by selecting the best possible design.
9. Upon poster completion, tell students to select one of their designs to "pitch to their client" (the class), based on the comparisons and analysis they conducted in preparing the posters. Tell teams that they need to defend their selections with comparison results. Then, give students five minutes to discuss with their partners all their designs, deciding as a team which is best to meet the needs of the challenge. Walk around the classroom to make sure everyone is participating and on task.
10. Distribute the handout to students.
11. Give students 30 minutes to draft and then refine final design brochures (this is essentially jumping to a later stage of the design process: communicate the solution).
12. Give teams 15 minutes to write scripts and prepare "client" presentations. Let them know that each group is expected to give a three-minute presentation to the class about its design, and that each person must talk. When presenting to the client (class), students must explain their three initial designs and comparison process using their posters, and then present the recommended design. Explain that, acting as engineers, students need to communicate and sell their ideas to the client in order to gain approval and move forward with the process. Getting client feedback can lead to a few cycles of redesigning before the challenge is considered met. (Students will not be constructing device prototypes, testing and evaluating devices or re-designing in this activity—all steps that engineers would do in real life!).

Vocabulary/Definitions

brainstorming: A method of shared problem solving in which all members of a group contribute many ideas.

engineering design process: A series of steps used by engineering teams to guide them as they solve problems: identify the problem, research the need or problem, develop possible solutions (includes brainstorming), select the best possible solution, construct a prototype, test and evaluate the solution, communicate the solution, and redesign.

Assessment

Pre-Activity Assessment

The Challenge: Ask students about the engineering challenge for this unit. Who can remember what we are working on? Quiz students orally on the main concepts from the lessons that are necessary to successfully complete this activity.

Activity Embedded Assessment

Poster and Brochure: Each group prepares a brainstorming poster and informational brochure, serving as a way to test students' understanding of light and how we see colors. Refer to criteria provided in the Go Public Brochure Guidelines and Grading Handout. Through his/her contributions to the poster and brochure (and the presentation, see below), each student is responsible to individually demonstrate his/her comprehension of light, waves, the electromagnetic spectrum, and the human eye. Make the point to students that good communication is important to the success of engineering designs.

Post-Activity Assessment

Going Public: Have student pairs give short, three-minute presentations that outline their brainstorming and final design selection process, as well as defend the science behind their design ideas. Expect each person to talk. The ability to provide concise and clear communication about all aspects of an engineering design is key to its success. Grade student presentations, posters, and brochures to assess their mastery of the unit materials.

Activity Scaling

For upper grades, or to challenge students, require that the three design schematics on the posters are drawn to scale and that students conduct internet research to come up with verifiable cost estimates for each device design.

Copyright

Contributors

Supporting Program

Acknowledgements

This activity was developed through Clemson University's "Engineering Fibers and Films Experience – EFF-X" Research Experience for Teachers program, funded by National Science Foundation grant no. EEC-0602040. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.