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Abstract Engineering design has been widely implemented in K-12 curricula to cultivate future workforce. In this study, seventh-grade students (N = 38) participated in theSolarizing Your Schoolcurriculum, an action-oriented program where they engaged in engineering design processes to tackle a real-world problem related to renewable energy adoption. The study sought to explore how students balanced constraints and criteria in engineering design. Over a five-day period, seventh-grade students developed plans for adopting solar energy on their school campus and simulated the plan on a technology-enhanced epistemic tool, Aladdin (https://intofuture.org/aladdin.html). Data was collected through design artifacts, log data from design processes, and surveys about their learning experience. Three distinct patterns of balancing design criteria and constraints emerged, including designing for practice, for performance, and for irrelevant goals. The group who designed for practice gave priority to criteria and constraints recorded a higher level of design performance. The study underscores the benefits of integrating action-oriented learning opportunities via engineering design processes in science education.
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Solarize Your School: A Solar Energy System Design Challenge
As solar energy becomes increasingly affordable, many schools are considering installing new solar power systems. Can students contribute to the design, evaluation, and decision-making process in any way? Many students are familiar with solar power and energy, having researched solar energy on the internet, built solar cookers, inspected mini solar cells, gone on field trips to local solar farms, and so on. Well-informed and motivated, they are just one step away from taking responsibility for their own schools. In this article, we present Solarize Your School, an engineering project that gives students the opportunity to design and evaluate solar power solutions for their own schools. This STEM project requires students to learn and apply skills and practices related to solar energy and photovoltaic technology concepts, such as architectural measurement and modeling techniques, graphical interpretation and data analysis, budgeting and investing, scientific inquiry and engineering design, and collaboration and communication (see Next Generation Science Standards table, p. 47). Solarize Your School can be incorporated into environmental science, physical science, and engineering courses, and can be adapted to fit any curriculum scope and time frame. We suggest a 10-day sequence of learning activities. All the technologies and materials mentioned are freely available (see “On the web”).
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- Award ID(s):
- 1721054
- PAR ID:
- 10111372
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Science teacher
- Volume:
- 86
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0189-7594
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 40-47
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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