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Engineering-Based Problem Solving In The Middle School: Design And Construction With Simple Machines, Lyn D. English, Peter Hudson, Les Dawes
Engineering-Based Problem Solving In The Middle School: Design And Construction With Simple Machines, Lyn D. English, Peter Hudson, Les Dawes
Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)
Incorporating engineering concepts into middle school curriculum is seen as an effective way to improve students’ problem-solving skills. A selection of findings is reported from a STEM-based unit in which students in the second year (grade 8) of a three-year longitudinal study explored engineering concepts and principles pertaining to the functioning of simple machines. The culminating activity, the focus of this paper, required the students to design, construct, test, and evaluate a trebuchet catapult. We consider findings from one of the schools, a co-educational college, where we traced the design process developments of four student groups from two classes. The …