Here at EiE, we know that nothing compares to watching young engineers at work in your own classroom. So we strive to bring you the next best thing—a collection of videos that range from snippets that show short vignettes of engineering in action to in-depth classroom videos that take you through units in classrooms around the U.S., lesson by lesson. We’re happy to announce 14 new snippets and 2 new classroom videos featuring the units A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls and Now You’re Cooking: Designing Solar Ovens.
Short, Sweet, and to the Point
Our snippets are organized into several categories—they illustrate steps in the Engineering Design Process, NGSS Science and Engineering Practices, and Engineering Habits of Mind. If you’re wondering what we mean when we say that persisting and learning from failure is an engineering habit of mind, you can find seven great examples in the learning from failure snippets library. Watch third-grade teacher Glen Beitman explain how failure is celebrated in his classroom, or see fourth-grade teacher Blayne Matty discuss how failure helps students in her gifted and talented program grow. And if you’re just looking for clips of lively young engineers, look no further—check out a student explaining the term “in-sulator” to her classmate, and another discovering how much she loves science. Snippets are the best way to get a quick glimpse into EiE classrooms, but be warned: they’re addictive!
Stick With It
If you loved hearing Blayne Matty talk about how failure helps her gifted and talented students, you might like to watch her classroom video series, featuring the unit A Sticky Situation: Designing Walls. Check out how she makes real-world engineering connections in Lesson 1, and masters the Ask step of the EDP in Lesson 3. And if Blayne’s Kittery, Maine classroom doesn’t look quite like yours, you can also watch how Hollywood, Florida educator Chentel Neat teaches A Sticky Situation in her second-grade classroom.
What's Cooking?
In Washington, D.C., fourth-grade teacher Vanessa Ford cooked up an engaging lesson plan for the unit Now You’re Cooking: Designing Solar Ovens. Her classroom videos show how she uses visual aids to enhance social studies and engineering content, encourages her students to analyze environmental impact, and emphasizes the importance of data collection. If you can’t get enough solar ovens, check out Linda Kurtz’s third-grade classroom in Marietta, Georgia to see how she uses dance (and even teacher volunteers!) to enhance the unit.
We know that it can be hard to picture how an EiE unit will look in your classroom, so we are continuing to work toward our goal of having two sets of classroom videos for each EiE unit. And when you don’t have time to sit down and watch an entire unit’s worth of videos, a quick snippet might just do the trick!
