Square Melons & Coming Up with New Ideas

If you've ever had to cut a melon, you will know it is not the easiest food to slice up for a snack.

Innovators have come up with a simple solution. They found a way to grow a square melon. 

Design thinking - creative strategies designers use to consider issues and solve problems while creating new ideas  

Solutions to problems like these seem so simple, yet are so effective.  Getting into the mind of people who design new things could be useful to us as students learning about science and engineering.  

Professors at Yale University Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres believe that taking problems and flipping them 180 degrees to the opposite of reality is one way to come up with radical new ideas that lead to innovation today's world. 

Over half of the process of making new things is in the coming-up-with-ideas phase.  If we aren't feeling out the needs of the people who will use a product and don't understand the problem we can't think of useful and innovative solutions.  

In class we will begin our unit on design by discussing how teams of people work together to come up with new ideas that people want and need.  Students will be involved in an activity called the "Bad Idea Factory."  In this activity they will be asked to come up with as many bad ideas as they can in a set amount of time.  Through this activity we discuss what it means to come up with new ideas and how we can "ideate" more effectively in groups.

Thanks to Mr. Farren for sharing the Nalebuff, Ayers article

Chemical Science Design Project

You and your group are in charge of using chemicals to make a self-warming/cooling device for people to use. You can design any type of device, but your design must use the chemicals to heat or cool it in safe way. Your device can be for any situation where it might be useful: everyday use, military, skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, etc.

You and your group must design (and possibly construct) a device that uses a chemical process to warm or cool itself.  Then, you must present your design in digital format for others to give feedback.

The overall presentation must include:

1. The device:
• model - could be a drawing, poster, video, or digital model.  
• your model should include labels and measurements 
2. A written explanation/advertisement that should include: 
• A slogan or name for your device
• Who will use your device? 
• How your device works (include chemical reaction)

You will individually reflect on some of the following questions:

• What problem does your device solve? 
• How did you choose the chemicals to be used? 
• What changes were made to your design when making the solution?
• What problems might still need to be worked out before a device like this might actually be used? 
• Which habits of learning did this project challenge the most for you and why?
• How did your ideas and effort lead to the final product?

Project Resources:

Project Rubric - How you will be assessed.  Provides feedback on your use of the design processes.
Endothermic & Exothermic Info - Slideshow with some examples of these two types of reaction.
End of Project Reflection - Sample of what you will write at the end of the project.

*Special Thanks to Mr. Jason Booker for help in designing this project NGSS MS-PS1-6

Newton's Law Project

Your task:

Work by yourself or with a partner to design an experiment to explore Newton’s 1st or 2nd Law.  You must identify independent and dependent variables and controls, what tools are needed to do the gathering, how measurements will be recorded, and how many data are needed to support a your hypothesis.  At the end of your experiment you must analyze your data, and reflect on your procedure and results.  

How you will demonstrate your learning:

• Each partner will be interviewed separately about the design of the experiment.
• Display data table and/or graph as well as photos and/or video on class slideshow to share experiment with classmates.
• Each person will submit a Conclusion & Reflection Form.

Grading Information and Full Rubric Here

Solar Eclipse Design Challenge & Eclipse Viewing Party

The students of 6.3 science class at AISB had a challenge: with one hour until Europe's last solar eclipse of this scale for nearly 15 years, they needed to design a device that would allow them to help people view the eclipse without looking directly at the sun.  

When the eclipse started many people were able to benefit from the work of these students.

You can see their designs below:

Kyle the designer of the Green Giant

Card and pinhole technique.

After looking at plans online, Laura was the first to decide to make a box viewer

Milada uses a piece of aluminum foil on her card

Mr. Ducharme enjoying the eclipse with Dries and his two person viewer.

Kyle's green giant allowed many to see the eclipse at a diameter of around 1 cm

Savannah enjoying the view

8th grader, Rio brings in his own viewer from Japan

Eclipse begins - Photo B. Kezsmarki

Photo B. Kezsmarki

Photo B. Kezsmarki

At over 50% - Photo B. Kezsmarki

Even Spike got in the mix!

Algodoo 2D Physics Sandbox

Good news students!  Algodoo is now a free download if you visit this website!

Feel free to send me anything cool you create or so we can share it with the class.  Have fun with Physics! 

Feedback: Are you looking for it or waiting for it?

Feedback is an important part of the Design Thinking process.  Successful companies that make products from The iPhone to Coca-Cola are constantly looking for feedback about how they can become better.

In each stage of design, how do we know if we are on track and creating something people can use?  Feedback can provide this help.

How are you getting feedback for your project?  Are you waiting for the feedback to come to you, or are you going out and actively finding feedback?

What is your mindset when it comes to feedback and learning?

Consider looking at the following documents to give yourself feedback on your project and how you are working in a group.  They can be used as a guide in the midst of the collaborative design process.  Parts of these rubrics will be used in your final assessment of this project.

Feedback rubric - working together

Feedback rubric - presentation of your project

Design Thinking - Intro & Empathize

What is design thinking?  How can this type of thinking help us do science together?

What does it mean to empathize?  How can this be important in creating new things?

Class Friday, September 27

Use our class time today to get involved in the following activities:

1. Consider design thinking - Take some time to look over this diagram, how could it be helpful to us in the class this year?

   

   Design Thinking Can Help Us Make Things People Want

2. Get feedback from classmates and post to Twitter on the notebook
3. Mr. Farren's Portal Feedback Form
4. Mr. Scanga's Survey on Class so Far
5. Look at new unit goals (below), consider ideas for designing an experiment/graphic/movie for next unit
6. Give feedback or ideas on Google Moderator to classmates ideas for experiment/project for next unit