Directions for Book Blogging

Welcome to our summer book blog! Unlike most blogs that have one blogger- everyone gets to blog about the book, To Engineer is Human, and share ideas about K-12 engineering education and the "human side" of engineering. To reply to a post, click on Comments at the bottom of the post. To start a new post, click on New Post at the top right. However, to start a new post you have to have a Google account. If you don't want to register on Google, you can send me the text for your post and a title, and I will post it for you.

Who do we have on the blog? Our book blog consists of 16 high school teachers, 1 middle school teacher, 7 elementary teachers, 4 faculty or engineering students from the University of Maine, 3 MMSA staff, and 2 DOE staff. We have a diverse and well-rounded book group which should lead to some interesting conversations. One thing to remember- the most recent post is always at the top of the blog. If you haven't been on for awhile, scroll down and work backwards.

If you start a new post you also have the option of adding photos or other graphics as well as making a hyperlink. Play around with it a bit to get to know how it works. Try a test post- you can always delete it afterwards. Also, you will notice we will build a collection of links listed on the right. Since only the person (Page) with the Google account can add these, if you have any you would like to share, just send them to me at pagekeeley@gmail.com and I will post them for you. This is the first time we have ever tried this as a blog, so we're all getting our feet wet. Don't hesitate to wade right in!

Monday, July 23, 2012

"major revisions"

When I read page 83, I had a realization.  We talk about design and the design process, but it would seem that the engineering process has one major difference.  Prototypes can never truely model what the final outcome will be.  You can't protype something for 25 years to see if it will last.   You can't rebuild an entire bridge the day after it is built, no budget can stand that.  At some point, a leap of faith is taken.  Can anyone think of examples in students lives when they must do this?  I would like to find an analogy that I can use in class.  Too many of my students have grown up with an unlimited chance to revise their work.   At some piont, the outcome must be decided.  How can we illustrate this?
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 24, 2012 at 5:26 AM

    I thought of a student's "rough draft" of a written story as a prototype. It can be as simple as that to illustrate to children how putting your thoughts down on paper can them help them to "see" where revisions need to be made to make it better.

    How about right now as we blog. We compose and then reread to check for errors. They we hit "publish". We take that leap of faith. But we are human with distractions all around us and miss something. We wish we could take it back or wish that we had checked on more time, but we can't.

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  2. Judy KaberJuly 24, 2012 at 3:05 PM

    Since the design process is basically a decision making process, I would say that any example where a decision is made that cannot be easily changed would do as an example. A good one for older students might be buying a car. You can do a lot of research into various types of cars and but ultimately you must make a decision and put your money down. There is no telling if you have a great car or a lemon except the test of time. And, while you can resell it if it is indeed a lemon, you probably won't want to do it right after you bought it.

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  3. AnonymousJuly 24, 2012 at 5:46 PM

    I think children take that leap when they read out loud. As soon as they say the words they are putting themselves at risk of being corrected by the teacher or another student. I hear this in the voice of child who has no confidence in his reading.

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  4. UnknownJuly 27, 2012 at 5:05 PM

    This is also true for anyone answering or giving a thought out loud. That is part of the problem that we are all trying to address in one way or another with the inclusion of engineering design in the classroom

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  5. ennAugust 5, 2012 at 12:49 PM

    Athletics are another example of the proof being in the pudding. There are always lots of models and forecasts, but the game or race happens but once and however the variables are at that time defines the outcome. No real prototyping, just preparing.

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