Engineering+Is+Elementary

Recently in class we have been experimenting with engineering and what it means to be an engineer. Most people don't fully understand what an engineer is. We simply associate it as a male profession having to do with lots of math and science. But really, engineering can be done by anybody - even your first grade student. Engineering is simply coming up with a way to solve a problem using hands on activities. I want my students to have knowledge of this subject to open them up to more opportunities in the real world.
 * Saving Salila's Turtle **

We recently read a story designed by the company who promotes "Engineering is Elementary". The story was called, "Saving Salila's Turtle". In a simple summary, a young girl passes a dirty river on her way home from school and notices that a turtle lives in the nasty water. She goes home and tells her parents that she wants to save this turtle. So together, they come up with an idea on how to purify the water in the river to save the life growing all around the habitat. She creates a small filter, and realizes this is only a small step in the process to purify the whole river.

As a class, we became engineers. We wanted to solve the problem of cleansing a dirty river. Together, we came up with a water filter using everyday household materials and we used 3 different types of filters: felt, a coffee filter and mesh cloth. The students had to determine which filter purified the water most effectively.

The kids really enjoyed the opportunity to put their hands on a project. They worked in small groups to create their own filters and come up with their own conclusions. Many of them learned that the mesh cloth had the clearest water, but very little came through the filter. Therefore, this filter would not be as applicable if no water could get through. We discussed that the coffee filter overall did the best job of cleansing the water.

I have attached some images from the projects. I also included a powerpoint that gives a brief overview of the project and the goals to keep in mind.

