Content area
Full Text
The hallmark of engineering/technology education should continue to be to promote technological literacy through engineering design, and a design brief is an important part of this heritage.
Introduction
Teaching students the design process and providing opportunities for design is at the core of engineering/technology education. The design process is a key feature of technological literacy, and design is the most represented element within Standards for Technological Literacy (ITEA/ITEEA 2000, 2002/2007; Lewis, 2005; Wicklein, 2006). Technology educators have access to a large collection of design process models from which to choose to introduce students to design. There remains a long-standing debate over which design-cycle process model is best to use in the technology classroom, and the recent increase in the variety of these choices has not lessened the debate. However, Lawson and Dorst (2009) indicated that no existing design process model fully represents the authentic process taken by designers. It is clear that the actual process taken by designers regardless of expertise is a messy and often unpredictable process. Although the debate for the "right" design model continues, technology/engineering teachers have options to choose from, and design process models are well documented. However, a complex process like design requires much more than just presenting students with a design-cycle model. There is so much more to design than a 8-, 10-, or 12-step process. Whichever design-cycle model teachers choose, the first steps of introducing the process are critical to students' success. The early steps in the design process can provide students with the necessary directions for how to proceed. One possible teaching tool that can provide students with direction is the design brief. A design brief can help guide students through the problemscoping phase of design. A design brief is one approach to introducing a design activity. Unlike the well-documented design process models, the design brief has not been clearly defined, and the key elements of a design brief are not clearly identified in technology education literature. This article will seek to identify, define, and describe key elements of the design brief and provide perspectives from an author with over 20 years of experience using the design brief in K-12 classrooms and as a research and design assessment instrument.
Background
Integrated STEM education provides engineering/technology education...