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Fifth graders' investigations and design of model butterfly wings with the maximum lift force.
Engaging students in designing, testing, and revising engineering models using mathematical representation of data from scientific investigations helps them embody the science and engineering practices highlighted in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). The practices of modeling, conducting failure analysis, and participating in evidence-based reasoning allow students to engage in engineering design processes beyond simple trial and error methods in solving a problem (NRC 2012; Bybee 2010).
This article describes a unit conducted with fifth-grade students, applying Engineering is Elementary's (EiE) engineering design process or EDP (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve) to explore the lift force of a butterfly wing and the variables that influence it. EiE, a project of the National Center for Technological Literacy at the Museum of Science in Boston, consists of curriculum units designed to foster engineering design thinking in elementary school children. The units are typically structured in lessons that include: (a) a story that introduces an engineering challenge and career, (b) a context for students to collect scientific data, and (c) an engineering design challenge applying the evidence gathered from the analysis of data.
Thirteen public school students participated in this project as part of their gifted and talented enrichment program. The key concepts addressed included: (a) forces interact to influence how objects move, (b) a variety of variables can impact the forces that objects react to, and (c) variables can be studied to create a better design (NGSS Lead States 2013). The instructional activities in this unit (adapted from Science Buddies: Butterfly Wings: Using Nature to Learn about Flight) were comprised of four 90-minute lessons, including an introduction, science investigations, an engineering design challenge, and a reflection. A fifth lesson may be needed to fully explore the design challenge. Indi- vidual lessons are described in detail below.
Students' Prior Knowledge About Forces
In this unit, students were to engineer butterfly wing designs that would produce the most lift based on evidence gained through investigations. While this can be taught as a stand-alone unit, we used it to incorporate engineering design into our fifth-grade science curriculum unit on Forces and Motion (taken from the Full Option Science System). Students had...