Monday, January 06, 2014
Introduction to Engineering Thinking: A Project Based Massive Online Open Class (PBL MOOC) - Starting 1/13/14
Teacher’s view:
This class was designed to answer a fundamental problem with most MOOCs, they are lecture brought online. Despite what we know from classroom experience and research that most students learn better when they can interact with the content and other students (from Piaget, Vygotsky, et al), this component was missing from many online classes. Pair that with the make to learn ideas (from Dewey, Papert, et al), where students are constructing a physical object while constructing their own understanding, and this class is born.
It is designed to be free to take and free to make. All projects can be made with items most people have in their houses (or classrooms) and require no previous making experience. The class has three a la carte options, just engineering (build the projects and reflect on your work), just math (learn about the math behind the projects), just physics (learn about the physics behind the projects). Ideally, students will choose all three and will be rewarded with a STEM Master badge (mozilla open badge).
Unlike many of the MOOCs out there, this class is written at the High School level so it will be accessible for a larger number of students from High School up. I am also hoping teachers interested in incorporating engineering into their classrooms, but unsure where to start, will look to this class for ideas.
Enrolling now: mathtown - coursesites
Student’s view: This eight week course has six projects, each week there will be a project assigned. You will have two weeks to complete each project and the associated assignments. Each project will have 3 parts, the engineering part, the math part, and the physics part. The engineering part is where you actually build the project and document it. In the math and physics parts, you are either taking data or learning about some aspect of the project that relates to math and physics. These parts are optional if you only want the engineering badge. If you successfully complete the math part, you will receive a math badge and the same goes for physics. If you complete all three badges you get a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) meta-badge that will show you completed the course with distinction. This class is designed for High School students who do not have access to engineering at their schools, but is open to everyone. The idea is that you can get a taste of thinking like an engineer and then use that type of thinking to pursue your goals on your own. So many MOOCs (Massive Online Open Classes) are just lectures put on the internet, this class aims to break that tradition by providing a PBL MOOC (Project Based Learning) model that will hopefully be the first of many. It is a free class and all of the projects will be free or nearly free to create. Engineering design is a way of thinking that will be helpful to you in any problem solving situation. Successful completion of this class will enable you to think like an engineer. Being able to think like an engineer is a skill that will help you in any science or math class or career. What makes engineering thinking important and useful is its tinkering approach to problem solving. The same way of thinking that helps an engineer figure out where to put the speaker on a cell phone, can be used to figure out why the toilet isn't working, or how to solve a math problem. Students successful in this class will have the tools to become a maker, an important step on the road to engineering. Enrolling now: mathtown - coursesites
Student’s view: This eight week course has six projects, each week there will be a project assigned. You will have two weeks to complete each project and the associated assignments. Each project will have 3 parts, the engineering part, the math part, and the physics part. The engineering part is where you actually build the project and document it. In the math and physics parts, you are either taking data or learning about some aspect of the project that relates to math and physics. These parts are optional if you only want the engineering badge. If you successfully complete the math part, you will receive a math badge and the same goes for physics. If you complete all three badges you get a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) meta-badge that will show you completed the course with distinction. This class is designed for High School students who do not have access to engineering at their schools, but is open to everyone. The idea is that you can get a taste of thinking like an engineer and then use that type of thinking to pursue your goals on your own. So many MOOCs (Massive Online Open Classes) are just lectures put on the internet, this class aims to break that tradition by providing a PBL MOOC (Project Based Learning) model that will hopefully be the first of many. It is a free class and all of the projects will be free or nearly free to create. Engineering design is a way of thinking that will be helpful to you in any problem solving situation. Successful completion of this class will enable you to think like an engineer. Being able to think like an engineer is a skill that will help you in any science or math class or career. What makes engineering thinking important and useful is its tinkering approach to problem solving. The same way of thinking that helps an engineer figure out where to put the speaker on a cell phone, can be used to figure out why the toilet isn't working, or how to solve a math problem. Students successful in this class will have the tools to become a maker, an important step on the road to engineering. Enrolling now: mathtown - coursesites
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