May 3, 2004

Over the year I have been working with Mike Whitman at Newton Bigelow middle school's Engineering and Technology Class. We work with 6-8th graders in a hands on setting to teach the engineering design process and critical thinking. We had a chance to develop some stuff you may find useful! If you have any questions or need additional resources, contact me here:

Alex's email

Basketbots - Basketbots is a hands-on building unit that teaches introductory bioengineering concepts to 8th graders. Through unit lesson and building of a robotic arm, students 'become' the bioengineer, designing a functional 'prosthetic' device that they must use to aid them in a competition to pick up ping pong balls. In the process of doing so, they also learn about hydraulics, pneumatics, mechanical advantage, as well as the engineering design process.

Click here for student and teachers' packet

(if you have trouble opening the file, right click and save it to desktop, and it should work)

This here is an excerpt of my note sheet for one of the lectures. In it I introduce Bioengineering after they've done a preliminary research homework, and try to make a connection to them as to how Bioengineering is at all related to things they may be familiar with. It may be kind of tough to use since its just short notes and not even the volume of what I present, but it may help, and feel free to contact for questions!

Click here for shorthand notes!

Bridge Builder - a bridge building unit that teaches students of fundamental bridge types and their properties. It uses West Point Bridge Builder to allow students to construct their own bridges and compete for who can make the most economical bridge possible.

Click here for the introductory webquest

Click here for West point bridge builder software

MasterCAM ver 6.0 introduction. This may be useful if you happen to have a mill running MasterCAM ver 6.0 or greater, it's a simple step by step guide for importing CORELdraw files and fitting them to a given template. We had a great find by getting one of these mills in our classroom, but we didn't have great software or support. This file takes the guesswork out of manipulating file images in MasterCAM...

Click here for tutorial
(if you have trouble opening the file, right click and save it to desktop, and it should work)

Additionally, we have done units on Magnetic Levitation that allow 6th grade students to explore properties of magnetics and aerodynamics. Students go through the design process to construct wind-powered magnetic racers that 'hover' down a magnetic track. Below you'll find a link for the lesson and some resources, as well as some other goodies!

Click here for the MagLev Packet

Here is a link to Mike Whitman's Technology Education website at Bigelow Newton! There are tons of great resources here for C02 racers, maglev racers, basketbuildng, and paper airpline design to name a few!!