Building a Better Mousetrap

Lance Pearson

Number of Learners: 90 Students

Date: 05/04/05

Grade (or Age): 8th grade

School/Town: Timilty Middle/Roxbury

Estimated Length of Session: 45-60 minutes

Curriculum Area: Science (Technology and Design)

PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Students have a knowledge of the Design Process or will be introduced to it by the lesson plan.  

CONTENT TO BE TAUGHT

This lesson plan is designed as a way to review or introduce wholesale the "Design Process" for technological development.  The principal curricular component is to re-enforce (by putting into practice) the design process. 

RATIONALE

Among the least addressed areas of scientific investigation are technology and design activities.  This owes not only to scarcity of time under wide-ranging curricular requirements but also (a) the failure of most design projects to tie in to the rest of the science curriculum and (b) teachers frequently feeling uncomfortable with the skills requires to do technological design and the frequently disorganized and group discussion-oriented nature of creative design.   This lesson plan will allow students to solve a simple real world problem (capturing mice, hamsters, gerbils,...) by following the Design Process step by step to constructing a prototype humane mousetrap.  In so doing, it fulfills at least two of the Massachusetts Frameworks Technology/Engineering (Engineering Design), Grades 6–8 curriculum standards: 2.1 Identify and explain the steps of the engineering design process, i.e., identify the need or problem, research the problem, develop possible solutions, select the best possible solution(s), construct a prototype, test and evaluate, communicate the solution(s), and redesign and 2.3 Describe and explain the purpose of a given prototype.

GOALS

  • Students will use the design process to solve a real-world problem creatively.
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    PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

  • Each student, will be required to catalog the steps that they design groups have gone through in designing their mousetrap prototypes.
  • Prototypes can be tested for effectiveness as an objective (real-life) measure of group performance.

    • MATERIALS

    Optional

    PROCEDURE

    Prep time should consist of amassing a large amount of spare cardboard boxes and gathering the other necessary materials as well as printing out the overheads from the Appendices section.

    A. Opener
  • Present the overhead containing Beginning Class Work from the Appendices section and ask the students to answer the question.
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  • Discuss the answers to the two questions. "Evaluate the Effectiveness" means: test how well something works and the first step of the Design Process is: Identify a Need or Problem that needs to be addressed with the design.  Student answers to the second question typically skip this step and move on to making a sketch, gathering materials, ...
    •

    B. Development

  • Present the problem statement overhead (Appendices).

    •

  • Have students complete the first step of the Design Process and write down the possible materials list before moving on.

  • Present the overhead containing the Design Process.  Tell students to form groups and complete each stage of the design process before moving on to the next (emphasizing the need to document everything).  No materials will be given out until a group can demonstrate that they are at the "construct a prototype" stage.

  • Distribute materials to groups as they reach this stage and supervise to make sure groups are working cooperatively.

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    C. Closing
  • If you have a classroom pet animal (like a hamster) allow students to test their designs to assess their quality.
  • Students should be asked to present their designs to the rest of the class (in accordance with step 7 of the design process).
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    EVALUATION

    Student evaluation can be conducted either on a group basis or individually and will center on assessing the quality of:

  • the students' notebooks recording their progress through all 8 stages of the Design Process,
  • observation of student interaction during the stages of the design process,
  • assessment of the quality of the finished prototypes either by subjective analysis or by testing the traps on a classroom animal (like a hamster; the traps should not harm the animal if they are properly designed).
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    EXTENSION

    The activity can be extended by more fully fleshing out stages 7 and 8 of the design process (i.e. communicating solutions and results of testing and redesigning the prototypes).  Once a best design has been established by the teacher or as a class the prototypes can be actually made into finished products by using more study materials and manufacturing methods.

    REFERENCES

    ASSOCIATED APPENDICES

    Appendices for Better Mousetrap Lesson Plan