Blog Post #4 Engineering
Ever wondered why your little one has so many questions? Why does your child want to mix all the shampoos together while taking shower? Why do some children open or break their toys to see what’s inside?
Children are natural engineers. Engineering is all about knowing how things are built and creating those later. It involves identifying a problem, creating solutions, and then building something new that works. Children on the other hand are born curious. They are curious about new things and how they work, they are interested in knowing about how things taste and feel, they want to explore everything around them.
Engineering experiences can be beneficial for your child’s cognitive development if you provide them with materials and activities that fuel their brains with ideas. Engineering experiences have many benefits for children:
- Children get to identify, and problem solve
- Children get to create designs(draw) of their construction models
- They get to test their creative designs
- They can create models
- They can share their ideas with others
- Explore ideas in books offered by educators (Faires, 2022).
Now, the question is how can you create such opportunities? To create such activities successfully, you need to create a problem that is challenging and open-ended, meaning that children with various levels of abilities can create something and do not struggle to reach a standard or an end-product. I am going to share one example of engineering experience that I did with my husband (because I don’t have kids!), and it was fun!
I will explain all the steps that I followed in detail so that you guys can have an idea of you can do the same with your kiddos!
The first step is to collect different items and present it in a way that is inviting. Then sit with them and discuss possible designs with them. This will encourage analytical thinking and practice those problem solving muscles in the brain. This is a good time to have conversations with your children. Then comes the third step and that is to help them design or they can write down their ideas and make drawing too. If they are clueless, you can ask questions that can help them design their fun creations.
According to Faires (2022), Steps of design process in engineering experience are as follows:
1. What is the problem?
I asked my husband a question and that is, “how can you make a tower or a bridge using these items?” So presenting a challenge is important as it will spark curiosity in children which will allow them to participate in the activity on a deeper level (Dietze & Kashin, 2016).
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2. Brainstorm ideas
My husband decided to make a bridge out of it and started to think about different design ideas. I encouraged brainstorming by asking questions like, “How can you use apples your bridge”? There was a lot of trial and error. Straws were circular and Jenga blocks were rectangular in shape, so it was challenging to make a balance. He tried to think about ideas that can use books as pillars and then apples as pillars. He chose apples instead of books.
3. Design/invent
He made a drawing of a bridge and tried to fit the items in it. You can encourage your children to write down their ideas and make drawing too. If they are clueless, you can ask questions that can help them design their fun creations.
4. Build/create
Then he started building the structure.
5. Test and evaluate and Re-design/modify design
It was a lot of trial and error as I have written above. He adjusted the items in a way that holds them all together. Sometimes, he did not like the design so, then he made something different than what he originally decided to go for.
6. Share solution with others
The final product gave me joy and a sense of pride. He made sure that pictures are being clicked, but he did not like the ones I clicked. So, he decided to click by himself. If you are doing it with your children, encourage them to share it with their friends or siblings. Make sure you click pictures or video record the whole process to show them that their efforts are valued and how proud you are!
The engineering experience if done with children will encourage them to analyze how different structures balance. It is an opportunity to practically learn concepts of math and science like gravity, balance, sorting, classifying, pattern recognition and weight. Through this activity they will learn concepts civil engineering. They might question how bridges are made, and they may want to learn more about it. They will discover that they can create structures such as bridges and buildings which is a booster for their self esteem and confidence. They will learn geometrical concepts like special relationships which will allow them to develop their mathematical skills further (Faires, 2022). In addition to learning spatial arrangement visually, they practice new words and their implication in the physical words. While discussing design and creating the bridge, children learn position words such as under, over, on top of, besides, upside down etc.; and distance words like far, longest, shortest etc. (Faires, 2022). This is good for preschoolers. Children also learn about concept of symmetry. This experience helps children to practice organizational skills and pattern formation while designing their structure.
Parents who give opportunities of engineering experiences to their children help their children work on their cognitive skills like analytical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, logical reasoning, and confidence. When they create something, they get excited about it! And the next thing you know is that they want to share it with the people around them. This entire process boosts their self-esteem.
Reference
Dietze, B., & Kashin, D. (2016). Materials for sparking children’s curiosity and play. In Empowering pedagogy for early childhood educators (Chapter 9). Retrieved from http://www.pearsoncanada.ca/media/highered-showcase/multi-product-showcase/dietze-ch09.pdf
Faires, T. (2022). Winter 2022 geometry spatial relationships student copy. Brightspace. https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/d2l/le/content/405848/viewContent/6624186/View
Faires, T. (2022). Key Mathematical Concepts for Children student copy winter 2022. Brightspace. https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/d2l/le/content/405848/viewContent/6611643/View
Faires, T. (2022). Winter 2022 engineering student copy. Brightspace. https://brightspace.algonquincollege.com/d2l/le/content/405848/viewContent/6599401/View
