Script: Welcome back to the Ingenia Engineering Lab! So far, you’ve been learning a lot about engineers and technology. Today, we need your help to brainstorm common technologies used at home. What technologies do you use a lot at home? Wait for student response. What problems do those technologies help us solve? Wait for student response.
Play a game of pictionary with your students. Draw each of the following technologies commonly found in a home. As you draw, invite students to shout out guesses of what technology you are drawing. Challenge students to guess the technology before each drawing is complete.
Draw the following technologies:
TIP: If time allows, continue playing and invite student volunteers to draw while the rest of the class guesses.
As a class, you will work together with students to sketch a basic blueprint/floor plan of a home. Consider the types of homes your students live in and adjust the types of rooms and amount of space included to be respectful and inclusive of your students’ lived experiences.
5 min Script: We’ve been learning about technology and systems we use in everyday life. Today, we’re going to work together as a class to design a home and then fill it with common technologies. Since we can’t actually build a home together, we’ll be drawing a simple blueprint, or floor plan, together. A blueprint is technical drawing created from a birds-eye view. It’s almost as if you take the roof of a home and can see all the rooms and important spaces and components inside. The terms blueprint and floor plan are both used by engineers and architects. First, we’ll generate some ideas of the types of rooms and spaces our home should include, then you’ll help me to draw the blueprint together.
5 min Watch and Discuss Floor Plans: Architecture for Kids: Floor Plans (https://glazermuseum.org/)
Engage students in a discussion:
5 min Generate Home Ideas: Engage students in a discussion to come to a consensus on the home, rooms, and spaces. Ask:
15 min Generate a Blueprint: Have students help you in drawing the group-generated blueprint on the chart paper/s.
As a class, students imagine and sketch important technologies that should be included in the home. Then, students work independently to draw sketches of the technologies and attach them to the home floor plan.
5 min Script: Now that we have a blueprint for our home, we need to fill it with technologies! Together, we’ll first imagine and discuss a list of technologies, then each of you will sketch a technology, or a few technologies, and add them onto the blueprint so we have a group plan.
10 min Give students a few minutes to quietly imagine technologies to include in the home. Then, as a class, generate a list of technologies to put in the home. Record the list of technologies on the chart paper. As needed, cue students to consider “hidden” technologies like plumbing and electricity that are important in homes.
Then, work with your students to identify who will draw each technology. Explain that, like the blueprint, the drawings should include details about how the technology will function, not just its form. Students may draw the technology from different viewpoints. Show some examples of blueprints for simple technologies like the coffee cup and bracket shown on this webpage: https://www.makeuk.org/insights/blogs/how-to-read-engineering-drawings-a-simple-guide
TIP: If you have already completed the “Think Like a Designer” activities, relate blueprints to the 2D drawing done in preparation for CAD.
Put student initials next to the item/s on the list that they will sketch and tape to the home floor plan. Students can draw more than one technology as needed.
40 min Dismiss students to draw their technologies and use the scotch tape to add the technologies onto the home floor plan.
10 min Lead a class discussion. Ask the following questions:
Watch and discuss the following videos featuring technological systems that help make our homes function:
5 min: Watch
5 min: Discuss
Have students draw a basic blueprint of a room in their home. Have them include important technologies and systems in the blueprint including: windows, doors, furniture, electrical, plumbing (if applicable), electronics, etc.
