(Full teacher resource documents are included in the PDF)
Lesson Focus This lesson introduces students to the engineering design process (EDP)—the process engineers use to solve design challenges. Students work in teams to solve the challenge by designing both a product and process to safely remove “toxic” popcorn and save the city.
Lesson Synopsis
Students learn about the engineering design process by doing an engineering design challenge called Toxic Popcorn where they need to design both a process and a product to solve the challenge.
Age Levels: 8-18
Objectives
Apply the engineering design process to solve a design challenge.
Build, test, and redesign a prototype.
Employ teamwork and communication to successfully solve the challenge.
Anticipated Learner Outcomes
As a result of this activity, students will have:
Applied the engineering design process to solve a design challenge.
Built, tested, and redesigned a prototype.
Employed teamwork and communication to successfully solve the challenge.
Lesson Activities
Teams of students use the engineering design process to solve the Toxic Popcorn Challenge. The lesson closes with students sharing all they learned and discussing the answers to the many questions they had at the beginning of the lesson.
