Since finishing our Social Studies Units on Exploration and Colonization for the 1st Quarter, we have started our Science Units on Scientific Method and Engineering Design. The students have been exploring both ideas in the last two weeks through fun experiments. We tested the questions:
- How many drops of H2O will fit on a penny?
- Can you poke a hole through a plastic bag without it leaking?
So what's the difference between the Scientific Method and the Engineering Design Process?
- The scientific method is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments.
- The steps of the scientific method are to:
- Ask a Question
- Do Background Research
- Construct a Hypothesis
- Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
- Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
- Communicate Your Results
- The engineering design process is a series of steps that engineers follow to come up with a solution to a problem. Many times the solution involves designing a product (like a machine or computer code) that meets certain criteria and/or accomplishes a certain task.
- The steps of the engineering design process are to:
- Define the Problem
- Do Background Research
- Specify Requirements
- Brainstorm Solutions
- Choose the Best Solution
- Do Development Work
- Build a Prototype
- Test and Redesign
While scientists study how nature works, engineers create new things, such as products, websites, environments, and experiences. Because engineers and scientists have different objectives, they follow different processes in their work. Scientists perform experiments using the scientific method; whereas, engineers follow the creativity-based engineering design process.
Both processes can be broken down into a series of steps, as seen in the diagram and table.
Ask your student about these great experiments and the ones we will be doing throughout the next two weeks!
