Byram Hills Central School District

This information has been taken directly from the Accelerate U - Standards and Resource Guides (with approval) from the K-12 Education, NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT site. No information in this document has been changed.

Learning Standards for Mathematics, Science, and Technology at Three Levels

Standard 5 - Technology - Intermediate

Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to design, construct, use, and evaluate products and systems to satisfy human and environmental needs.

Engineering Design

1. Engineering design is an iterative process involving modeling and optimization used to develop technological solutions to problems within given constraints.

Students engage in the following steps in a design process:

     identify needs and opportunities for technical solutions from an investigation of situations of general or social interest.
     locate and utilize a range of printed, electronic, and human information resources to obtain ideas.
     consider constraints and generate several ideas for alternative solutions, using group and individual ideation techniques (group discussion, brainstorming, forced connections, role play); defer judgment until a number of ideas have been generated; evaluate (critique) ideas; and explain why the chosen solution is optimal.
     develop plans, including drawings with measurements and details of construction, and construct a model of the solution, exhibiting a degree of craftsmanship.
     in a group setting, test their solution against design specifications, present and evaluate results, describe how the solution might have been modified for different or better results, and discuss tradeoffs that might have to be made.

This is evident, for example, when students:

     reflect on the need for alternative growing systems in desert environments and design and model a hydroponic greenhouse for growing vegetables without soil.
     brainstorm and evaluate alternative ideas for an adaptive device that will make life easier for a person with a disability, such as a device to pick up objects from the floor.
     design a model vehicle (with a safety belt restraint system and crush zones to absorb impact) to carry a raw egg as a passenger down a ramp and into a barrier without damage to the egg.
     assess the performance of a solution against various design criteria, enter the scores on a spreadsheet, and see how varying the solution might have affected total score.