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  • About
    • Partners
    • In The News
    • Donate
    • Staff
    • Contact Us
  • Afterschool & Summer
    • Afterschool Database
    • Summer
    • A+ Program
    • 21st Century Community Learning Centers
    • Uplink
    • REACH
    • Quality Programs >
      • STEM >
        • STEM Activity Guide
        • Million Girls Moonshot
        • Transformative Practices >
          • Engineering Mindset
          • Role Models, Mentors, & Families
          • Transitions and Pathways
        • Training Opportunities
      • Entrepreneur Education
      • Health and Wellness
    • Making the Case for Afterschool+Summer
    • Afterschool is Hiring
    • Funding Opportunities
  • Community Schools
    • State Coalition for Community Schools
  • OST Quality Guidelines 2024
    • Core Area One: Pilina
    • Core Area Two: ʻIke
    • Core Area Three: Alakaʻi
  • More...
    • ‘Aha Lōkahi: Hawai‘i CommUNITY Conference
    • Partner with Schools
    • 2024 Lights On Afterschool Recap + Highlights
    • Upcoming Events, Trainings, and Webinars
    • More Resources
Million Girls Moonshot along with STEM Next have identified 10 practices of high-quality engineering experiences that help students develop and strengthen an Engineering Mindset (Cunningham, 2018; Cunningham & Kelly, 2017). This mindset encourages children to innovate, take risks, and become comfortable solving open-ended problems! We have gathered these 10 mindsets along with articles, resources, activities, and videos to help implement STEM learning in afterschool programs. 
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Consider Real-World Problems

Engineers work to create solutions to real-world problems, and children should, too. Challenging students to build a tall tower using only drinking straws and paper clips can be engaging and fun, but it lacks purpose. A challenge that asks students to design a device that keeps important medicine cold during transport in an area ravaged by a natural disaster is an example of a problem embedded in rich context and introduces students to a more realistic vision of what engineering is. Real-world challenges help students develop empathy and see the genuine impact of their learning!
Best Practices:
  • The Search for Real-World STEM Problems
  • STEM Projects That Tackle Real-World Problems​​
  • Engineers: problem-Solving in Society
Activities:
  • Engineering Solutions to Freshwater Problems
  • Community Engineering
  • EiE Storybooks

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Use of Systematic Engineering Design Process

​Part of what distinguishes “engineering” from “tinkering” or “making” is the use of a multi-step engineering design process (EDP). The explicit structure of an EDP scaffolds learning and breaks the process down into a set of discrete steps. Rather than diving headfirst into a problem and learning by trial and error, engineers follow steps that support planning and testing and improving solutions. Calling out discrete phases of the process can also help children to focus on the goals of that day’s endeavor. Learning to solve problems with the explicit help of a problem-solving process is part of developing an engineering mindset.
Best Practices:
  • What is Engineering Design​
  • Engineering Encounters: How to Develop an Engineering Design Task
  • The Engineering Design Process​
Activities:
  • Kid Engineer - The Design Process
  • The Engineering Design Process: A Taco Party
  • Time for Design
  • Introduction to the Engineering Design Process
  • Engineering Design Process

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​Explore the Properties & Use of Materials

Engineers make thoughtful choices about the materials they use to create technologies. They explore material properties and consider the advantages and disadvantages of each choice. For a given challenge, students should be given a wide selection of materials to choose from, be given ample time to explore their properties, and then consider which are most appropriate for the task.
Best Practices:
  • ​Materials
  • Investigating Materials Properties is an Engineering Habit of Mind
  • Primary Science Lesson Idea: Properties of Materials​
  • Properties of Materials
Activities:
  • Materials and Manufacturing
  • The Property of Materials and Their Everyday Uses​

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Balance Criteria & Constraints

Engineers need to design to specifications. Oftentimes, these entail trade-offs. For example, the strongest material might also be heavy and difficult to work with. A design that is simple and elegant might also be very expensive. To help reinforce the engineering mindset, clear criteria for success should be stated and students should be asked to work within design constraints.
Best Practices:​
  • Students Should Generate Criteria and Constraints
  • Examining Young Students’ Problem Scoping in Engineering Design​
Activities:
  • Defining Problems, Criteria and Constraints
  • Criteria and Constraints Practice
  • NGSS Engineering at Jet Propulsion Laboratory​

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Envision Multiple Solutions

A major feature of engineering challenges is that they can be solved in multiple ways and there is no ‘correct’ solution. Students should be encouraged to brainstorm several different ways to solve problems and be given the chance to compare and contrast their ideas. This process encourages students to innovate, take risks, and become comfortable solving open-ended problems.
Best Practices:
  • Cultivate Creativity in Your STEM Classroom
  • Embracing Multiple Solutions is an Engineering Habit of Mind​
Activities: 
  • Teaching Kids to Think Outside the Box
  • Brainstorming Possible Solutions
  • Brainstorming
  • Parent Brainstorm​

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Apply Science & Mathematics

Engineers use knowledge of math and science to solve problems. They combine that knowledge with their own creativity to design technologies. Challenges that are closely tied to the science that youth are learning in school are both authentic and compelling for students.
Best Practices:
  • How can students' everyday experiences support science learning through engineering design?
  • Math Lessons Go Better With Engineering
  • ​STEM Integration in K-12 Education
Activities:
  • Dance Pad Mania
  • How High Can a Super Ball Bounce?
  • The Girl With a Mind For Math The Story of Raye Montague

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Evaluate Designs & Iterate

Reflection and evaluation of ideas is critical to the engineering mindset. Students are rarely asked to evaluate their own work, and engineering provides a rich arena in which to practice these skills. Engineering designs can be tested to see how well they work and the feedback from testing can be used to revise and improve solutions.
Best Practices:
  • The Most Overlooked Step of the Engineering Design Process
  • How to Integrate the Argumentation from Evidence Practice into Engineering Design​
Activities:
  • On Target
  • Build, Test, Evaluate and Redesign
  • Iterative Design: How to solve a 'lion problem'

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Persist through & Learn from Failure

Every engineering challenge is different (defined by its own unique set of criteria) and there is rarely a simple and direct solution. Rather, the process of developing a functioning or high-quality solution takes time and requires perseverance. Engineering activities that present failure as an opportunity to revise and improve will help students understand that learning from failure is part of the engineering mindset.
Best Practices: 
  • Failing Forward: Managing Student Frustration During Engineering Design Projects
  • The Importance of Failure​
Activities:
  • Flip That Flop! Turning Mistakes Into Opportunities
  • "Stick It Out - Even When It Gets Prickly"
  • How to Succeed by Failing - Crash Course Kids

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Working Effectively in Teams

​Engineering is rarely a solitary pursuit. Teams of engineers work together, bringing a diversity of opinions and skills to the problem at hand. To develop an engineering mindset, students need to experience both the struggles and rewards of working in teams. Learning to communicate and negotiate effectively develops the collaborative skills that are part of the engineering mindset.
Best Practices: 
  • Boost Learning by Combining Teamwork and STEM
  • Building Teamwork in STEM Classes
  • ​Do my student engineers have to work in teams?
Activities:​
  • 21 Team Building Activities for Students
  • ​K-5 STEM Team Building Activity
  • How STEM Lessons Help Teach Kids Productive Teamwork

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Identify as Engineers

High-quality engineering activities have the power to help them identify as capable problem-solvers. When students experience the success of using an engineering design process to create technologies that solve problems and help others, they begin to envision themselves as engineers and are more likely to pursue engineering opportunities in the future.
Best Practices:
  • Developing a Science & Engineering Identity​
  • The Importance of Developing a STEM Identity
  • Engineering Identity Development Scale (EIDS)​
Activities:​
  • Children's Books for Budding Engineers

Back to Engineering Mindset

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