Engineering Design Cycle for Elementary Students

You are probably wondering what this title even means. Unless you’re an engineer by trade or a STEAM teacher, like myself, you may not have even heard of this before. In short, it’s a way of teaching students to solve real-world problems. Any time they are given a challenge we go through each step of the Engineering Design Cycle in order to find a solution.

Have you ever heard of the Scientific Method? I’m sure you have. Think back to the days you did science experiments in school. You started by asking questions, creating a hypothesis, testing your hypothesis, and reporting your results. It’s a linear approach, while the Engineering Design Cycle is cyclical and allows the problem solver to revisit the problem and continue to improve it. You have probably heard of the saying “Practice makes perfect!” Well I prefer “Practice makes better,” because the Engineering Design Cycle teaches students that there is always room for improvement in their design.

So how can you use this with your students or kids at home an in school?

Start small. Don’t try to throw every step at them at once because it can feel overwhelming, especially to our youngest learners. Start with having them plan their design. Give them a challenge, paper, and pencil and have them brainstorm what they want to build. This gives them time to think it through and be intentional about the resources they have available to build with. Then let them build. Their design will probably fail at first and that’s ok. That’s why the Engineering Design Cycle is a cycle. There’s room for improvement and they can always go back to the drawing board and start over!

Are you ready to get your engineers building? Check out this free resource to walk them through a challenge!

Basic Engineering Design Cycle!

If you’re hooked and looking for more ideas to get your students building, then look at these blog posts: K-2 Can Too and STEAM on a Budget