"Asking the Right Questions": The Cornerstone of Problem Solving

The goal of the Engineering Projects class (3rd Period) is to give our students the experience and tools for a great start on the path of technical leadership.

For the 2nd Semester, students will team up and select a topic to present on that will help us all gain insight on how to attack problems worth solving.

Here are the slides from our discussion this morning. If you're looking for a good read over break, consider one of the books listed below. The core concepts of these books will help improve your understanding of how to choose problems worth tackling and techniques you can use to enhance direction, alignment and commitment from those you collaborate with:

"I Love It When A Plan Comes Together"...

... well, we hope this one comes together!

4th Period reminded me there was a Holiday Door Decoration contest and was enthusiastic to participate. So we took today to brainstorm/prototype some engineering based decoration solutions.

Having an impromptu contest pop up is the perfect way to engage our Creative Problem Solving minds and it was neat to see how effective the class was at developing concepts and informally collaborating:





The proof is in the pudding however so we'll see if we're able to get something organized. Judging is after lunch tomorrow so we don't have a lot of time!

Contests/Problems seem to bring the best out of our teams. My goal is to have all of our efforts revolve around team based problems/challenges and I am working to that end.

Design/Build

Jason and Joe make progress on their cardboard canoe build:


Meanwhile, Putnam and John make progress on testing a prototype:




? - Even though this team is already under way with the construction of their boat, how might the prototype support the construction of their project?
? - How effective does their model appear to be? What useful information might the team discover with their test?