Young Inventors at Work Class Summary 2/10/14

with Leigh Ann Yoder

Take it Apart!

We had a great start to class today! All of the students were engaged and contributed to our discussions and activities. The students are terrific and I am positive we are going to have a wonderful semester together.

We began class with some rules and an overview of the class format. The students were anxious, so we went right into our opening activity. They had five minutes to figure out what was inside three separate boxes. The boxes were completely sealed, so they could only use their senses. We discussed their educated guesses and then tested them (by opening the boxes). Most of the guesses were incorrect, which was wonderful, because it led us to our class motto:

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."

For the students reading The Story of Inventions, they were able to relate this to James Watt and his steam engine invention.

Next, I asked the students to read their homework assignments. Not all of the students completed this assignment. I did discuss the importance of homework and that they should take responsibility for completing it. Most of the assignments are designed to create engaging class discussions.

I then read a short biography of the Take-apart King, Charles Kettering. Ask your student what he is famous for and why we refer to him as the Take-apart King.

By this point the students were bursting with excitement, so we broke into teams and started taking our own items apart. We will continue with our take apart activity next week, so please bring back your tools! If you did not have safety glasses today, make certain you bring them next week.

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Homework Assignments

Here are the assignments for this week. Parents: you may need to create a PBS Learning Media account for your student to follow the links.

1. Watch - Ask an Engineer
2. Read - Ten Fun Facts
3. Watch -  What if Engineering Disappeared for a Day
4. Research Alfred Hitchcock - a famous engineer! You can start here, but try to find a bit more information as well.  No need to write anything, just be prepared to discuss.
5. Optional:  Read Chapter 2 from The Story of Inventions

Have a wonderful week!