While many people think technology education is learning how to build new gadgets, Roger Crider, technology education teacher at Princess Anne High School, has proved the best learning can be from taking those gadgets apart.
Always big on engineering and on the lookout for innovative lessons, Crider recently challenged students in his Introduction to Engineering classes to investigate the interior workings of a common tool, toy, machine or gadget. Figuring that his students’ findings would be of interest to others, Crider then had his students display their research on Materials Systems in the school’s library media center.
Other passersby in the library media center were intrigued by the project – a result that Crider hopes will spark enough interest to persuade students to enroll in his future classes.
A fascinating look at the engineering of common machines, the hands-on, collaborative research projects are not only interesting, they are also models of investigation that embody the objectives of Compass to 2015. They are innovative, engaging, and offer meaningful, authentic and rigorous work, strongly meeting the objective to “motivate students to be self-directed and inquisitive learners.” A by-product of the project was the students’ obvious personal pride and satisfaction in their work.
And it’s okay that the participants had a lot of fun, right?
* This story provides a closer look at Strategic Objective 1 in action.