Persist and Learn from Failure

Learn how engineers learn from failure to revise and improve the designs. This requires perseverance and improving through multiple iterations.

Two cans of WD40.
Learning Blast

Learning Blast: Persist and Learn from Failure

Failure is an important part of engineering and plays a critical role in solving problems.

Resources

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Testing Explanations of Cause and Effect

Staff use purposeful questions to help youth build on what they know and dig deeper to develop their own understanding of cause and effect.

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Design a Grape Smasher

Staff support active learning as learners devise a plan to smash a grape using simple machines and explore the different materials available.

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Learning from Failure

Lemond uses questions to help youth learn from failure during an engineering design challenge.

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Developing Skills Needed for Active STEM Learning

Participants learn how to engage youth in active STEM learning by providing opportunities to investigate and explore the properties of materials.

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Stories of Failure

Participants will identify their role and attitude towards failure and discuss strategies for creating an environment where failure feels okay.

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Learning To Fail

See how staff help youth learn from their failed attempts to build a grape smasher and help them revise and improve the designs.

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Affirming Youth During Retesting

Watch as staff encourage youth to investigate how they designed their package, what did or didn’t work with their design, and how they might adapt for re-testing. Staff support youth’s abilities and encourage youth to work with their team and develop their own solutions for re-testing their designs.

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Real-World Application Of Skills

Providing real-world application of the skills of an engineer is an important strategy when developing a STEM identity in youth. Watch and listen for the challenges youth are given to think deeper and try to solve problems using redesign.

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Try & Try Again

Watch as Gauri works with youth to design, build and test a cook stove. Take note of how she encourages students to re-test or re-design their stove idea.

Want to learn more about another practice for developing an engineering mindset?

Check out the resources available for Evaluate and Iterate.

Learn more