Understanding Your Audience Needs
As you watch the skill video below, think about these questions:
- How does Jean and her staff “set the children up for success?”
- Why is it important to try out the activity and materials before hand?
- How might selecting appropriate materials impact youth learning?
Now that you’ve watched the video, reflect on what you saw and post your responses.
- Why do you think it’s important to select appropriate materials when doing STEM?
- What examples of types of materials did you see were especially successful with youth? How could you tell?
Explore Engineering Practices
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Balance Criteria and Constraints that Require Trade-offs
Engineers make trade-offs to balance competing factors as they solve problems. As youth create enrichment toys for zoo animals, they balance the animals’ safety with keeping them engaged.
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Teamwork in Cookie Design Packaging
Youth work in small teams to develop cookie packaging during an engineering activity in an afterschool program. See how the educator supports youth in working together as a team.
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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.