Sharing Engineering Within A School Classroom Framework
In speaking with kids remember that they are incredibly bright but
may not have the vocabulary needed for your presentation. One
point in your favor is that you'll be speaking and a
young student's verbal vocabulary will be larger than his or her reading
vocabulary. To introduce new vocabulary, define the term and
give an example or analogy. For example, if you
were introducing the word "force" you might say: "A force
is a push or pull. To determine which way an
object will move, engineers look at all the forces acting
on an object. If you were playing "tug-of-war",
which team will win? It's the team that pulls with
the greater amount of force."
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Keep the concepts you are trying to communicate down to just
one or two. It is better for students to really
understand one or two concepts than be exposed to dozens of
ideas at one time and possibly not retain or understand any of them.
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If you are concerned about the level of language and vocabulary
you use go through your local television listing and find children's science
or educational programs.
Note the language and vocabulary in the
program. Sentences use simple language and are not long.
The concept is repeated in different ways using lots of
examples to demonstrate the same concept. There is no "baby
talk". The best educational programs are able to "distill" versus
"water down" the science. Another source is children's educational videos
which can often be checked out at your local library.
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If you are conducting an experiment or demonstration, encapsulate your
presentation into a "lesson plan" like a teacher would.
(Click on the
lesson plan link for a sample.)
Teachers use lesson plans to prepare their classes and focus on
the essential points they want to communicate. Lesson plans are
a cross between a "recipe" and a "blueprint". Lesson plans
include: the materials needed, instructions, background information to
support your presentation, the time the demonstration will take and
any patterns or diagrams needed. Not only will you have
a nice organized summary of your presentation that you can use
again, but you'll be able to provide a lesson plan
for the teacher(s) which they can use and
share with their colleagues. It's an extra gift for the teacher.
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Participating in a web chat? If possible have someone who
can type fast help you. The key to web chats
is to keep the answers short and to the point,
otherwise the students wait a long time between questions. If
the chat has a host or moderator, ask for some
anticipated questions in advance and prepare answers that you can cut
and paste from a text editor into the web chat.
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