Constraints to Elicit Engineering Planning

Take a classic one-hour outreach activity, such as building bridges, and stretch it out across two sessions in order to encourage iteration. It’s helpful if this activity includes opportunity for quantitative testing with a gradient of success (like weight on a bridge). Students should be consistently working in their notebooks to design and plan. On the third class session, impose a constraint (remove a desired material, impose a budget, etc.). Encourage learners to look at their past designs as they plan under their new constraint, adapting successful designs while still preserving their successful attributes. Extend this activity by inserting a feedback day before the constraints day in order to get students thinking about the qualities of good designs and to observe a diversity of solutions.