Community Partnership with the Biomedical Engineering Lab at NCSU
In late September I attended an event at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It was a Sciren Triangle for Educators event. I heard about it through social media and decided it would be a good way to network and learn about different opportunities in the field of Science. That night I connected with many people but there was one group in particular that stood out the most to me.
The Biomedical Engineering Group from NCSU. They brought a 3D printer with them to the event and explained how they use 3D modeling to help innovate solutions in the medical field.
I was immediately interested in their work but wasn’t quite sure how it would tie into 4th grade curriculum. I only knew that they seemed very open to working with us in some way.
In 4th grade there is a large focus on North Carolina History and how inventions and technology have impacted North Carolina citizens. With this and an entrepreneurial focus in mind we started thinking about innovative ways to talk about inventions in our classroom. Some of the standards we pulled from included :
- 4.G.1.4 Explain the impact of technology (communication, transportation, inventions, etc.) on North Carolina’s citizens, past and present.
- 4.E.1.4 Explain the impact of entrepreneurship on the economy of North Carolina.
- 4.E.1.3 Analyze the historical and contemporary role that major North Carolina industries have played in the state, nation, and world.
We thought of ways we could connect this work to the curriculum we are held accountable for. So beginning with the end in mind we started drafting up possible ways to incorporate the Biomedical Engineering Lab into our work with 4th grade.
What did we want our students to get out of this project?
- Students would be able to “Pitch” a solution to a real world problem
- Students would understand how to identify a market and create a basic business plan for their product
- Students would be able to clearly articulate how their design was a solution to a problem
- Students would learn about 2D engineering drawings and how they are used
- Students would be able to utilize a 3D modeling program online and understand basic principles (EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS)
- Students would create a 3D prototype out of materials of their choosing to demonstrate the function of their solution
- Students would be able to connect with community members to receive feedback
- Students would feel empowered to use the engineering design process to solve everyday problems
- Students would have exposure to connecting with current engineers both from NCSU and Caterpillar to understand the role of engineers and how they make a positive impact on our world
As an educator all of these outcomes were important to me. Each outcome was proven to be attainable and was achievable in the way that we incorporated community and our use of Tinkercad.
In January of this year when we began actually implementing the project, I felt uncertain at the start about how things would go. I myself was not an experienced Tinkercad user. I have never had to toil with 2D or 3D modeling. But I dove right in anyway. I used graph paper to have students look at a 3D cone and try to determine how to draw a 3D cone on a 2D plane using “front” “back” and “side” views of the cone. Immediately students were interested because this wasn’t like an experience they had ever had before. It was certainly a challenging and growing experience right from the start. But the outcome of the project was fantastic.
In the curriculum I am working on I will further explain how to start the planning process all the way until reaching the culminating event for the project. The fear that we feel as teachers to take risks stems from our greater desire to be perfect. But if we want to model lifelong learning we have to be willing to take risks with and in front of our students. Our failures and our learnings don’t make us worse teachers, they make us more human. We teach children to fail forward when we fail.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we won’t learn unless we try. So take risks, be brave, and get your kids excited!