Design a Cell Phone

Recommended Grade Levels:  5-8 (ages 11-14)

Run Time:  All of the students we observed went right past the research section and started designing right away.  This usually results in a failed design.  If students design, test, go back to the research section and then design, test and get their sales results, this takes about 40 minutes of time.  If you want to cut down on the time, you can have them start with the research section first. 

 

Story Line:  Elena is a project manager who is also an engineer.  She assigns projects to engineers that work at Edheads' Engineering Design Area.  Today's project is to design a cell phone for senior citizens for our client, Mr. Tomasko.  Students have access to market research on cell phones, but have the choice of checking out the research first or designing first.  After they design, they will take their specifically designed phone into a test setting where five senior citizens will comment on it.  Spoiler alert:  There's an outlier in the group!  The senior citizens will let the students know if the design is great, better than before but not perfect, or not that good.  Students have the option of going back to check out the research information, going back to redesign, or building the phone.  They can design and test as many times as they like.  Once they build the phone, they will be given sales results by the client, Mr. Tomasko who will be thrilled, somewhat satisfied or very disappointed in the sales figures, depending on how well the students met the expectations of the senior citizens.  Students will use skills reading charts and graphs, learn about engineering design, and use critical thinking skills.

 

Technical:  This is a Flash game, so you will need the Puffin Academy Browser if you are going to play this game on a mobile device.   We also recommend having ear buds to play the activity in class or in public areas.  Speakers are fine for home use. 

 

Screen Shots:

            

       

Video: 

 

Educational Standards:  (this will be updated to Common Core and NGSS soon)

Abilities To Do Technological Design

2.     Revise an existing design used to solve a problem based on peer review.

3.     Explain how the solution to one problem may create other problems.

 

Scientific Inquiry

Doing Scientific Inquiry

2.     Evaluate observations and measurements made by other people and identify reasons for any discrepancies.

3.     Use evidence and observations to explain and communicate the results of investigations.

6.     Explain why results of an experiment are sometimes different (e.g., because of unexpected differences in what is being investigated, unrealized differences in the methods used or in the circumstances in which the investigation was carried out, and because of errors in observations).

Grades 6:

Understanding Technology

1.     Explain how technology influences the quality of life.

2.     Explain how decisions about the use of products and systems can result in desirable or undesirable consequences (e.g., social and environmental).

Abilities To Do Technological Design

5.     Design and build a product or create a solution to a problem given one constraint (e.g., limits of cost and time for design and production, supply of materials and environmental effects).

 

Scientific Inquiry

Doing Scientific Inquiry

Explain that there are not fixed procedures for guiding scientific investigations; however, the nature of an investigation determines the procedures needed.

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Nature of Science	Identify that hypotheses are valuable even when they are not supported.
Ethical Practices	Describe why it is important to keep clear, thorough and accurate records.
Science and Society	Identify ways scientific thinking is helpful in a variety of everyday settings. Describe how the pursuit of scientific knowledge is beneficial for any career and for daily life.

 

Grade 7
Science and Technology

Understanding Technology

Explain how needs, attitudes and values influence the direction of technological development in various cultures.

 

Abilities To Do Technological Design

Design and build a product or create a solution to a problem given two constraints (e.g., limits of cost and time for design and production or supply of materials and environmental effects).

 

Scientific Inquiry

Doing Scientific Inquiry

Formulate and identify questions to guide scientific investigations that connect to science concepts and can be answered through scientific investigations. Analyze alternative scientific explanations and predictions and recognize that there may be more than one good way to interpret a given set of data. Identify faulty reasoning and statements that go beyond the evidence or misinterpret the evidence. Use graphs, tables and charts to study physical phenomena and infer mathematical relationships between variables (e.g., speed and density).

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Ethical Practices	Show that the reproductibility of results is essential to reduce bias in scientific investigations.
Science and Society	Describe how the work of science requires a variety of human abilities and qualities that are helpful in daily life (e.g., reasoning, creativity, skepticism and openness).

 

Grade 8
Science and Technology

Abilities To Do Technological Design	Examine how choices regarding the use of technology are influenced by constraints caused by various unavoidable factors (e.g., geographic location, limited resources, social, political and economic considerations).
	Design and build a product or create a solution to a problem given more than two constraints (e.g., limits of cost and time for design and production, supply of materials and environmental effects). Evaluate the overall effectiveness of a product design or solution.

Scientific Inquiry

Doing Scientific Inquiry

Describe the concepts of sample size and control and explain how these affect scientific investigations. Read, construct and interpret data in various forms produced by self and others in both written and oral form (e.g., tables, charts, maps, graphs, diagrams and symbols). Apply appropriate math skills to interpret quantitative data (e.g., mean, median and mode).

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Nature of Science	Identify the difference between description (e.g., observation and summary) and explanation (e.g., inference, prediction, significance and importance).
Ethical Practices	Explain why it is important to examine data objectively and not let bias affect observations.

 

National Science Standards   

Content Standards
Grades 5-8:

·        Understandings about scientific Inquiry.

·        Abilities of technological design and understandings about science and technology.

·        Personal health risks and benefits, science and technology in society.

Grades 9-12:

·        Understandings about scientific inquiry.

·        Abilities of technological design, understandings about science and technology.

·        Natural and human-induced hazards, science and technology in local, national, and global challenges.

·        Understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge and science as a human endeavor.