Assemble the Design Team for Success

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  CTE Lesson Plan

• CTE Course Info and Benchmark Notes

  
  

  Program Title (as applicable):

  TECH-ED – High School Technical Education Programs

  Course Title:

  Applied Engineering Technology I

  Course Number:

  8401110

  Career Cluster:

  Engineering & Technology Education

  CIP Number:

  0614130100

  Course Type:

  Career and Technical Education

  CTE Standard(s) or benchmarks

  CTE-TECED.8401110.3.4 – Describe a typical design project team structure.

  CTE-TECED.8401110.3.3 - Describe the function of management in general and project management in particular.

  Integrated benchmarks: ELA or Other:

  ELA.9-12.V.1.1 - Integrate academic vocabulary appropriate to grade level in speaking and writing.

• Unit Outline

  
  

  This lesson is designed to be used with the case study, “Assemble the Design Team for Success.” See CPALMS resource ID#215690.

• Career Connection

  
  

  Students will be called upon to practice clear and effective communication, utilize critical thinking to make sense of problems, and work productively in teams.

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  Students will be able to:

  • Describe a typical engineering design team structure, including the role of management.
  • Organize a role-based, functional engineering team and provide reasoning for their choices using academic vocabulary.

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  Students should be familiar with/able to:

  • Engineering Design Process: Ask, Research, Imagine, Plan, Create, Test, Improve
  • Students have learned about the various engineering disciplines focused on the 8 most common fields.
  • How a solution to a problem or a manufactured object goes from concept to prototype, but not necessarily into production or manufacturing.
  • Computer-aided design (CAD) as a means of virtually designing an object and testing.
  • Basics of additive and subtractive fabrication from CAD to computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment like 3D printers and CNC routers.

• Guiding Questions

  
  
  • What roles make up an Engineering Design Team?
  • What role leads the project team, and what experience do they need to manage the team?
  • How can working as a team support the design process?

• Procedure

  
  

  1. Handout the Engineering Design Team Roles. Select some of the roles and ask students to share what they know about them.

  • Ask students if there are there any roles on this list that they have questions about. Review the roles students have questions about. If students ask what a particular role is, ask the class if they might know what that role is or does.

  2. Have students team up in pairs. Use table partners or other process for pairing. Pass out the case study “Assemble the Design Team for Success” CPALMS Resource ID# 215690, if not already present on tables.

  3. Introduce the case study, but do not get into details. Set the purpose for their reading.

  • Tell them they will be identifying roles on the handout that are needed in this fictional project. Suggest students they refer to the roles on the handout as they read the case study.
  • Encourage the pairs to make annotations on the case study. Provide highlighters, colored pencils, or other devices for highlighting the text.

  4. Ask students to read the case study together in their pairs.

  • Provide students with the suggested questions to guide them through the reading of the case study.
  • • Why do you think Marcus assigned Mia the project manager role?
    • Which of the four employees assigned to the project my need closer monitoring to be successful? Explain.
    • Are there any roles not filled by the four individuals described, which might be needed on this project? Explain.

  5. Tell students they will to organize their engineering team. They will identify the roles needed for the project and who should be assigned to those roles from the case study.

  6. After students finish assembling their team on the handout, tell them they will be share their pair findings with another pair. Provide students with time to share.

  7. Bring the students back to a whole group. Students will share with the class what they decided. Pairs will be allowed to volunteer or will be randomly called upon.

  8. Engage students in whole group discussion to try to arrive at a consensus for the best engineering design team. Use the discussion questions to guide the conversation. Encourage students to use specific titles for the roles.

  • Write each character’s name on the board.
  • Ask students what roles from the handout they assigned for each of the individuals in the case study.
  • Write these on the board for each character.
    • While there is no correct answer, each character should be assigned at least one role, and it should be obvious from their description.
  • Ask pairs if they assigned any individual only one role and why? Ask if any group agrees or disagrees with their reasoning.
  • Ask students if there was any role from the handout that was not assigned to one of the four individuals.

  9. To close the lesson, refer students to the attached engineering design team roles handout. Have the students complete this assignment.

  • Closing Activity:
  1. • Do you feel the case study was a realistic depiction of an engineering design team? What do you think was realistic about it? What do you feel was missing or unrealistic about the scenario?
     • Which roles from the handout or the class discussion interested you to learn more about and how to maybe pursue a career in that field?

• Teacher Notes

  
  
  • Prior to this lesson, students have been exposed to the engineering design process and are familiar with the basics of design and fabrication. Students have been exposed to the most common engineering disciplines so that some of the roles in the Engineering Design Team Roles handout are familiar to them. Some of the roles on the handout should be unfamiliar to them to encourage discussion.
  • See attached optional exit ticket that can be used as an alternative to the closing activity.
  • Suggested timing:

  • • Reading case study: 7 to 10 minutes

    • Completing handout: 10 minutes

    • Pair sharing: 5 minutes

    • Closing activity: 5 minutes