Design Thinking and Embedded Systems Lesson
Digital Engineering @ ARS
Overview
This year at ARS, Oren taught two sections of Digital Engineering. In late March, Oren gave Luke Theivagt and I each the opportunity to teach a lesson to his classes about design thinking and embedded systems. Using Agency by Design principles to structure the lesson, the students and I had a worthwhile discussion about connections between different fields and analyzed the different systems involved in a pacemaker. Students then worked in groups to explore and analyze a system of their choice, and create a presentation about their system.
Reflection
This was a really exciting lesson to teach, especially because I feel that learning about design and practicing it is at the very heart of Maker education. While I felt satisfied with the way the lesson flowed and was structured given the circumstances, I wish that I would have incorporated more inquiry-based learning and discussion. If I taught a lesson like this again in the future (and perhaps had more time), I would aim to lead students through a 5E format of the lesson, centered on student ideas.
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Additionally, I would make sure to have specific questions in mind to ask students that encourage higher-order thinking, particularly during the exploration and elaboration parts of the lesson when students are working in groups. While students are exploring and defining themselves what they believe to be important and related to a system, I would want students to be able to think about systems both broadly and narrowly. I believe that knowing how widespread a system affects people and institutions, as well as how personally and microscopically complex a system is, is an enriching perspective to have and helps build understanding and compassion in Makers and learners.