Unit 1 — Lab Safety/What is Engineering?
Description
This introductory unit establishes safety protocols and introduces students to engineering as a discipline within STEM education. Students participate in class discussions about engineering professions and complete team-based design challenges such as building the longest line from a single piece of construction paper or creating a floating boat from tin foil that holds the maximum number of pennies. Through internet research, students investigate historical engineering achievements across the eight main engineering disciplines and develop presentations highlighting why each discipline is needed in modern society. The unit emphasizes civil engineering as the primary focus for subsequent coursework.
Essential Questions
- What safety precautions are critical to follow in an engineering lab?
- What is engineering and how does it fit into STEM education?
- What are the different disciplines of engineering and how have they positively impacted society?
- What is civil engineering and what types of prototypes and designs are involved in this specialty?
Learning Objectives
- Identify and apply safe practices as required in the world of work
- Demonstrate proper and safe use of hand and power tools used in the lab
- Explain the meaning of engineering and how it fits into STEM/STEAM education
- Explain how engineers have contributed to the development of major technologies
- Explain the importance of differing engineering disciplines and their positive impact on society
- Identify the characteristics of civil engineering and the types of prototypes and designs involved in this specialty
Supplemental Resources
- Construction paper for design challenges
- Tin foil for boat building challenge
- Chart paper and markers for group discussions
- Printed images of historical engineering achievements
- EdPuzzles on Engineering Safety and Engineering Ethics
Engineering Design
Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science
Geometry
Science and Engineering Practices
Standards for Mathematical Practice
Students follow multistep procedures when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, and performing technical tasks related to engineering design challenges and material testing.
Students engage in collaborative discussions with peers, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly during design challenges and team-based projects.
Students make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, reason abstractly and quantitatively, construct viable arguments, model with mathematics, use appropriate tools strategically, and attend to precision when working with geometric measurements and design calculations.
Formative Assessments
- Class discussion participation on engineering professions and disciplines
- Completion of day 1 design challenge activities with team collaboration
- Internet research on historical engineering achievements
- Peer feedback during team problem-solving activities
Summative Assessment
Google Slides presentation of engineers who made major developments in history and the significance of an engineering discipline in modern society
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding of engineering disciplines and safety protocols through a verbal presentation with visual aids, a one-on-one conference with the teacher, or a simplified presentation format using fewer slides or images with teacher support. Sentence frames and word banks related to engineering terminology and safety rules may be provided.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from visual supports such as illustrated lab safety anchor charts and picture-based reference guides for tool use during hands-on design challenges. Directions for multi-step activities like the design challenges should be broken into numbered steps with visual cues, and verbal check-ins should occur at each stage to confirm understanding. For the research and presentation component, students may use speech-to-text tools, dictate responses to a scribe, or present their engineering discipline findings orally rather than solely through written slides. Graphic organizers that pre-structure the research process can help students focus on key concepts such as the role and impact of a specific engineering discipline without being overwhelmed by open-ended tasks.
Section 504
Students should be given extended time to complete design challenge tasks and the research-based presentation, and preferential seating during class discussions and lab activities can support focus and full participation. Written copies of oral safety instructions should be provided, and access to a low-distraction environment during the research and slide preparation phase helps ensure equitable access to the summative task.
ELL / MLL
Visual vocabulary support is especially important in this unit, as terms like 'engineering discipline,' 'prototype,' 'civil engineering,' and 'safety protocol' carry specific technical meanings; a illustrated word wall or personal vocabulary reference card will aid comprehension throughout the unit. Simple, clearly worded directions with visual demonstrations for both lab safety routines and design challenge tasks help students follow procedures confidently, and pairing students strategically during team activities provides natural language modeling. When conducting internet research, students may benefit from guidance toward accessible, visually rich sources, and home language resources may be used to build background knowledge about engineering history and professions.
At Risk (RTI)
Connecting engineering disciplines to familiar real-world examples — such as bridges, buildings, or everyday technology students recognize — helps build the background knowledge needed for both the discussions and the research task. Design challenge activities are naturally entry-friendly, so reinforcing that there is no single correct solution encourages participation from students who may be hesitant; framing the team challenges around effort and process rather than outcome supports engagement. For the research and presentation component, providing a partially completed graphic organizer or a simplified research guide with focused prompting questions reduces the complexity of the task while keeping the learning goal intact.
Gifted & Talented
Students who quickly grasp foundational safety concepts and the broad definition of engineering can be encouraged to investigate the intersections between engineering disciplines — for example, exploring how civil and environmental engineering overlap in modern infrastructure design. For the summative presentation, these students may be challenged to analyze not just the historical significance of an engineering achievement but to evaluate its long-term societal trade-offs or propose how the discipline might evolve to address a current global problem. Encouraging independent inquiry into an emerging or niche engineering field beyond the eight introduced in class allows gifted learners to pursue greater depth and bring original thinking to peer discussions.