Five Senses Walk

ENGINEERING TASK

MATERIALS IN KITS

• 10 craft sticks
• 10 pipe cleaners
• 10 wooden blocks
• 4 yogurt containers
• 4 straws
• 12 inches of yarn
• Masking tape
• Five senses field walk

We also encourage you to use recyclable materials (e.g., egg cartons), items from outside (e.g., pine cones), and materials from your “junk drawer” in the creation of the prototype.

READ & TALK

In the story, we learn different ways that the main character used their five senses. How have you used your five senses today?

The character used three different senses when bouncing a ball – see, hear, and touch. Have you used more than one sense at one time? Give me an example.

DEFINE THE PROBLEM

Go for walk in your neighborhood. Use your five senses to observe. Do you see any problems that should be fixed? Draw or write what you noticed. Take pictures to help you remember.

FIVE SENSES WALK EXAMPLES

PLAN

1. Create a list of ALL the ways you might design a solution to the problem. No solution is too big or too small.
2. Now, as a team, decide on ONE solution.
3. Engineers often create a detailed sketch so that others can see their plan. This is your next step.

TEST

This is an important step in the Engineering Design Cycle.

Talk to your friends and family about your design – what works? What doesn’t? What could be improved?

Some questions you’re looking to answer are:

• Does it work like you planned?
• Does it solve the problem you identified?
• Can it be used more than once?
• What could be improved upon? Why?

COMMUNICATE

Watch this video to learn how engineers solve problems.

• What did you do that was similar to an engineer?
• How do you think engineers use their five senses?
• What were some steps you had to take?

SHARE THE FUN AND PASS IT ON!

Thank you for participating.

When you are done with this project, gift the book and the directions to your friend to get a “five” sense of engineering.

PLAN – OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

• Tell me how your solution will help solve the problem we identified.
• How do you develop that idea/solution?
• Why do you think engineers do research before creating their prototype?
• If we were to do research, what might be our search terms?
• What material might we use for ______? Why?

CREATE – OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

• Describe your approach. Why are you ________?
• How can I help? (position child as lead engineer)
• How close does our prototype align with our initial sketch/idea/solution? Why did you make that change to the prototype?
• Where do you think we might experience a failure? Why? Can we make a change to the prototype to address this before testing?