Run The Engineering Design Process

Use evidence and design criteria to run the engineering design process.

Builds on (2 levels back)inferred · high confidence

Criteria and constraints: Design work needs success targets and limits before testing.
Evidence-based iteration: Changes should trace to data, feedback, or a failed criterion.

Prerequisites are inferred: pending teacher review.

Re-learn the skill with worked practice and clear examples.

Identify which engineering-design stage a team is in from what they are doing.

Step 1: Watch what the team does

Each stage has a tell-tale action: listing what success must do = criteria/constraints; making a first model = prototype; collecting measurements = test; changing the design after results = iterate.

Order	Stage
1	Define the problem
2	Set criteria and constraints
3	Brainstorm ideas
4	Build a prototype
5	Test the prototype
6	Iterate (improve and retest)

Step 2: Map action to stage

Match the described action to the matching stage name in the list.

Practice

A team just finished building their first working model of a pill-bottle alarm and is about to collect timing measurements on it. Using the stage list, which stage are they about to ENTER?

Reviewed

Order	Stage
1	Define the problem
2	Set criteria and constraints
3	Brainstorm ideas
4	Build a prototype
5	Test the prototype
6	Iterate (improve and retest)

A.Brainstorm ideas
B.Build a prototype
C.Test the prototype
D.Define the problem

Show the worked solution ▾

Answer: C. Test the prototype

Step 1: Find what they finished: They finished building the first model, which is stage 4, 'Build a prototype'.
Step 2: Find what is next: Collecting measurements on the model is testing it, stage 5, 'Test the prototype'.

Why it's right: Collecting measurements on a finished prototype is the Test stage (stage 5), the stage right after Build a prototype.

Why the others miss:

A: Brainstorming (stage 3) happened before they built anything.
B: They just finished the prototype stage; they are leaving it, not entering it.
D: The problem was already defined back in stage 1.

Aligned to Biotechnology Research and Experiments · reading level ~grade 9

Where you'd see this

A student labels each work session by its EDP stage so the team does not skip testing before iterating.

Careers that use this

Biomedical Engineer: Knows whether the team is still prototyping or already testing, so the next step is correct.

Video library

Watch: Run The Engineering Design Process

The Engineering Process: Crash Course Kids #12.2

Crash Course Kids · 5:17

Guided notes

Fill these in as you work through the lesson.

Big idea: The engineering design process runs in a fixed order, and you can name which stage a project is in and what comes next.

Key terms: write the meaning

Define the problem (stage 1: state the need):
Criteria and constraints (stage 2: targets and limits):
Prototype (stage 4: first testable model):
Iterate (stage 6: improve and retest):

The rule

The order is: define the problem, set and constraints, brainstorm, build a , test, then .

Check yourself

Which stage is the team in right now?
What action tells you the stage?
After a failed test, which stage comes next?

Work one example

A team finishes a first model and starts timing it. Name the stage they finished (prototype) and the stage they enter (test).