The Engineering class is a project based class. The goal of this class is to guide you to define engineering problems more precisely,  conduct a more thorough process of choosing the best solution, and to optimize the final design.

 

As indicated by the NGSS:

 

"Defining the problem with "precision" involves thinking more deeply than is expected in elementary school about the needs a problem is intended to address, or the goals a design is intended to reach. How will the end user decide whether or not the design is successful? Also at this level students are expected to consider not only the end user, but also the broader society and the environment. Every technological change is likely to have both intended and unintended effects. It is up to the designer to try to anticipate the effects it may have, and to behave responsibly in developing a new or improved technology. These considerations may take the form of either criteria or constraints on possible solutions.

 

Developing possible solutions does not explicitly address generating design ideas because students were expected to develop the capability in elementary school. The focus in middle school is on a two stage process of evaluating the different ideas that have been proposed by using a systematic method, such as a tradeoff matrix, to determine which solutions are most promising, and by testing different solutions, and then combining the best ideas into a new solution that may be better than any of the preliminary ideas.

 

Improving designs at the middle school level involves an iterative process in which students test the best design, analyze the results, modify the design accordingly, and then re-test and modify the design again. Students may go through this cycle two, three, or more times in order to reach the optimal (best possible) result."

 

Bearing this in mind, you will participate in several engineering challenges. Your work will be evaluated based on your ability to define the problem, work within project requirements and constraints, including managing a project budget as well as due dates, and finally the iteration in design that leads you to the "best solution".