8th Grade Science: Four Cs of 21st Century Learning and S.T.E.M. in Action

• Collaboration- Teams of 3-4 students worked together to design an egg vehicle that would protect a raw egg during a head on collision.

• Communication- Students communicated their ideas with one another during the process and communicated their project through a narrative presentation.

• Critical thinking- Students had to identify, analyze and solve a problem systematically using the engineering design process, science and math to complete the project.

• Creativity-Students used creativity in their design solutions and in the materials used in the project.
  

  • Science- Newton’s 3 laws of motion, force, motion, mass and speed were some of the scientific concepts learned to help students solve the problem.

  • Technology- Students used a motion sensor and a laptop to test the speed of their egg vehicle, a digital scale to determine the mass of the vehicle and a laptop to create a narrative presentation of their project.

  • Engineering- Once the problem was given to the students, they researched vehicles, identified the constraints and criteria, brainstormed ideas, drew up their designs, selected a design to create a prototype, built their vehicle, tested it, made modifications, retested it and communicated their results.

  • Mathematics- Students measured their vehicle’s length, width and height to make sure they followed the criteria of 15 cm x 13 cm x 5 cm.  In addition, they drew their designs to scale and compared the mass and speeds of each vehicle.