2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 160: Discovering Simple Machines; Fun with Problem-Solving in Elementary School

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Poster Session

This Work in Progress paper details the objectives and applications of the beginning stages of an educational board game design. We have created an outreach activity targeted at elementary students to introduce them to key concepts relevant to engineering. Some of these concepts include simple machines, problem-solving, and optimization of materials and cost. We created a board game entitled Simple Machinery Mashup to introduce these key concepts to students in grades 3-5 in a hands-on approach. Teams of 2-4 participants move across the board by completing design challenge tasks with a provided set of simple machines and common household items. Participants must optimize their allotted money and provided materials to design and create structures that completes each task. Introducing these concepts of optimization, problem-solving and adaptability in a low-stakes environment encourages participants to tinker and explore during the game, as well as provide a sense of self-efficacy when adapting to new challenges. This paper describes the game and preliminary results from pilot tests of the game with a small group of adults with a background in elementary education. The four educators commented on the benefits of hands-on tinkering and exploration, but recommended including more opportunities for interaction with the board, highlighting the universality of simple machines, and creating more real-world situations in gameplay. Collaborating with educators that have firsthand experience and knowledge about classroom management and patterns of student participation can allow for the creation of a more effective educational tool. The comments and suggestions from the pilot test with educators will be used to create the final iteration of the board game before it is tested with the target demographic of elementary school students.

Authors

Miss Joselyn Elisabeth Busato Bucknell University [biography]

Joselyn Busato is an undergraduate student at Bucknell University, majoring in creative writing and biology.
Dr. Elif Miskioglu Bucknell University [biography]

Dr. Elif Miskioglu is an early-career engineering education scholar and educator. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (with Genetics minor) from Iowa State University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Ohio State University. Her early Ph.D. work focused on the development of bacterial biosensors capable of screening pesticides for specifically targeting the malaria vector mosquito, Anopheles gambiae. As a result, her diverse background also includes experience in infectious disease and epidemiology, providing crucial exposure to the broader context of engineering problems and their subsequent solutions. These diverse experiences and a growing passion for improving engineering education prompted Dr. Miskioglu to change her career path and become a scholar of engineering education. As an educator, she is committed to challenging her students to uncover new perspectives and dig deeper into the context of the societal problems engineering is intended to solve. As a scholar, she seeks to not only contribute original theoretical research to the field, but work to bridge the theory-to-practice gap in engineering education by serving as an ambassador for empirically driven educational practices.
Dr. Kaela M. Martin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2359-6332 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Prescott [biography]

Kaela Martin is an Associate Professor and Associate Department Chair of Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott Campus. She graduated from Purdue University with a PhD in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. Her research interests in engineering education include developing classroom interventions that improve student learning, designing experiences to further the development of students from novices to experts, and creating engaging classroom experiences.

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