Not all the problems we face involve technologies we need.  Sometimes, we face the problems of being unhappy or bored.  Engineers not only design solutions that meet our needs, but they also help us satisfy our wants.  

Kindergartners learned to distinguish between needs and wants while continuing to explore different materials and their properties. 

Since Kindergartners have designed a technology to meet a need (houses), our next steps will be to design a technology to satisfy a want--a playground!

Using various everyday materials, Kindergartners designed model playgrounds where one piece of playground equipment needed to remain stationary, and another piece needed to move.  Connecting their learning to science, students created equipment that moved in a straight light, in a back-and-forth motion, or in a circular path.  

Each material we use can be best suited for a purpose.  Connecting our class to literacy and math, we revisited the story of the Three Little Pigs.  Following a mathematical pattern, we designed and built houses made of different materials.  Because houses help us stay warm and dry as well as protect us from harm, they are an important technology that all people need.  

We first planned out our houses using pipe cleaners, and then used stronger, sturdier materials for our model houses:  popsicle sticks and glue.  After our houses were dry, we learned about different types of roofs (A-frame, curved, and flat), and why each one is important for the type of climate it is located in.  

Adding windows and doors was the last step.  Exploring how light interacts with different types of materials, Kindergartners learned why some materials need to be transparent and why others are opaque!

Every technology that an engineer designs uses different materials.  Legos are just one of the objects Kindergartners explored.  Each material has different properties that are suited for its purpose.  

Some of the properties we have learned thus far are:  hard/soft, strong/weak, wet/dry, shiny/dull, thick/thin, etc.   

Each of the problems we face is solved with the help something.  It is important to distinguish between the solutions that are designed by engineers and those that are not.  Engineers design technologies that are non-living and human-made.   Kindergartners learned to distinguish between living and non-living things as well as things that are natural vs. human-made.   

Every day we are confronted with problems that we must solve.  Engineers of all types have helped develop the technologies that help us to solve problems we face each day.  Whether we need to pump air into our tires, grab a bandage for a scraped knee, or sharpen our broken pencils, engineers have helped to design solutions to these problems.