teaching engineering design through paper rockets

摘要

As more K-12 teachers seek to implement a STEM focus into their curriculum (Roehrig, 2012), there is a need for introductory STEM activities that can help teachers set an engineering tone for their classrooms (Douglas, 2004). This article introduces the paper-rocket activity, which is a simple, fun, and engaging STEM project in which students collaborate in small groups to iteratively improve the design of small paper rockets as an introduction to the engineering design process (EDP), thus establishing an engineering tone for their classroom.