February - Vol 69, No 5 - International Technology and Engineering ...

the “This New House” activity from High Tech High
(Holcomb, 2005). Each team was challenged to assign
specific roles to each team member and construct a model
of a passive-solar house, given the same complement of
materials including a container that could be filled with
room-temperature water, sand, or pea pebbles to serve
as a thermal mass; reference materials; and a variety
of construction tools. The passive solar house model
would need to be designed to meet budgetary constraints
(calculated based on the area or volume of each material
used) and size constraints (based on both volume and
surface area). It also involved applications of solar energy,
heat transfer, the engineering design process, and passive
solar design principles.
The challenge was to design the house model based on
passive solar design principles in a way that would enable
it to best capture and retain heat provided from a 150-watt
grow lamp at a fixed distance away from the house model
(see Figure 2 for a typical setup of grow lamp and house
model) in a room that was maintained at approximately
17°C. The challenge took place over a simulated day and
night period in which the lamp remained on for two hours
and then was turned off for two hours. During the total
four-hour period, temperature was measured utilizing
a PASCO Xplorer GLX with two temperature probes
attached. (See Figure 3 on page 32 for representative
temperature results from the simulated day/night period.)
Figure 2. Typical setup of grow lamp and house model.
Both content-rich learning experiences and processoriented
hands-on activities were accomplished during the
summer institute. Content instruction included engineering
design, nuclear energy, photosynthesis and solar energy,
metabolic energy production, and data analysis and
Microsoft Excel. Authentic activities that were incorporated
included a presentation from an engineer who worked on
the geothermal system in the building in which the summer
institute was held, an engineer working on developing
a regional bio-ethanol plant, and a field trip to a local
manufacturer of wind turbine blades.
Perhaps the most motivating factor incorporated during
the two weeks, though, was the project-based, STEMintegrated
team challenge. The project was adapted from
The passive solar house challenge was issued and materials
were provided on the first day of the summer institute.
An interactive, hands-on presentation of the engineering
design process as applied to the passive solar project was
also conducted to help participants understand the process
that they would follow to design and construct their house
models. Although there seemed to be a considerable
amount of apprehension during the first few days, as the
teachers began to understand that we were providing
scaffolding, materials, and resources to assist them with
the challenge, they became very enthusiastic learners by
the end of the first week and into the second week. In
particular, as the teachers began the actual construction
process and designing their own lesson plans, many became
very excited about the possibilities of a STEM-integrated
approach and discussed collaborative opportunities
involving cross-disciplinary projects in their respective
schools. In particular, middle school teachers, whose
classes lend themselves to co-teaching, were particularly
enthusiastic about collaborative curriculum opportunities.
On the final day of the summer institute, each team
presented information about their designs and their test
31 • The Technology Teacher • February 2010