Exploratory Design and Engineering II Course for 7th – 9th Grade Students

Course Description:

Exploratory Design and Engineering II is a project-based course for seventh to ninth grade students, which focuses on skills in math, science, technology, and engineering as it applies to electric vehicles. The course, from Utica Community Schools, and developed with seed funding from the Center for Advanced Automotive Technology (CAAT), will provide students with basic fundamentals and an appreciation for electronics, sources of energy, and mechanical design. The students will further their drafting and design skills acquired in Exploratory Design and Engineering I (EDE I). The course will encourage students to seriously consider the CTE and STEM options that exist in high school. Students will design and build small electric powered vehicles with the intent of racing them in competition with other student created vehicles. In the process of building the vehicles, students will learn basic information about engineering and design processes, electrical circuits, batteries, gearing ratios, and converting electrical energy into mechanical energy. Additionally, the course will address applicable Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science standards. The Engineering Design Process will be followed as students identify, analyze, predict, and test solutions to problem-based projects.

Course Contents: 

The Curriculum at a Glance document offers a week-by-week breakdown of lessons and units in the course, and the Course Description document offers a paragraph description of the course topics and outcomes. 

Five course modules are offered in Intro to Electronics, Battery, Micro Electric Vehicles, Motors, and Solar. For Intro to Electronics, 11 lessons are included, along with associated files and documents for completing each lesson. Battery contains an assessment, overview and worksheet documents, and a grading rubric. Micro Electric Vehicles contains documents related to the unit capstone project and showcase, as well as an overview document. Motors includes a PowerPoint presentation, as well as assessment, project related documents, and other worksheets. Solar contains a PowerPoint presentation, as well as an assessment and other handouts and worksheets. 

For orientation purposes, viewers should begin with the 'Curriculum at a Glance' document, which offers an overview of topics covered.

Below is a list of the files contained within the .zip attachment. The size of each file is included in parenthesis.  

Exploratory Design and Engineering II Course for 7th - 9th Grade Students (125 files, 11MB)

• Curriculum at a Glance (Curriculum_at_a_Glance.docx 20KB)
• Course Description (Course_Description.docx 14KB)
• Intro to Electronics
  • Lesson 1 (6 Files 253KB)
  • Lesson 2 (6 files 1.8MB) 
  • Lesson 3 (2 files 67KB) 
  • Lesson 4 (3 files 88KB) 
  • Lesson 5 (2 files 65KB) 
  • Lesson 6 (3 files 88KB)
  • Lesson 7 (4 files 135KB)
  • Lesson 8 (2 files 60KB)
  • Lesson 9 (3 files 89KB)
  • Lesson 10 (3 files 89KB)
  • Lesson 11 (1 file 30KB)
• Battery
  • Battery Assessment (Battery Assessment.docx 173KB)
  • Day 1-2 Timeline Worksheet (Day 1-2_Timeline Worksheet.docx 16KB)
  • Day 1-2 Timeline Battery Project Overview (Day 1-2_Timeline_BatteryProject_OVERVIEW.docx 32KB)
  • Day 3-5 Prezi Rubric (Day 3-5_Prezi Rubric.docx 24KB)
  • Day 3-5 Prezi Battery Project Overview (Day 3-5_Prezi_BatteryProject_OVERVIEW.docx 30KB)
  • Day 6-7 Lemon Battery Project Overview (Day 6-7_Lemon_BatteryProject_OVERVIEW.docx 30KB)
  • Day 6-7 Lemon Battery Worksheet (Day 6-7_Lemon_BatteryWorksheet.docx 16KB)
  • Day 8-9 Potato Battery Worksheet (Day 8-9_Potato_BatteryWorksheet.docx 16KB)
  • Day 8-9 Potato Battery Project Overview (Day 8-9_Potato_BatteryProject_OVERVIEW.docx 31KB)
• Micro Electric Vehicles
  • Micro Electric Overview (MicroElectric Overview.docx 31KB)
  • Micro Electric Project BOM (MicroElectric Project BOM.docx 30KB)
  • Micro Electric Project Challenges (MicroElectric Project Challenges.docx 30KB)
  • Micro Electric Project Report (MicroElectric Project Report Req.docx 29KB)
  • Micro Electric Project Rubric (MicroElectric Project Rubric.docx 30KB)
  • Micro Electric Project.docx (MicroElectric Project.docx 30KB)
  • Micro Electric Showcase Evaluation (MicroElectric Showcase Evaluation.docx 29KB)
  • Micro Electric Showcase (MicroElectric Showcase.docx 29KB)
• Motors
  • Day 1-3 Crossword (Day 1-3_Crossword.docx 20KB)
  • Day 1-3 Motor Project Overview (Day 1-3_Motor Project_OVERVIEW.docx 30KB)
  • Day 1-3 Motors and Generators Worksheet (Day 1-3_Motors and Generators Worksheet.docx 16KB)
  • Day 1-3 Motors and Generators Presentation (Day 1-3_Motors and Generators.ppt 5.4MB)​
  • Day 4 Motor Project Demo Overview (Day4_MotorProject_DemoOVERVIEW.docx 31KB)
  • Day 5-8 Motor Job Sheet (Day5-8Motor_JobSheet.docx 17KB)​
  • Day 5-8 Motor Project Overview (Day5-8Motor_Project_OVERVIEW.docx 32KB)
  • Day 9-10 Motor Project Overview (Day9-10_MotorProject_OVERVIEW.docx 32KB)
  • Day 9-10 Motors Wind Turbine (Day9-10_Motors_WindTurbine_Student.docx 15KB)
  • Extra Motor Project Day Overview (EXTRA_Motor_ProjectDayOVERVIEW.docx 31KB)
  • Extra Motors Day Worksheet (EXTRA_MotorsDayWorksheet.docx 14KB)
  • Motor Assessment (Motor Assessment.docx 78KB)
  • Web Resources (Web_Resources.docx 13KB)
• Solar
  • Day 8-10 Product Invention Student Worksheet (Copy of Day8-10Product_Invention_Student_Worksheet.xlsx 11KB)
  • Day 1 Solar Overview (Day 1_Solar_OVERVIEW.docx 30KB)
  • Day 1 Solar Power Student Handout (Day1_Solar_Power_Student_Handout.docx 15KB)​
  • Day 1 Solar PowerPoint (Day1_SolarPowerpoint.pptx 1.2MB)
  • Day 2 Ice Cube Meltdown Student Handout (Day2_Ice_Cube_Meltdown_Student_Handout.docx 32KB)
  • Day 2 Ice Cube Meltdown Teacher Guide (Day2_Ice_Cube_Meltdown_Teacher_Guide.docx 20KB)
  • Day 2 Ice Cube Meltdown Overview (Day2_Ice_Cube_MeltdownOVERVIEW.docx 30KB)
  • Day 3-4 Funnel the Sun Student Handout (Day3-4_Funnel_The_Sun_Student_Handout.docx 32KB)
  • Day 3-4 Funnel the Sun Teacher Guide (Day3-4_Funnel_The_Sun_Teacher_Guide.docx 21KB)
  • Day 3-4 Funnel the Sun Overview (Day3-4_Funnel_The_SunOVERVIEW.docx 31KB)
  • Day 5-7 Shoebox Heater Overview (Day5-7_ShoeboxHeaterOVERVIEW.docx 30KB)
  • Day 5-7 Shoebox Heater Student Handout (Day5-7Shoebox_Heater_Student_Handout.docx 20KB)
  • Day 5-7 Shoebox Heater Student Manual (Day5-7Shoebox_Heater_Student_Manual.docx 20KB)
  • Day 5-7 Teacher Resources (Day5-7TeacherResourceONLY.docx
  • Day 8-10 Invention Presentation Overview (Day8-10_Invention_PresentationOVERVIEW.docx 222KB)
  • Day 8-10 Invention Presentation Handout (Day8-10Invention_Presentation_Handout.docx 25KB)
  • Solar Assessment (Solar Assessment.docx 103KB)