Technology and the Diversity of Limits

Give students time to complete the tasks. Once they have had time to reflect, you should give them additional time to discuss their ideas in their teams or as a class.

1. Complete the following paragraph using the words more or less.

   Designs with more criteria have    less    diversity. Designs with more constraints have    less    diversity. The more decisions a designer is able to make, the    more    creative the designer can be with the design. This will lead to a product that is    less    like other designs with the same purpose.

2. Even in designs that showed a lot of diversity, there were some similarities. What similarities did you see in the airplanes in Step 10b?

   Students’ answers will vary depending on the airplanes that they built. They should at least recognize that all the airplanes were able to fly. They may also say that all airplanes were made from an 8½” × 11” sheet of paper. They may notice other similarities as well.

3. Think back to the products your teacher showed you in the Engage activity.

   Remind students of the objects that you brought in for the Engage activity.

   1. Describe whether the products could be more diverse and still function the way they are supposed to.

      Students will likely say that the products could be more diverse because the engineers could have used different colors, somewhat different shapes, or different materials.

   2. State whether you think the engineers were limited by many criteria and constraints or if they were able to be creative in their designs. Explain your answer.

      Students’ answers will depend on the items that you brought in. Students should recognize that if the items had very diverse designs, then the engineers likely had fewer criteria and constraints on their work.

4. List at least one way that you were able to make sure that all your teammates understood how the airplanes met the criteria and constraints during Step 4.

   Students should reflect on their teamwork. By reflecting on what they did, they can practice their teamwork skills more purposefully. Students may describe having each team member explain the designs to the team or having one team member “teach” the others about the designs.

5. Place a new copy of The Process of Technology Design graphic in your technology notebook. Mark the stages of the process that you completed during this activity.

   Cut Master 2-2, The Process of Technology Design, into fourths and provide each student with one copy of the graphic. If students are using a digital notebook, they can copy the graphic, and paste it into their digital notebooks. This graphic can also be found in the Masters section of the Student Resources menu located at the top of the screen. Students completed several stages in the process of technology design during this activity. They came up with ideas to solve the problem, designed a solution, carried out the solution, evaluated the solution, and shared the results. They completed almost a whole cycle of the design process.