3 ms·

This week one of my kids has an egg drop experiment at school. I could tell him we should use the same design we used successfully for his older brother a few

This week one of my kids has an egg drop experiment at school. I could tell him we should use the same design we used successfully for his older brother a few years ago and we'd be done in fifteen minutes flat. Or I could tell him I am an engineer and I know what the optimal solutions we'll be. No need to waste any time. Or, One could do as I did which is to take him through a journey of exploration and imagination that had him building all sorts of crazy contraptions. Most of them failed. We discussed why and how and iterated. What's missing from this thread is that, yes, this kid needs to get nothing but praise whether this was a real solution or not. How else are you going to inspire young minds to develop love for science and engineering?

sliverstorm 11y ago
Many years ago my father used that teaching moment differently. I had tried all kinds of elaborate solutions (I was partial to parachutes). My father asked me, who does this for a living, and what can you learn from them. Half an hour later I had an answer and built my device. My classmates and even teacher all looked at me with pity, for it was clear my device would fail spectacularly. For flair I threw it another ten feet up (from the top of the bleachers). It made a sickening thump when it landed, and many grimaces were shared- but both the device & egg were unscathed. I think there's value in both approaches, depending on what the kid lacks.