Ahead of taking part in I’m an Engineer, book a Chat and see the Teacher Guidance notes for preparation information.
We have designed a lesson plan, based on the Science Capital Teaching Approach . The lesson plan fits a 60-minute session. If you’d like to deepen your students’ experience there is also a 3-lesson set of plans.
🖨️Lesson plan printable colour or black & white
Check out the set of 3 Lesson Plans ❯
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Lesson Objective:
- Show research skills in reading engineer profiles to construct questions which involve higher order thinking
- Recall new STEM content relevant to their current school topics
- Name at least two STEM related careers
- Engage in conversations with engineers in an appropriate manner
- Use the internet safely by demonstrating appropriate behaviour
- Use critical thinking to make an informed voting decision
Curriculum links:
- Apply principles and concepts to unfamiliar situations.
- Make informed judgements about STEM.
- Develop STEM literacy
Resources:
- Chat booking (important: book in advance from your Dashboard).
- Computers/ laptops or iPads.
- Login cards/ registration URL for individuals or pairs (you will find these from your Dashboard or your Chat booking confirmation)
- Profiles of the engineers attending your Chat
- Reflection activity (linked on Dashboard)
Starter (or Homework set last lesson): 10 minutes
- Give students access to the activity through the premade login cards or the student registration URL.
- Tell students which engineers will be attending your Chat
- Students should explore the profiles of the engineers attending your Chat. Each student should write down 3 questions they would like to ask during the Chat.
Support:
- Students work in pairs
- Come up with some questions as a group
- Scaffold questions or provide sentence starters
Extend:
- Students look at the questions they have formed and see if they can make them open-ended questions
- Students look up some of the techniques or areas of research the engineers mention in their profiles
Chat: 30 minutes
- Students access the Chat
- Students ask their questions to the engineers, as individuals, pairs or small groups.
See the teacher guidance for how the Chat system works.
- Students should stop for a moment to take a look at the response to their question. Students should consider:
- Do they have a follow-up question?
- Do they want more detail?
- Do they need a clearer explanation?
- Are they ready to move onto their next question?
Support:
- Ask the students if they fully understood the response they got. If not, encourage the students to ask for more detail
Extend:
- Students who have asked 3 or more questions should take a look at the responses. Can they ask a follow-up question?
- Students should take a look at their peers’ questions. Do they have a follow-up question?
Ask: 5 minutes
- In the final few minutes of the Chat, alongside the mod’s prompt, encourage students to think of a question that they’d like more information about.
- Students use the Ask feature to ask their questions; this is also a good chance to re-ask a question that didn’t get answered in the Chat.
Support:
- Students could ask a question about a personal interest of theirs or the engineers
Extend:
- Students should think about a question that was answered by a engineer in the Chat. Can they ask a follow-up question to this to deepen their understanding?
Vote: 3 minutes
- Students should take a minute or two to consider which engineer is the most deserving of their vote. Share with a partner why this is the case.
- Students vote from the Vote page for their favourite engineer to win ÂŁ500.
Reflect: 5 minutes
- Complete the class reflection activity to facilitate discussion around your students’ experience. Through this assessment tool, students delve deeper into the learning outcomes they have met.