What is Engineering?
- Start out by asking your class, by raise of hands, if anyone knows what an engineer is or does.
Write down all of their answers on the board.
- Tell the class that engineers are involved with almost every aspect of their lives.
- They come up with the coolest phones, games, and gadgets. Engineers design rockets, robots and underwater vehicles, and much more.
- Basically, engineers are creative problem-solvers. They use math and science to invent, design, build, and improve structures, devices, materials, and processes.
Reading the Book
- A younger class could have the book read to them; an older class could have the students taking turns reading rhymes aloud.
- If you read to the class, you could pause at the end of each stanza and have your students try to finish the rhyme, or come up with their own alternative rhymes.
- After you read the rhymes on each page, read aloud the information in the border text and discuss.
Questions to Ask Your Class
- What other inventions or designs might each type of engineer dream up?
- How have the inventions on each page changed or improved over time?
- What were things like before you were born? What might they be like in the future?
- If you were this type of engineer, what type of invention would you like to come up with?
- How would you improve each invention? What would you change or add? Think big! There are no wrong answers.
- Look around your house or classroom and try to identify items that you think were created by engineers. How have these objects changed or improved over time?
- Which page of the book is most interesting to you? Why?
- What would you enjoy about being each type of engineer, and what wouldn’t you like?
- Have your students to draw their own engineering inventions.
- Ask your students to make their own rhymes for each page. They could even put them to music or a beat, and record a rap.
- Have older students research the field of engineering that appeals to them the most and write a short essay with more information on the field.
According to the National Science Teachers Association, the informational text in “Dream, Invent, Create” supports the Next Generation Science Standards in grades K-2.
The grade level is K-5.
For more ideas on how to use our book, click here.
For downloadable pdf of this page and classroom ideas, click here.
How are YOU using the book? We'd love to hear your creative ideas! Email us here.