Design & Making: Step 1

				.	Design & Making across the Curriculum An interactive study of the Design Process
When you have finished with this page, click this gear to add it to the model and move on to Step 2.					In designing this website, the first task was to identify the need: Teachers have expressed in interest in obtaining more information on integrating Lego CAD and Lego elements into their curriculum. By adding the crank to the model, we have gotten the wheels turning, so to speak. At least one of them. This represents the fact that we have completed Step One: Identify Need.

		The Design Process
		Students and teachers make things all the time. By using a design process, both students and teachers can enhance and refine their work systematically. As our curriculums become more and more sophisticated, we must develop lessons and activities which require students to demonstrate a higher level of understanding. Designing activities which ask students to make models of abstact ideas using software and building elements will help students and teachers meet the learning requirements found in a packed curriculum.
		Developing Projects for Designing and Making Activities
		How do people use design in their everyday life? What contexts are meaningful to students and curriculum content? There are many possible contexts to choose from for developing activities, which use design as the central process. Listed are a few that can be found in the curriculum.
		Contexts for Projects
		Recreation: Redesigning the playground or local park to include equipment for handicapped people and/or safety requirements. Content areas: Math, Health, Science, and Technology. Manufacturing: Design a product that can be patented and manufactured, decided by the students. Content areas: Economics, Social Studies, Language Arts, Science, Math, and Technology. Transportation: Redesign a local transportation problem in the community. Content areas: Math, Language Arts, Technology, and Social Studies (Government Policies, Zoning, etc.). Communication: Design a system to improve distribution of print materials to students, teachers, and parents, or utilize web-based resources to share student, teacher, and parent concerns to the community. Content areas: Language Arts, Technology, and Social Studies.
		Other possible contexts
		Technology Social Issues Government
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