Invention Lesson Plans for Grades K-12
Lesson 9: Evaluating Your Idea
Don’t Fall in Love With Your Idea...
When engineers set out to solve a problem, their first solution is rarely their best. Instead, they tinker, try different ideas, fail, learn from mistakes, and try again. You will develop a survey in order to gather feedback that will guide you in constructing a final diagram and prototype. Your survey results will be a required element of your final Tri-Board presentation.
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Use the Synthesize & Pivot handout to summarize what you have learned in your patent search/Google search, interviews, and how it relates to your current solution. You will assess your idea using rubric in the handout and defend your evaluation.
How did your current solution fare on the rubric?
Do you need to pivot ?
Conference with your teacher and CAREFULLY CONSIDER the feedback given to your team.
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This is a critical point in the process. Students tend to get stuck on an idea and have a difficult time assimilating and acting upon the feedback they have received to refine their product.
Example of a team who needed to pivot:
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