Idea Generation Talks support a class to collectively generate many design ideas. Students share their ideas for how to solve a design problem, have opportunities to hear lots of different ideas, and build off each other’s contributions. With teacher facilitation, Idea Generation talks can help one student’s idea spark new ideas with other students, and moving forward, the whole-class conversation can fuel individual students’ future thinking.
Idea Generation Talks
What are multiple possibilities for solving the problem?
Sample Teacher Prompts
What ideas do you have for solving the design problem?
How might different solution ideas work together?
How have people or animals solved similar problems?
Design Talks
& the NGSS
Standards
Ideally, engineering design tasks provide an exciting context for students to engage in the NGSS practices. However, in reality, it can be challenging for a small group of students on their own to apply the full power of these practices to an engineering design process. Design Talks can help!
Idea Generation Talks can support students to engage in:
6. Constructing explanations and designing solutions