A Defined STEM Learning Experience From:

Kaity Peden

7th & 8th Grade Science Teacher

Davis County Middle School (IA)

Performance Task:

Manufacturing Engineer: Sunglasses

Here’s What We Did:

With my 8th grade class, I used the sunglasses designer project. The students were broken into groups. Each group had to pick an extreme sport that they felt needed improvements to their sunglasses. The students chose everything from snowboarding and baseball, to surfing. They had to make adaptions to their sunglasses. Many had solar powered features, and different ways to block out the UV rays. They also took comfort and style into consideration.  

Each team had to make a virtual presentation of their process and research of creating the glasses. This was done on Google docs or Prezi. They had to make detailed sketches of their glasses, a commercial selling their sunglasses to incorporate the technology, and they had to make an actual model of their glasses to show to the “advertisement” team.

The students enjoyed the project. They related to the real-world connections that the project made, and they liked that they got to choose the extreme sport they were researching. The students told me they saw other skills being developed during this project, along with the science standards. Their design, math, and teamwork skills were all to put into practice.

Another exciting aspect of the project was the independence and freedom students had with their own learning. The students motivated each other as a team. They knew that if they didn’t get their part done, their teammates couldn’t move forward either. It gave them a glimpse of what a job in their future might be like.