Able Sports: Invent New Games and Sports
Students dive deeper into their understanding of the engineering design process (EDP) while they learn about designing for inclusivity. This activity focuses on getting students to think about disabilities and how they can make some aspects of life more difficult. The students are presented with an engineering challenge to pick a disability and design a new kind of sport for it. They identify suitable game rules, materials, equipment and team roles to equitably and fairly meet the needs of their users.
Students design sports for individuals with disabilitiesCopyright http://womenshealth.gov/fitness-nutrition/how-to-be-active-for-health/physical-active-women-with-disabilities.html
The engineering design process is a widely accepted way of arriving at desirable solutions to identified problems. This activity guides students through some of the engineering design process steps as they apply basic engineering concepts to real-world design problems. Biomedical and mechanical engineers design and test various types of prosthetics to better the lives of people with physical disabilities.
This activity focuses on getting students to design a sport for people with a particular disability. Through the development of a new sport, students are exposed to design thinking and explore different disabilities and how they can make some aspects of life more difficult. The students are asked to pick a disability and design a new kind of sport for it while taking into account specified criteria and constraints.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Identify and describe the steps of the engineering design process.
- Describe key problems with four types of disabilities and the current solutions available.
- Explain the basic knowledge of limited capabilities of people with certain disabilities and their compensating strengths.
- Describe how to use the engineering design process to develop solutions to problems.
- Explain the reasons for their selected designs and material choices.