Sensory Toys Make Sense!
Toys that stimulate or integrate the senses are one way to help children interact with their environment.Copyright Hands On As We Grow. Used with permission. http://handsonaswegrow.com/wave-bottle-sensory/
Students design and create sensory integration toys for young children with developmental disabilities—an engineering challenge that combines the topics of biomedical engineering, engineering design and human senses. Students learn the steps of the engineering design process (EDP) and how to use it for problem solving. After learning about the human sensory system, student teams apply the EDP to their sensory toy projects. They design and make plans within given project constraints, choose materials, fabricate prototypes, evaluate the prototypes, and give and receive peer feedback. Students experience the entire design-build-test-redesign process and conclude with a class presentation in which they summarize their experiences with the EDP steps and their sensory toy project development.
Engineers use their creativity to solve problems that make the world a better place for everyone. What sorts of problems do they solve? Engineers design new smartphones, large flat screen televisions and electric engines for automobiles as well as roller coasters, highway systems, artificial limbs and toy factories—and many more useful products, structures and systems! People are living longer, healthier lives today because of biomedical engineers who develop new technologies in the medical field, cures for illnesses, assistive technologies such as wheelchairs and contact lenses, new medicines and heart repairs. Like all engineers, biomedical engineers follow the steps of the EDP to find the best solutions to problems and needs that directly relate to the human body.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Solve an open-ended design problem.
- Use the engineering design process to solve a problem.
- Develop multiple solutions to a design problem.