Lesson originally published in 2019, and has been updated!

For a Google version of this lesson plan, click here. (Note: you will need to make a copy of the document to edit it).

Overview

First responders like firefighters and police officers face dangerous and difficult situations on a regular basis. The intense challenges that emergency situations bring may be reduced by new technological inventions that offer greater protection and new ways to save lives.

This lesson is part of NewsHour Classroom's "Invention Education" series which takes a look at how the invention process begins—from identifying a problem to solve to designing and redesigning a product to applying for a patent. However big or small, inventions change lives each day.

Estimated time

Flexible: Two to seven 50-minute class period

Grades: 9-12

Subjects: Engineering, technology, design, physics, science

Overview

Students will identify a problem that police personnel, firefighters or EMTs experience in various phases of their work. Students will conceptualize, design and fabricate an inventive device. Devices may be a retrofit of an existing device (innovation) or a device not yet produced (invention) that meets the beneficiaries’ needs.

Students will utilize the invention process to ensure that useful and unique devices are fabricated and that they may be transferable into other fields and are marketable.

Students will showcase their inventions to first responders in their local community who will review and provide feedback. Take a look at this lesson plan in action by watching this video: First Responder Invention Education High School Course.

Essential question

How do life-saving inventions for first responders help to build stronger, safer communities? Or more generally put, how do new inventions by community members coming together help to build stronger, safer communities?

Key terms

• First responder: A trained individual who responds to emergencies
• Inventor: A person who invents a process, system or device for a particular use
• Beneficiary: Someone who benefits from the use of an invention
• Invention: A new product or device that is useful and unique
• Innovation: Making changes to an existing product or device such that it is more useful
• Constraint: A restriction or limitation
• Prototype: Functional draft of a product
• PLA Filament: Polylactic acid material used by some 3D printers
• Robot: A machine that replicates repetitive human functions and movements
• Device: An object made for a particular purpose
• System: Things that work together to accomplish a task

Materials:

Cardboard, cardstock, clean recycled materials, tape (various types), paper

Optional : PLA (polylactic acid) filament for 3D printing. PLA is recommended for classrooms with ample air ventilation.

Warm up activity: (Period One: 20 minutes)

Inventions that are useful and unique may be patented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Did you know that there are no age restrictions on patent applications? While students may have heard terms like “patent pending” or seen U.S. patent numbers on the packaging of products, they probably have little to no knowledge about patents. This warm-up activity will introduce students to patents as they rotate quickly through patent activity stations that have been set-up prior to the beginning of the period.

Click on the PDF here for directions to the patent station activity.
Resources needed: Paper, pen, access to internet

1. Students are divided into four groups.
2. These four groups will rotate through four patent activity stations.
3. Students will participate in each station activity for four-minutes.
4. At the end of the rotations, students will briefly share their results as a class. This share session is facilitated by the teacher. Students may work in pairs or alone.

Watch PBS NewsHour videos:

Show Video #1 or #2 depending on which first responders (police or fire) are serving as beneficiaries (see more on this aspect below). After watching the videos, pose the corresponding questions to the students to generate discussion and gauge interest (Period 1: 6 minutes + 5 minutes for Q/A):
Police Video #1: How robots are joining the police force

NewsHour's science correspondent Miles O'Brien takes a look at a new technology that is increasingly being used by law enforcement: bomb-disarming robots. Operated from a safe distance, these robots can blast through car windows and even kill, raising ethical issues about how they should be used.

Discussion questions:

1. What are the tasks that the robots accomplish for police?
2. How do they accomplish these tasks?
3. Who might be in danger if these robots were not used?
4. What are some of the risks or problems that could arise from using robotic systems?
5. What are some of the ethical issues that have arisen from the use of robotics by police?
   

Fire Video #2: Tracking Firefighters Through the Smoke

Discussion questions:

1. What problems do firefighters face in a smoke-filled building?
2. What are the risks that come with firefighting? Who is at risk when there is a fire?
3. How does the TRX system work?
4. How could it help? How could it fail?
5. How could this technology transfer into other markets, including commercial and consumer markets?

[OPTIONAL: If you'd like a little more background on the invention process and a short activity for students, click here.]

Main activity

Identify a problem (Period 2, 20-minutes)

Start off the main activity by asking students: What makes a problem worthy of solving with an invention?

Then let your students know that they will meet with first responders from their community and talk with them about the challenges they face on the job. Examples might include high speed chases, burning structures, back pain from holster belts and helmets falling off of hooks in truck cabs.

Next, have students utilize the University of Iowa Problem Selection Process to help them identify one problem that they want to solve for their beneficiary.

Note : Don’t rush through "Identifying a problem." This is very challenging and often more time consuming than other aspects of inventing.

Next, students should fill out “Think It” and “Explore It” in their Inventor’s Notebook.

Brainstorming and selecting a solution (Period 3, 20-minutes):

Students will work through a number of solutions that they generate and complete an account of their work by completing Science Buddies: Decision Matrix Handout .

Ask your students: Why is it beneficial to have multiple solutions before fabricating a prototype?

Design a prototype of selected solution (Periods 3 + 4, 30 + 50 minutes)

Have your students produce a rendering of their design with the objective of creating a functional prototype.

Prototypes can be made without the technology.

If CAD and 3D printing are not available, hand sketches to scale and prototype construction from readily available materials such as cardboard, foam core board, cardstock, paper, plastic bottles, tapes, glues, and recyclables are perfectly acceptable.

OPTIONAL: There are free CAD options are available, such as:

• Tinkercad: https://www.tinkercad.com for students new to CAD titled, "All you need is a what if..."
• Autodesk Fusion 360 https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360 for intermediate students with some CAD skills

Ask your students: What opportunities do computer models provide an engineer that a physical model does not?

Have students enter “Sketch It” into Inventor’s Notebook by including their CAD drawing or a hand sketch.

Fabrication of invention prototype (Period 5, 50 minutes):

Students should use household or school/office products and recyclables to create their own prototype!

Ask your students: What materials selection considerations do you need to consider while fabricating a device for a first responder?

Students should now complete the “Create It” and “Try It” sections of their Inventor’s Notebook.

OPTIONAL: If you are using a 3D printer, students should slice their CAD files using slicing software and then print their sliced CAD models on a 3D printer in the classroom. Students test their products.

OPTIONAL: Filing a simulated utility patent - one of three types of U.S. patents (Period 6, 50 minutes): Students should fill out this patent application template that reflects their invention design process.

Ask your students: What is the importance of protecting your intellectual property with a U.S. patent? Why would an inventor/engineer reflect on a completed project?

Students should complete the “Tweak It” and “Sell It” sections of their Inventor’s Notebook.

Showcase of prototypes and patents for the share phase (Period 7, 50 minutes):

Students showcase their prototypes and simulated patents to first responders in a trade show format.  The first responders, beneficiaries of the inventions, review and rank the student prototypes using a rubric.

First Responder Showcase ranking rubric: Link to Showcase Rubric. Be sure to share your experience with PBS NewsHour Classroom (@NewsHourExtra) via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram using #PBSInvention as your hashtag.

Extension activity

Build in time for an engineer from the community to visit and provide students with feedback on the problem they have identified and the solutions they are working towards.  An ideal time for this would be the session after identifying problems with the first responders and prior to fabrication.

Standards

MADESE Engineering Standards Tied to NGSS: HS-ETS 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-5, 1-6, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4

Common Core Standards: Common Core HS Social Studies and Technology

CC ELA: Reading 1, 7.  Writing 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10. Speak/Listen 1, 4, 5. Language 1, 2, 4, 6

About the author

Doug Scott teaches Engineering and Robotics at Hopkinton High School in Massachusetts. He started off as a business undergraduate student at Framingham State University but was always a lifelong inventor at heart. Doug’s 17-year teaching career sprung from his hockey coaching experiences, which have been instrumental in helping him motivate students through the inventing processes. Doug and the Natick High School InvenTeam participated in the Lemelson-MIT Program's EurekaFest in 2013. In the spring of 2014, Doug accompanied two student representatives from Natick to the fourth White House Science Fair. Just a few years later, their invention was awarded U.S. Patent 20,140,360,420. Doug was awarded the 2014 Massachusetts STEM Teacher of the Year and continues to be an advocate for invention education for all. Follow Doug on Twitter Follow Doug on Twitter @mrscottbot.

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