NGSS Engineering: Middle School

In this guide, you will:

• Get to know the middle school (grades 6-8) Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for engineering.
• See examples of how the standards relate to real-world engineering at NASA JPL, and meet the engineers leading these exciting missions and projects to explore Earth and space.
• Find standards-aligned lesson plans and student projects you can deploy in the classroom to engage students in learning with NASA.

The Next Generation Science Standards for engineering fit within the Engineering, Technology and Applications of Science (ETS) Disciplinary Core Idea. Each NGSS standard addresses one of the subsections of the ETS Disciplinary Core Ideas:

• Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems – What is a design for, and what are the criteria and constraints of a successful solution?
• Developing Possible Solutions – What is the process for developing potential design solutions?
• Optimizing the Design Solution – How can the various design solutions be compared and improved?

These ideas make up the essential elements of the engineering design process, a process by which engineers identify a problem, design and build a solution, test the solution, and improve on their design.

Disciplinary Core Idea: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems

Definition: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.

How it's used at NASA JPL: Spacecraft are designed with an understanding of the constraints presented by the range of temperatures that the vehicle will encounter while keeping the internal components at a temperature that is safe for operation.

Belinda Shreckengost, a thermal engineer working on the Mars 2020 mission, clarifies, "Thermal engineering refers to the management of temperature of components that we're flying through the cruise mission in space to Mars, and also for the rover once we're on the surface." She expands on why this is important and touches on some of the relevant scientific principles that guide her work.

Use it in the classroom: Just as engineers at JPL must consider the science of heat transfer in designing spacecraft thermal protection, your students will be challenged to determine criteria for measurement as they attempt to keep hot water hot and cold water cold in designing a "Mars Thermos".

Expand on the standard: Middle school students extend practices developed in K-5. At this stage, they will work to identify features of a successful solution—the criteria—in greater detail.

By quantifying the criteria for success, rather than offering a qualitative goal, students can use measurements to determine whether or not a solution meets the goals laid out. The limits to resources and materials—the constraints—should be identified by students in terms of what is available to them and what is appropriate in a particular environment or situation.

Just as they did in previous grades, middle school students can use texts, Internet searches and subject matter experts as a source of information to help them understand the problem they are facing.

Disciplinary Core Idea: Developing Possible Solutions

Definition: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

How it's used at NASA JPL: Engineers have to evaluate different design solutions and analyze test data to find the best solutions to problems they discover in antenna structures.

“The Deep Space Network (DSN) is a network of antennas at three different locations around the globe that allow us to communicate with spacecraft in deep space at any time,” says Patti Aubuchon, a structural engineer at JPL. Making sure the 70 meter and 34 meter antennas can withstand “rainstorms, earthquakes and 100 mile per hour winds” is no easy task.

Use it in the classroom: Engage student teams, racing against the clock and each other, in building the best spaghetti tower that will support a marshmallow, modeling design solutions to a JPL structural engineering problem: supporting the massive antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Expand on the standard: Students will find that multiple solutions can meet the criteria for success and fall within the constraints of a design problem. In order to determine which solutions meet the criteria and constraints identified in a problem, tests need to be carried out.

Systematic testing will test a number of factors in a design -- the variables -- in order to find strengths and weaknesses of a solution. Variables should be changed and tested one at a time so that students can identify how changes to a design impact its performance. Based on the results of testing, designs can then be modified and retested to better meet the criteria set forth.

Disciplinary Core Idea: Optimizing the Design Solution

Definitions:

• MS-ETS1-3: Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
• MS-ETS1-4: Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

How they're used at NASA JPL: Thermal engineers at JPL tested design solutions intended to keep rover components at safe operating temperature. Their tests provided them with the information needed to optimize the design.

The Curiosity and Mars 2020 rovers are powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or RTG, that uses a small piece of plutonium 238 to generate heat that is converted into energy that charges batteries to power the rovers.

During the day, that heat needs to be removed from the rover and released into the Martian atmosphere. At night, that heat can be used to keep the internal components of the rover warm when outside temperatures drop far below zero degrees Celsius.

Rover thermal systems engineer Keith Novak reveals a novel design solution that pumps liquid through tubes to move heat around. “We’re using thermal energy and a fluid loop system to keep instruments in the right temperature range. We did that with a system that would collect heat on hot plates next to the RTG, and reject heat on cold plates.”

Use them in the classroom: Middle school engineers will design a device to pass liquid through tubing in order to collect heat and move as much as possible. They will follow a process similar to Mars rover thermal engineers as they analyze data and improve their designs.

Expand on the standards:

• MS-ETS1-3: The goal of engineering is not to find many solutions, but to find the best solution to a problem. By putting different designs through repeated tests, students will see how some solutions perform better in one area of testing, while other solutions perform better when subjected to another type of testing. By communicating which elements of multiple designs performed best in different tests, students can work together to redesign a solution or create a new design that incorporates the best aspects of multiple designs to better meet the criteria for success and fit within the limiting constraints.
• MS-ETS1-4: Simply put, a model is a representation of a possible solution. Physical models can be made from card stock and tape, clay, popsicle sticks and glue, or printed on a 3D printer. Computer generated models could be represented on screen as a Computer Aided Design (CAD), plotted data from a spreadsheet, or a computer simulation. Creating and using models allows students to test possible solutions, study the results of those tests, refine or update their design, and retest. This cycle of iterative testing—modeling, testing, analyzing, refining, and retesting—is an essential element of the engineering design process.