Guide
1.Think
3.Test
2. Do
Your First Robot Idea Book Pages:
Learning The Design Process
The Your First Robot unit also comes with Idea Book Pages that help guide you through your rst
robot build and help you to learn about the design process.
Engineering was defined in the It’s Your Future unit as using practical & scientific knowledge
to create solutions for identified problems. In that unit we also learned that engineers often
use an engineering notebook to help them think about and solve problems. However, if
questions and instructions aren’t already
on the page, what does an engineer
write/draw in that notebook?
Engineers use a design process that is
a series of steps that can be followed
to help solve a problem and design a
solution for something. This is similar
to the “Scientic Method” that is taught
to young scientists. There is no single
universally accepted design process. Most
engineers have their own twist for how the
process works. The process is a cycle that
generally starts with a problem and ends
with a solution, but steps can vary.
When simplied, the design process can
be seen as a three-step loop:
Step 1: Think about a problem or generate an idea. Don’t forget to write it down and/or draw it.
Sometimes the problem or idea is given to you, but sometimes you come up with the problem or
idea on your own.
Step 2: This is where you take action and “do” something to solve the problem or try to prove your
idea. In our lessons, this is where you will build your potential solution.
Step 3: Test what you did in Step 2.
Is your problem fully solved? In testing, if you conclude the problem is not fully solved, then you
have something more to think about. This means you write down or draw your next problem (that
you see in testing) and repeat the cycle until your problem is fully solved. Always keep in mind that
problems ARE NOT failures. They are an expected part of the design process!
In this unit you will use one Idea Book page for each “Think-Do-Test loop” you need to solve your
given problem of following directions to build your rst functional robot. The prompts and questions
in the Idea Book Pages will lead you through the robot build, preparing you for full engineering
notebook use when you make all of the design decisions in the future. Now, build your rst robot!
C.4