Susan Dunn’s book, Design Technology: Children’s Engineering, provides me with great ideas for bringing engineering design into the classroom. The book appears to be out of print, but I had no problem finding a used copy on Amazon’s marketplace.

Last spring, I built cam operated toys because of the book. We investigated how cams operate and how you can build simple motion into a toy by rotating a knob. Our cam toys were built out of reused household products, including film cannisters and jar lids.

One helpful bit for me as a newer teacher was that the author spends time on planning strategies for scheduling design projects. Only after reading this book was I able to allot the right amount of time to a building project with my students.

This book rocks!