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Day 5: Results + Engineering Favorites + Career Plan Update

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Present bridge results with design rationale; favorite engineering careers in H&L; update Career Plan with engineering exploration data
TEKS d(1)(C)
Deliverable Bridge results presentation + updated H&L Career Plan + submitted Emerging Engineering Careers research template
Materials Chromebooks, H&L accounts + workbook (Ch 16 Career Plan template), whiteboard with Day 4 results, projector

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: When engineers investigate why a structure failed, what kinds of questions do they ask? (Example: a section of highway settles unevenly after a few years, who figures out why?)

Discuss briefly. The answer is forensic structural engineers: civil engineers who specialize in failure analysis. Every failure teaches the next design, which is why engineering is about both building things AND understanding why they fail. This framing matters for today's results: some bridges held more, some less, and both types of outcomes have lessons.

Activity 1: Results Share-Out + Team Presentations (15 min)

Post the Day 4 results whiteboard prominently, show the weights each bridge held, but do not rank publicly from high to low. The goal is pattern-finding, not winners and losers. Recognize the team with the best strength-to-weight ratio (lightest bridge that held meaningful weight) and the team with the most creative structural approach in addition to the highest-weight team, so every kind of engineering thinking gets named.

Each team gives a 60-second rapid presentation covering:

  1. Our design: What bridge type did we use? (Truss, arch, beam)
  2. Our result: Max weight held.
  3. What broke first: The element that failed.
  4. Our redesign: What we would change.

Facilitation Tip

Use a 60-second timer on the projector. Keep presentations fast and consistent. Students watching should note which designs held the most, it informs class discussion about triangles vs. beams.

After presentations, lead a 3-minute class discussion: What pattern do you see in the top-performing bridges? (Expect: trusses, triangular reinforcement, and bundled straws rather than single straws.)

DOK 3: Based on your team's results AND everyone else's results, what conclusions can you draw about what makes a structure strong?

Activity 2: H&L Engineering Career Favorites + Career Plan (15 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 8 (Engineering) and Ch 16 (My Next Steps: Career Plan)

Direct students to open H&L and complete three tasks:

  1. Favorite at least 2-3 engineering careers using the Hat Finder. Civil Engineer, Structural Engineer, and Environmental Engineer are the natural fits from this week. Students may also favorite Mechanical/Aerospace Engineer or Drone Engineer if those interest them.
  2. Review Building Blocks: Do any of their Building Blocks (likes, skills, experiences) connect to engineering? (Math, problem-solving, building with LEGOs, video games involving building systems all count.)
  3. Open the Career Plan (Ch 16) in H&L and add engineering to their list of explored clusters. The Career Plan accumulates data across the year, by this point students have favorites from Manufacturing, IT, Law, Health Science, Ag, Hospitality, Business, Career Planning, Transportation, Engineering, and Architecture.

Activity 3: Submit Emerging Engineering Research (7 min)

Students finalize and submit their Emerging Engineering Careers research template from Day 2. Remind them this is part of the summative assessment. It should include:

  • One emerging engineering career (Green Building Engineer, Smart Infrastructure Specialist, Sustainability Consultant, or similar)
  • Why it is emerging: what technology or societal change made it grow
  • Education requirements: the engineering degree plus the specialty certification
  • DFW salary estimate from BLS
  • Why DFW needs this career

Collect submissions or have students upload to the class LMS.

Activity 4: Reflection and Preview (5 min)

Short whole-class reflection. Ask:

  • Who is considering engineering as a career path after this week? (Show of hands.)
  • Who now knows what PSAT 8/9 is and when they will take it? (Most should raise hands.)
  • What is the most surprising thing you learned this week?

Preview next week: Construction trades. Students will explore the people who actually BUILD what civil engineers design, carpenters, masons, heavy equipment operators, and construction managers.

DOK 3: Is engineering a good fit for you based on your RIASEC results, this week's bridge challenge performance, and the education requirements you researched? Write two sentences explaining your position.

Exit Ticket (3 min)

EXIT TICKET (Concept Map / Connection Diagram) · Printable PDF:

The engineering career I favorited this week: _____

Connect this career to THREE things:

1. Day 2 emerging-career research (what makes this career "emerging" OR relevant to modern DFW needs)

What makes it emerging: ___________

2. One standardized test from Day 2 (PSAT 8/9 / SAT / ACT / TSI / ASVAB)

My test: _____. In one sentence, how does my test score affect my path to this career?

3. The MacArthur School of ACE Civil Engineering pathway (AutoDesk Fusion 360 cert)

Does this pathway lead DIRECTLY to my career or is it a STEPPING STONE? Circle: DIRECT / STEPPING STONE. One sentence why:

(d(1)(C))

Differentiation

  • Support: Allow students uncomfortable presenting to submit a written 60-second script instead of speaking. It still counts toward d(4)(C) practice.
  • Extension: Research what the "Infrastructure Imagination" Los Lomas problems would cost to solve in real DFW terms. Use Dallas or Irving transportation budget data.
  • ELL: Provide bilingual sentence starters for presentations: "Our bridge design was a _ (Nuestro diseño fue un/una ). It held __ pennies/grams before failing (Aguantó _____ antes de fallar)."