this article emphisezes the design based curriculum on students' content understanding of simple machines. engineering design method is used to teach the topic "simple machines" to fifth graders in USA. the engineering design is defined as an activity that involves the construction of a physical product which solves a human problem.during the study, students designed some simle machines such as seesaws, food mixers,ramps and pulley and used lego materials. while students designing and building models of real simple machines, they figured out how each simpel machine works and how simple machines are different from complex machines. in the study, researchers applied pre and post test to fifth grade students to test their understanding. it is seen that most of the students have misconseptions about simple machines and complex machines. students think that simple machines decrease the work done and sipmle machines do some of the work for us so we use less energy and complex machines are the ones that work with electricity or battery power. for students to have a conceptual understanding of simple machines, they need to know some related concepts such as work,energy, force. it is suggested in the article that teachers should give extra attention to these topics.
s1: how do you consider the readiness of fifth grade studetns for this study? why did you choose 5. grades in stead of 6,7 or 8?
s2: why there is no control group in the study?
