Celeste Baine's Blog

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A few years ago, when Design Squad first came out, I was so excited that finally, I could watch a show about kids doing engineering on TV!  It was like a dream come true…kids, engineering and fun, right here in my own house. As the premiere date was approaching, I wanted to know what time to assemble the entire family and plop down in front of the tube. As I scanned the TV Guide listings for PBS, I couldn’t find Design Squad at all. After a little investigation, I found out that it simply wasn’t going to air in Eugene. What???? Can they really do that? Eugene is the second largest city in Oregon, surely there was some mistake? Unfortunately, there was no mistake. PBS here says that the demographics of this area indicate that the people are not interested. As you can imagine, by that time, I was pulling my hair out because I was so very interested.

Time passed and suddenly, I really wanted to see the show again. However, this time, I was successful in seeing it because I found it on iTunes. I had to pay $1.99 per episode but that was much easier than waiting for the PBS station here to change their mind about airing it. And, I could watch it on the airplane.

If you aren’t familiar with Design Squad, I’d suggest that you surf on over to http://pbskids.org/designsquad/. Design Squad is a reality competition show aimed at kids and people of all ages who like reality or how-to television. Its goal is to get viewers excited about engineering and the design process. Over 13 episodes, eight high school contestants tackle engineering challenges for real world clients-from creating cardboard furniture projects for IKEA to designing a gravity bike (no pedals or cranks!) for Extreme Game champion Tom Whalen. The series has free engineering resources you can use in classrooms, afterschool programs, and event settings to get middle school kids excited about engineering.

If you are interesting in working with students to promote engineering, you’ll also be interested in the:

1. Design Squad Activity Guide: The Activity Guide features five hands-on challenges that can be used in ongoing programs and events. It also includes leader notes, discussion questions, and answers. It offers anyone running afterschool programs, workshops, or events engaging, effective ways to get kids thinking like engineers.
2. Design Squad Educator’s Guide: Geared to afterschool programs, this resource provides four multi-session engineering challenges that you can use with 5^th to 8^th graders over a 10-week period.
3. Design Squad Event Guide: Complete with five hands-on activities developed for use at events, this guide contains tips, reproducible handouts, and evaluation forms that will help you plan and organize your event from beginning to end.

PBS' Design Squad is offering kids at home a chance to get in on the action: the Trash to Treasure Competition challenges kids to take everyday discarded or recycled materials and re-engineer them into functional products. The grand prize winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize provided by the Intel Foundation and a trip to the development lab at Continuum, an award-winning international design and innovation consultancy, to build a prototype of his or her Trash to Treasure design.

The competition runs April 1 – August 31, 2008 and is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and US territories and possessions, who are between the ages of 5 and 19 (and not have graduated high school) at the time an entry is submitted.

For more information, go to: http://pbskids.org/designsquad/contest