Pick one thing in your backpack that annoys you. Write the problem in one sentence, then three ways to fix it.Fact: engineers identify the problem first and brainstorm solutions second.
Build a bridge from one sheet of paper between two stacks of books, then write what you folded and why.Angle: flat, pleated like a fan, or rolled into a tube. Guess before you test.
What is a bridge for? Write an answer that is not about getting across.Angle: meeting halfway, fishing, watching the trains go under.
A door in your home sticks, squeaks or slams. Write the engineer's report: the problem, the cause, the fix.Angle: three short headings, the way a real report has them.
An engineer watches people struggle with a ketchup bottle for a whole lunch hour. Write her notebook page.Angle: tally marks, one sketch, one sentence underlined twice.
Design a better ice cube tray. Begin by writing everything that is wrong with the one in your freezer.Angle: a list of complaints is a list of problems to solve.
Design a better way to carry groceries up three flights of stairs. Write the first sketch in words.Angle: say what it is made of and where the hands go.
The lunch line at school moves too slowly. Redesign it and write the before and the after.Angle: change one thing only, and say why that one.
Pick one thing in your backpack that annoys you. Write the problem in one sentence, then three ways to fix it.Fact: engineers identify the problem first and brainstorm solutions second.
Redesign a seat on the school bus. Write what stays, what goes and what is new.Angle: think of the smallest rider and the tallest.
Take something that works fine, a spoon or a shoelace, and write why nobody has needed to design a better one.Angle: what problem did it solve so well that we stopped noticing?
Three kids brainstorm a better playground slide, and every idea goes on the board, even the silly ones. Write the board.Angle: the silliest idea has one good part. Circle it.
Two engineers disagree: make the tent pole stronger or make it lighter? Write the argument and how it ends.Angle: neither is wrong. The camper who carries it gets the last word.
Write a conversation between an old can opener and the newer one designed to replace it.Angle: the old one knows something the new one has not learned yet.
Write a letter to the makers of a pencil sharpener, an umbrella or a water bottle with one change you would ask for.Angle: be polite and exact. Say what happens now and what should happen.
Write the speech that convinces your class a better classroom chair is possible.Angle: begin with the problem everybody in the room already knows.
You have five ideas for a better shopping cart and can build only one. Write how you choose.Fact: after brainstorming, the next step of the engineering design process is to select a design.
You may add one feature to a bicycle and must take one away. Write your choice and defend it.Angle: every design is a trade. Say what you gave up.
A test that failed 15
A kite design fails its test on a day with no wind. Was that a fair test? Write the argument.Angle: what would have to stay the same next time?
A lander made of paper and straws is dropped from a table and tips over. Write the test notes: what happened, in order.Fact: engineers build a model or prototype, then test and evaluate it.
A marble run jams at the same bend every time. Write the detective story of finding out why.Angle: the suspects are the tape, the slope and the marble.
A prototype is built only to be tested, and it knows it. Write its thoughts on test day.Fact: a prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process.
A team changes three things at once before the next test and cannot tell which one helped. Write the muddle and the rule they make.Angle: the rule fits in five words.
A team keeps the broken pieces of its first test in a jar on the workshop shelf. Write what the jar is for.Angle: who looks at it, and on what kind of day?
A test fails in front of visitors. Write what the engineer says to them.Angle: she is not embarrassed. Say why.
The egg broke. Write the conversation between the two partners on the walk back up the stairs.Angle: one wants to start over. One wants to change a single thing.
Keep the test log for a tower of index cards: five tries, how tall each one stood and why it fell.Angle: one line a try. The reasons are the story.
The model boat sinks at the eleventh penny. Write what the team changes before test two.Fact: with no solution yet, engineers cycle back: building, testing and evaluating until one is found.
The same test fails the same way three times. Write the fourth morning, when someone finally asks a different question.Angle: the question begins What if.
The test worked. Write why the engineer runs it again anyway.Angle: once could be luck.
Write the list a team makes after a failed test: what we know now that we did not know this morning.Angle: at least one line begins At least.
Write the minute before a test, when the whole team is sure it will work. End with one line that says it did not.Angle: let the reader see the weak spot before the team does.
Write the story of a failed test the way the team will tell it a year later, laughing.Angle: name the one thing nobody could have known without it.
Built for someone else 15
A classmate uses a wheelchair and the science table is too high for her. Write the team's plan to fix the table.Angle: she is on the team, and the best idea is hers.
A grandfather cannot open jars anymore. Write the first three questions the engineer asks him.Angle: none of the three questions is about jars.
A neighbor reaches her front gate with the mail, her keys and a toddler in her arms. Design the latch and write her first try with it.Angle: she has no free hand. What does she have?
An engineer designs a reading lamp for a grandmother and brings three rough models for her to try. Write what she says about each.Fact: one design cycle starts by listening to the user, then building a mock-up and letting the user test it.
Build something for someone much taller or much smaller than you. Write the day you tried it out yourself.Angle: it does not fit you, and that means it is right.
Design a desk for someone who writes with the other hand from you. Write what you got wrong at first.Angle: you only notice when they sit down at it.
Interview someone about a small problem in their day. Write their words first, then the thing you would build for them.Angle: use their words for the problem, not yours.
The person you built it for says it is fine and never uses it. Write how you find out what is wrong.Angle: look at where it ended up: a drawer, a shelf, the car.
Someone asks for one thing and needs another. Write the story of the engineer who noticed.Angle: they asked for a bigger bag. The trouble was the stairs.
The teacher asks for a better way to hand out papers. Write the design from the teacher's side, then from the back row's.Angle: two users, one problem, two opinions.
Write a user's letter to an engineer: what the thing does well, and the one question nobody asked me.Angle: the question that was never asked is the story.
Write about building something for a stranger you will never meet: a bench, a handrail, a sign. Who do you imagine?Angle: picture three different people using it in one day.
Write the list of needs for a lunchbox for a kid with a long, bumpy bus ride.Angle: a need is not a feature. Must stay shut is a need.
You are building a step stool for a child who cannot reach the sink. Write what you measure before you cut anything.Angle: the sink, the child, and one thing you nearly forgot.
You must design a toy for a baby cousin who cannot tell you what she likes. Write how you find out.Angle: what she reaches for, what she drops, what she drops twice.
A bridge 15
A drawbridge lifts for a sailboat while a line of cars waits. Write the scene from the boat, then from the third car.Fact: movable bridges include drawbridges and swing bridges.
A footbridge is built for walkers. Write one day on it, told by its footsteps.Fact: some bridges, known as footbridges, are devoted to pedestrian traffic.
A town needs a bridge and has three designs to pick from: a beam, an arch and a suspension bridge. Write the meeting.Fact: bridges are classified by structural design: arch, truss, cantilever, suspension, cable-stayed or beam.
An old arch bridge explains to a new beam bridge how it has stood so long. Write the advice.Fact: an arch bridge has a curved arch, under compression, which supports the deck.
The bridges with the longest spans hold their decks up with steel cables. Write a letter from one cable to the deck it holds.Fact: the longest spans use suspension or cable-stayed designs, where steel cables support the deck.
Build a bridge from one sheet of paper between two stacks of books, then write what you folded and why.Angle: flat, pleated like a fan, or rolled into a tube. Guess before you test.
Design a bridge for squirrels between two trees on either side of a road. Write what you would make it from.Angle: think about who is crossing and how little they weigh.
Lay a log across a creek and you have a bridge. Write the day the first one was crossed.Fact: the earliest bridges were simple structures for crossing wetlands and creeks, boardwalks or logs.
Tell the first crossing of a rope bridge from the side of the person who went first.Fact: a rope bridge is a simple type of suspension bridge.
Two villages on opposite banks of a river have never met. Write the day the bridge between them is finished.Angle: who crosses first, and what are they carrying?
What is a bridge for? Write an answer that is not about getting across.Angle: meeting halfway, fishing, watching the trains go under.
Write a bridge inspector's notes after a walk under the oldest bridge in town.Angle: she likes this bridge. It shows in what she writes down.
Write a bridge's diary for the windiest night of its life.Fact: a bridge must tolerate stresses from the environment, including winds, floods and earthquakes.
Write the thoughts of a bridge on the morning it opens.Angle: it has held test weights. It has never held a parade.
Your spaghetti bridge is about to be loaded with weights. Write the test, one weight at a time.Angle: say where you think it will break, then where it does.
How it works
These engineering writing prompts follow the way engineers work, from a problem to a test to a fix. None asks for a brand-new invention. Each asks for a better version of something, a fair test or a person to build for.
Read the full guide
Prompts that follow the engineering design process
Design a better one covers the first steps: name the problem, brainstorm, choose. A test that failed stays in the loop at the end, where a model boat sinks at the eleventh penny and the team has to change something before test two.
A bridge to write about
Fifteen prompts stand on one structure. A log across a creek is the first bridge, a town chooses between a beam, an arch and a suspension bridge, and a spaghetti bridge is loaded one weight at a time.
Write the problem in one sentence before anything else. If it takes two, there are two problems.
A failed test is a result. Say what it showed.
Questions and answers
What are good engineering writing prompts?
Ones with a problem in them. Redesign a seat on the school bus and write what stays, what goes and what is new. Or keep the test log for a tower of index cards: five tries and why each one fell.
What are the steps of the engineering design process?
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory lists them: identify the problem, brainstorm solutions, select a design, build a model or prototype, test and evaluate. With a solution, share it. Without one, go back to building and testing until one is found.
What is a prototype?
An early sample or model built to test a concept or process, in Wikipedia's words. In one prompt a prototype knows it was built only to be tested, and gives its thoughts on test day.