A basic understanding of the steps of the engineering design loop. While these steps are not covered in this activity, a visual aid is provided for review.
If you have trouble coming up with a design challenge, it helps to brainstorm with the students. Choose a topic (for example, prosthetics), and make a list on the board of potential design/build projects that relate to the topic. See the Teacher Background section for other topic ideas.
For a description of the engineering design process, see https://www.teachengineering.org/k12engineering/designprocess
For an informative video on what is engineering, see What Is Engineering? video.