Design Briefs can be great for relating to mathematics, science, design, hand/eye coordination, team work, building confidence in students, teaching structure and design/scientific language (for example in the frog activity the rubber band gave the frog more jumping energy, where the rubber band expanded).
Safety with scissors and rubber bands should be emphasised prior to the activity.
Through writing up the Design Brief students practice literacy and organise their thoughts. Through reflection, students come up with new ideas for design and learn from each other. They can also do research about some of the products used in their design.
Extension activities are important - for example in our frog activity, you could stipulate that the frog has to leap at least one metre if students finish their work quickly.
We then made a quiz on www.quia.com. My quiz is under www.quia.com/quiz/2513129. This program is useful for getting kids to research a topic and then make up their own quiz, either short answer or multiple choice. This activity could involve literacy, numeracy, or any other topic depending on what the quiz is about. Students can then swap quizzes. This is a fun way to learn and would be good for students who learn better by being active. The word searches would also be good for word study and spelling.
We also used Quia to make up an activity - I did one on the 'Rags to Riches' game which is similar to 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. See http://www.quia.com/rr/650282.html for my game.
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