Engineering Blueprint Placemat Set
Do Something Different
If you have taken leadership courses you are probably familiar with the activity of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For those who are not familiar or need a brush up, the activity is designed to write step-by-step instructions for someone who has never made a PB&J. Think of an alien zooming down to Earth from another planet and his life depends on learning how to make this tasty treat. Could you do it? Why not try with your child? The majority of people who get this assignment will think this is easy – until you have a person start following your instruction to a t. They are not allowed to cheat and have to follow only the steps that have been written. Cracks usually start to form in the beginning if you forget to include simple things you may take for granted, like opening the bag or even getting a knife to spread the peanut butter! It is a funny exercise for everyone and a great lesson on why step-by-step instructions are so important especially in the field of engineering. When we assume people know what we are talking about, it can create problems. Even something simple as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can get complicated without the proper information or training. The exercise is designed to get the notion of step-by-step instructions as an important tool as a leader to stick in your brain. It is also a wonderful tool to discuss communication with your child and, as I learned, how to also discuss the importance of an engineer’s blueprint.
The Engineering Blueprint Placemat set is a four piece placemat set with detailed engineering drawings with directions for to create kid-friendly recipes. Each placemat features a detailed diagram for the four following foods; Peanut Butter & Jelly, Banana Split, Ants on a Log, and S’mores. The placemats are large at 11″ x 17″ with rounded corners – so no unexpected injuries! We did fun food instruction activities with both the PB&J and Ants on a Log placemat so far and it has been a great learning experience for both Brooke and I. As a parent, it helps me think more of how I may miss steps when I try to talk to my oldest daughter about new things she learns. For my daughter, she laughed and laughed when we followed the instructions ‘wrong’. While I have no illusion that these exercises will create a future engineer or decorated leader, it does help communicate a very important and basic idea we all want in our lives; the ability to be understood. That is a priceless idea for me to extend to my oldest and one that can be as hard to follow as wrong PB&J instructions!
Engineering Blueprint Placemat Set
List Price: $ 19.99
Momma's Bacon 