The Engineering Design Notebook

An engineering design notebook is a tool engineers and robotics students use to plan, design, and solve problems. It is an official record of everything your team works on — from early ideas to testing, building, and making improvements.

You use the notebook to:

• Plan designs and explain your thinking

• Solve problems and document how you fixed them.

• Test Solutions and show what worked or didn't work

• Track changes and record why you made them

• Keep organized so you can build better and smarter
  
  

• It shows your engineering process: Judges at competitions look at your notebook to see how you worked through challenges, not just what the final robot looks like. Judges want to know how you used the engineering design process throughout your season.

• It helps you stay organized: When you’re working for weeks or months, you can’t remember every small decision. Your notebook keeps track of it all.

• It teaches real-world skills: In many careers, engineers, inventors, and scientists must keep clear records of their work to share ideas, get patents, or solve problems faster.

• It helps your team improve: If your robot isn’t working, you can look back at your notes to find what changed and fix it.