DAY SIX

Focus

AN ENGINEER IS ANYONE!

Revisit the first 5 days of material (Visionary, Researcher, Designer, Planner, Problem Solver).

The focus for today is that for any business, to be successful, it must continuously bring in new work or develop new products or markets. This is an important and necessary function.

Advertising and Marketing

When an Engineer has completed the production of a product or project, it is important to sell that product or market the Engineer’s services. This is done through advertising and marketing.

1. Marketing

a. Researching the marketplace

b. Contacting end users

e. Competitive pricing

f. Finding new markets

2. Advertising

a. Determine what media to use (i.e.: newspaper, television, radio, direct mail, internet,

etc.)

b. Product or company recognition (tradenames, logos, trademarks, feature, projects, etc.)

c. Four things to accomplish:

i. Grab attention

ii. Hold Interest

iii. Create a desire

iv. Obtain action.

3. Types of Advertising

a. Pioneer – heralding a new product;

b. Needs - provide a lot of information.

c. Competitive – promote why product is better and make direct comparison.

d. Reminder – soft sell of an established product or service.

e. Institutional – reminding public of name, image, and or reputation.

Activity

Split the class up into advertising teams. Have them create advertisements and promotional information for their Rube. Determine how best to identify their Rube (school color, logo, teacher’s names, others) and incorporate that into the Rube.

This is the last classroom session. It is important to point out to the class that an Engineer can be ANYONE.

Make a point to let the students know that for the last six to eight weeks each and every one of them have been engineers and that the product of their works will be entered into competition and judged for its design, creativity and performance. Commend them on their success and discuss the competition that their Rube will be entered into. Reinforce the philosophy that there are no losers in this type of competition, that the important part is the participation, team effort, and creativity that they put into the project.

Complete all work on the Rube.

Key Points for Day Six

This is the last classroom session that teaches about Engineering as a career. From this point forward, the focus will be on applying the finishing touches and testing your Rube.

The Rubes tend to have one or two steps that are unreliable. Focus the students on solving the reliability issues and re engineering these steps.

Make final adjustments and fine tune. Get Rube ready to transport to competition venue.

Websites for the Day:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/LorenzGames/dynamic-systems http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/616947main_Build_Station_Simulation.pdf http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/zoom-engineering