DAY THREE

Focus

AN ENGINEER IS A DESIGNER.

Revisit the first two days and their focuses (Visionary, Researcher).

Introduce the class to the design process.

Design Process (Preliminary)

Once a problem or project has been identified and defined, the design process begins with the conceptual phase where Engineers brainstorm ideas on how to accomplish the goals of a project to meet certain needs or criteria. They take the best concepts or ideas to the preliminary design phase where more detail is developed and the best concept is selected for final design or development. Introduce the students to these parts of the design process.

1. Concept

a. ideas borne out of need

b. establish what you want to accomplish

c. brainstorming sessions

d. team effort as a rule

2. Preliminary Design

a. prioritize list of ideas/concepts

b. evaluate various ways to accomplish concept

c. analyze economics of all options

d. select best concept

e. develop process flow or production diagrams

f. develop preliminary budget and schedule

Activity

You should springboard off of the brainstorming sessions of the previous week. Brainstorm new ideas to incorporate into RUBE utilizing all available resources. Have Engineer act as facilitator to write down ideas and assign someone to sketch concepts on paper for consideration. Prioritize and evaluate and select new steps in the RUBE. Establish a preliminary schedule for finishing the Rube.

Begin finalizing the steps that will make up the Rube. This will involve analyzing how each step will transition to the next step (i.e. setting off the chain of actions/reactions). This is an important DESIGN function. And the student engineers must work on VISUALIZING how this will all fit together.

Remember to bring the focus of the day back into the activity: An Engineer is DESIGNER.

Work on RUBE.

Key Points for Day Three

Keep up journal; review all the different things that must be included.

This would be a good time to review how ENERGY is TRANSFERRED in the steps developed for the RUBE. The journal team can document these for inclusion in the Journal.

Talk about how the class has done preliminary design.

Begin layout and begin fabrication of parts of the Rube.

Website for the Day:

www.discoverengineering.org