3-D Engineering: Design and Build Your Own Prototypes

Introduction

ENGINEERING DESIGN

What are some of the things you use every day? How were they made? How do they work? How did the ink get inside your pen? How do the gears shift on your bike? How do we get the electricity you use for lights and television?

Engineers design products used by people all over the world. These products include cars, toys, buildings, movie animation, computers, iPhones, water filters, medical procedures and devices, and wind turbines. Just about everything that’s built was designed by an engineer!

WORDS 2 KNOW

gear: a rotating part with teeth.

engineer: someone who uses science, math, and creativity to design products or processes to meet human needs or solve problems.

turbine: a machine with blades turned by the force of water, air, or steam.

Engineers apply math, science, and technology to solve problems and meet goals. What would you like to design and build? Guidelines for designing and building a tower of raw spaghetti strands strong enough to hold a marshmallow can be found at the end of the chapter. What other design ideas do you have?

The line between engineering and science can often be blurry. But scientists tend to discover new scientific principles and engineers apply science and math so they can design and build new products and processes.

Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been.

—Albert Einstein

For example, Isaac Newton discovered the laws of motion and Henry Ford applied those laws to design automobiles. A Swiss mathematician named Daniel Bernoulli discovered the principle of lift in the 1700s and the Wright brothers used this principle to design an airplane. Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell discovered electricity and magnetism, which Thomas Edison applied when he designed the light bulb.

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WORDS 2 KNOW

technology: tools, methods, and systems used to solve a problem or do work.

scientific principle: a rule that explains a natural action that can be tested.

product: an item, such as a book or clothing, that is made and sold to people.

process: an activity that takes several steps to complete.

prototype: a working model or mock-up that allows engineers to test their solution.

What does it mean to design? The design process involves a few different steps.

ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS

1Identify the design goal.

2Ask questions to clarify the goal and make it more clear.

3Redefine the goal based on the answers to your questions.

4Brainstorm ways to meet the goal.

5Choose one of the alternatives.

6Design and prototype.

7Test your prototype.

8Redesign.

WORDS 2 KNOW

redefine: to define differently or think about a problem in a new way.

brainstorm: to think creatively and without judgment, often in a group of people.

While you probably don’t realize it, you are designing something when you draw a picture, build with Legos, and even when you put together your outfit for the day.

Let’s look closely at all the steps of the design process. You’ll find examples of these steps in the red type.

1 Identify the Goal. The first step is to identify your design goal. Are you trying to solve a problem, improve a product or process, or meet a need?

Let’s design a box to carry school supplies. Throughout the design process, you’ll refine your design goal.

2 Question. During this step of the design process, ask questions to better understand the needs of the user. Maybe you need to conduct research, collect information, observe and interview users, or investigate what has been done before. The more information you can gather, the better.

What school supplies do you need to carry? What size does the box need to be? Does it need to be a box? Would a bag or some other type of container work better? Does it need to be portable?

3 Redefine the Goal. Once you have asked questions and gathered additional information, you might need to redefine the goal. Make sure your goal is clear and achievable. You won’t be able to design an appropriate solution if you don’t understand the goal. This redefined goal is clearer and includes information from the questioning phase.

Design a way to store and easily transport four to six pencils, a pencil sharpener, and a large eraser. The case does not need to be lockable, but does need to be easy to carry and easy to open. The length of a typical pencil is 7½ inches. Be sure to measure your supplies before building your case!

Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.

—Steve Jobs, founder of Apple

4 Brainstorm. During the brainstorming phase, come up with LOTS of ideas, including crazy ones, and write them down. You may choose to brainstorm alone or in a group. If you brainstorm with a group, be sure to be positive about all ideas, encourage craziness, and don’t judge.

•A custom-sized wooden or cardboard box

•A pouch into which the pencils and supplies may be rolled and tied

•A piece of pipe or bamboo or other tube with one end blocked and a removable covering on the other end

•Skip the pouch or box altogether and simply tie or Velcro the supplies into your backpack

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FABULOUS FABRIC

Fabric may not seem like a traditional engineering material, but many engineering systems use fabric-like material. Fabric has been used as sails on sailboats, roofs of buildings, water filters, and biomedical devices. The roof of the Denver International Airport is built of a fabric-type material.

5 Select Alternatives. Remember your design goal? Do all of your ideas meet that goal? You might have to carefully evaluate the pros and cons of different ideas to decide which ones to try. Always record your reasons for selecting different alternatives in your design journal.

Select a pencil case design made out of a piece of bamboo with a piece of fabric over the top because it sounds like a pretty unique solution and meets your design goal. Also select a fabric pouch, because it will be a lightweight and a flexible solution.

6 Design and Build a Prototype. Sketch out different design ideas and build a prototype. Building prototypes is a critical part of the design process. It’s a good idea to build lots of models as early in the process as possible. These models don’t need to be fancy—they can be made out of paper and tape or other easy-to-find materials.

Designing and prototyping should happen simultaneously. The best designs occur after a lot of prototyping. Rather than spend hours and hours making your design drawings perfect, jump in and build a prototype!

WORDS 2 KNOW

simultaneously: at the same time.

For your first pencil box prototypes, use paper to experiment with shapes and designs, switching to scraps of fabric as you refine your design. Experiment with fabric coverings for a bamboo case, pouches with pencils rolled inside, pouches with flaps, and pouches with zippers. Instead of using a real zipper in the initial prototypes, try tape.

7 Test Your Prototype: Keep in mind that most prototypes will not work perfectly—many will fail to work at all. Don’t get discouraged! Engineers learn just as much, if not more, from failed prototypes as they do from the ones that work. Once a prototype works, you can try to make it better.

Which shape made the best pencil box? Which material was the most useful? Remember your design goals. Is your pencil box easy to carry and open? Do your pencils, pencil sharpener, and eraser all fit?

8 Redesign Your Prototype: Once you have a prototype that seems to meet your needs, think of ways to redesign it to make it even better.

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