Biohazard Protection Design Project: Suit Up!
Students learn about providing healthcare in a global setting and the importance of wearing protective equipment when treating patients with infectious diseases like Ebola. They learn about biohazard suits, heat transfer through conduction and convection and the engineering design cycle. Student teams design, create and test (and improve) their own Ebola biohazard suit prototypes that cover one arm and hand, including a ventilation system to cool the inside of the suit.
Safety suits for the decontamination team.Copyright 2015 Corporal Paul Shaw/MOD, flickr (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/16927739642
Engineers apply their understanding of heat transfer when designing ventilation systems and mechanical systems that produce heat. Biomedical engineers must understand basic physiology, disease transmission and sterility in order to design protective equipment and medical devices. Engineers must also be well-versed in materials properties in order to choose appropriate materials when designing medical devices. Like engineers, students follow the steps of the engineering design process in this activity by brainstorming, prototyping, testing and improving their prototype designs, while meeting the design requirements.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain why it is important to wear protective gear when caring for people with infectious diseases.
- Explain that heat moves from areas of high temperature to areas of low temperature.
- List the steps of the engineering design process.
- Explain how design requirements and constraints affect the development of engineering solutions.