Prototyping Engineering Solutions
Example of a student-made draft in Tinkercad.Copyright Tinkercad
Students focus on the engineering design process to ask, research, imagine, plan, create, and improve a prototype for a solution of a problem they wish to solve. Students perform each step of engineering design to better understand how engineers approach problem solving. At the planning stage, students will not only manually draft their prototypes but also use CAD software (e.g., Tinkercad), which is an important engineering tool during the design process. Finally, students create their idea according to their own design specifications using the materials provided. As they learn more about prototyping and the engineering design process, students will develop a better understanding of the concepts and importance of drafting and CAD.
The concepts presented in this activity and the steps students use in their prototyping directly pertain to real-world engineering. By giving students the opportunity to experience the engineering design process and to delve into CAD software for drafting, students experience engineering firsthand and gain a better understanding of how engineers solve problems.
After this activity students should be able to:
- Explain the purpose of the engineering design process.
- Describe the steps of the engineering design process.
- Describe the concepts of manual drafting and CAD.
- Create and outline designs for their own prototypes for engineering solutions.