All suggestions so far are worth taking note. My teacher started me off with a bunch of wooden pieces. Ex: cylinders with pieces missing, blocks with a side swept out, and anything else that will get them in the right mind set for Inventor. Then, tell them to make a bird house. Don't give them dimension, just require that it has a roof, is an assembly, all the parts can be cut out of one piece of wood (no bending wood
), and challenge them with a peg for landing. Then, let them work. Once they start to have problems, odds are they will have problems, help them figure it on their own. I notice that a lot of people tend to have problems with assembling. This is because they go so long without needing it. It is one of my strong suits because a bird house was my third part I had ever drawn. Don't be afraid to make them sweat. I trained five students last year and of the five, 1 is about my equal at drafting. Now, some may say that I was to harsh and overworked them. (I admit to doing this
). However, despite whether or not I worked them to hard, they still learned the software.
IN SHORT: Have them build a bird house.
Once they have, critique their house. How hard would it be to make? Are dimensions realistic?(No 10' bird houses
) Did they use dimensions?(Basic, but some seem to refuse to use dimensions.
) All of these will show you immediately how prone they are to the software and innovation itself. Also, they will gain respect for the software.(won't happen if you just give them easy parts).
Hope this helped, if I was confusing just ask a question and I will try to explain better.