Team Workshops (Mechanical)

[msimon785]

So we decided upon an idea given by Akash Rastogi, a CD frequenter.
After the safety and FIRST presentations, we will go through a whitepaper by JVN on iterative design (aren't those great!?). The whole lecture session should take around an hour.
After that, we will segue the students into the woodshop, where we have assembled four buckets with an identical kit of tetrix parts. They will then be split into groups of 6-7, with an ideally equal combination of veteran and new team members. Their challenge is to build a tennis-ball shooter, an in doing so they will be putting their newfound knowledge of the iterative design process to use. After a 50-55 minute build period, they will test them out as a group, and then get another 20 minutes to modify their designs based upon what they learned from other groups. They will be required to submit to us basic technical drawings, of course without dimensions, but with enough details to understand the design. At the very end we will have a 15-20 minute debriefing period with which we will determine what was learned, etc.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by msimon785

So we decided upon an idea given by Akash Rastogi, a CD frequenter.
After the safety and FIRST presentations, we will go through a whitepaper by JVN on iterative design (aren't those great!?). The whole lecture session should take around an hour.
After that, we will segue the students into the woodshop, where we have assembled four buckets with an identical kit of tetrix parts. They will then be split into groups of 6-7, with an ideally equal combination of veteran and new team members. Their challenge is to build a tennis-ball shooter, an in doing so they will be putting their newfound knowledge of the iterative design process to use. After a 50-55 minute build period, they will test them out as a group, and then get another 20 minutes to modify their designs based upon what they learned from other groups. They will be required to submit to us basic technical drawings, of course without dimensions, but with enough details to understand the design. At the very end we will have a 15-20 minute debriefing period with which we will determine what was learned, etc.

Note that I suggested VEX kits

I think activities like this can help students learn how they think when faced with the question "how can I make this better?" and evaluate their own observational skills while they are looking and analyzing designs of their competitors. Its my first time creating an activity like this, so I hope it works out well for you. Let me know how it goes.

Good luck Matt!