Teaching Newbies Inventor

[M. Mellott]

We are fortunate to have a local branch of Kent State University give us the use of one of their classrooms for our Inventor class, with a couple dozen computers and an instructor's computer hooked up to an overhead projector. We're actually going to a larger scale of training this year--not only are we training 6-8 of Team 48's students interested in Inventor (half of which are veteran students with Inventor experience), but we've also invited students from the other 3 teams in our Northeast Ohio FIRST Robotics Alliance (NEOFRA) to participate (hopefully, about 15-18 students total).

Since there's a lot of interest in T-shirt launchers this year, one of my fellow engineers put together a scaled-down foam dart launcher, and we'll use that project as the teaching tool (but not tell them what it is up front--let them figure it out as the class goes to keep them coming back for more). We 'll start simple with the modeling of the dart, taking them through the process of creating a sketch and using it to generate a 3D solid, then creating additional sketches and solids to modify the part. We'll have the actual parts there so they'll have to measure the pasrts with calipers to get the dimensions. We'll then have them create other parts of the launcher, bringing the components together in an assembly file to show them mating constraints. Finally, we'll show them how to take individual parts or subassemblies into 2D to generate working drawings for the Build Team.

If we have time, we'll get into more complicated assemblies like transmissions or electrcal boards, but it's important they get the basics down first. From there, they should be ready to practice on their own back at their respective schools.