GIFTS: Dangerous Toys Project

Daniel Paul Harbowy

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division GIFTS: Great Ideas For Teaching Students
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs Division (FYP)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47499

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Daniel Paul Harbowy Lane Community College

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Daniel Harbowy has been a professor of engineering and mathematics at Lane Community College for the past eight years. Prior to that, he spent 21.5 years in the United States Air Force as an Industrial Engineer, Professor of Aerospace Studies at Ohio University, and Intelligence Officer. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. He holds a BA degree in Mathematics from Rutgers University, and a MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida. He has tested a variety of systems including: communications jammers, clothing, hospital equipment, electronic air defense simulations, missiles, and many others. He is married and has two daughters.

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Abstract

This GIFTS abstract proposes a capstone project for first-year engineering students. There are five motivating factors for this project. First, there lacks a central element to coalesce the coursework taught in the first engineering class students take. Second, new students need to practically understand the engineering process in their first engineering class. Third, students with extremely diverse experience bases all need to be engaged. Fourth, colleges with small engineering staffs need simple, yet engaging projects. Fifth, interest in engineering needs to be fostered among children in every community. To address all these factors, I have implemented a capstone project that is simple, yet profoundly deep in its ability to motivate, focus, and prepare first-year engineering students for future coursework. It is also a project that can engage local elementary school students with STEM. Background: Each class is assigned a toy they must build which meets specific criteria. These toys are fairly simple, like pressure rockets, mouse trap cars, trebuchets, rock skippers, or hot air balloons. The differences between these projects, and something typical High School students may do, are the specific criteria students must meet and the engineering processes they must apply. Some unique criteria I use include: making the designs wheelchair accessible, reducing the size of the package the device must “shipped in,” providing instructions for teaching STEM principles to kids, or adding specific distance/height/accuracy/angle criteria. The criteria also have competing requirements and tradeoffs. For instance, cost must be minimized, but distance/durability must be maximized. Students are presented with a Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop a toy that lays out all the criteria they must meet. Assessment: Students must first turn in a two-page proposal of the design they will implement. The first page is a written description of how their project will meet the criteria given, and the second page is a sketch of the proposed system. Students are graded on how well they address all the criteria set forth and the clarity of their work. This step gets all the students to research possible solutions, come up with their own ideas, and articulate what they think will work. By doing this, students engage in the first three steps of the engineering process: identify the problem, define the problem, and research/gather data. Students are then placed in teams of 4, and are each assigned one role: Project Manager, Mechanical Engineer, Industrial Engineer, or Materials Engineer. Responsibility for the next part of the project falls to the student with the Project Manager role. They facilitate the “brainstorming” and “analyzing potential solutions” phases of the engineering process. They take the 4 ideas the team came up with, facilitate a discussion of new ideas those generate, discuss the pros and cons of all ideas, and then decide on what the final design will be. The Project Manager then writes a 2-page paper detailing the pros and cons of designs they chose or discarded, their reasons for doing so, and draws a final picture of design chosen. Responsibility for the next part of the project falls to the student with the Mechanical Engineer role. They facilitate the “develop models” phase of the engineering process. They take charge of the actual build, and must write a paper on what challenges they encountered in producing the design, and how they overcame them. Responsibility for the next part of the project falls to the student with the Industrial Engineer role. They facilitate the “test models” phase of the engineering process. Students are introduced to basic design of experiments methods and must create a full-factorial design, test the product under each of the conditions, record the results, and create graphs/charts that detail the results. Responsibility for the last part of the project falls to the student with the Materials Engineer role. They facilitate the “Implementation and Commercialization” phase of the engineering process. They create a detailed set of construction/operating instructions, give the project a finished look, and give a pitch to sell their product. The project culminates with a competition where each of the 4-person teams compete for the design most loved by kids. Sometimes I have brought children to the college, and sometimes I have brought the engineering students to a local elementary school, where the children get to try out the different designs and choose the one they liked the most. By the end of the term, students understand the engineering process, are generally “on the same page” when it comes to doing engineering, and are motivated to learn more.

Citation
Format

Harbowy, D. P. (2024, June), GIFTS: Dangerous Toys Project Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47499

TY - CPAPER
AB - This GIFTS abstract proposes a capstone project for first-year engineering students. There are five motivating factors for this project. First, there lacks a central element to coalesce the coursework taught in the first engineering class students take. Second, new students need to practically understand the engineering process in their first engineering class. Third, students with extremely diverse experience bases all need to be engaged. Fourth, colleges with small engineering staffs need simple, yet engaging projects. Fifth, interest in engineering needs to be fostered among children in every community.
To address all these factors, I have implemented a capstone project that is simple, yet profoundly deep in its ability to motivate, focus, and prepare first-year engineering students for future coursework. It is also a project that can engage local elementary school students with STEM.
Background: Each class is assigned a toy they must build which meets specific criteria. These toys are fairly simple, like pressure rockets, mouse trap cars, trebuchets, rock skippers, or hot air balloons. The differences between these projects, and something typical High School students may do, are the specific criteria students must meet and the engineering processes they must apply. Some unique criteria I use include: making the designs wheelchair accessible, reducing the size of the package the device must “shipped in,” providing instructions for teaching STEM principles to kids, or adding specific distance/height/accuracy/angle criteria. The criteria also have competing requirements and tradeoffs. For instance, cost must be minimized, but distance/durability must be maximized. Students are presented with a Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop a toy that lays out all the criteria they must meet.
Assessment: Students must first turn in a two-page proposal of the design they will implement. The first page is a written description of how their project will meet the criteria given, and the second page is a sketch of the proposed system. Students are graded on how well they address all the criteria set forth and the clarity of their work. This step gets all the students to research possible solutions, come up with their own ideas, and articulate what they think will work. By doing this, students engage in the first three steps of the engineering process: identify the problem, define the problem, and research/gather data. Students are then placed in teams of 4, and are each assigned one role: Project Manager, Mechanical Engineer, Industrial Engineer, or Materials Engineer.
Responsibility for the next part of the project falls to the student with the Project Manager role. They facilitate the “brainstorming” and “analyzing potential solutions” phases of the engineering process. They take the 4 ideas the team came up with, facilitate a discussion of new ideas those generate, discuss the pros and cons of all ideas, and then decide on what the final design will be. The Project Manager then writes a 2-page paper detailing the pros and cons of designs they chose or discarded, their reasons for doing so, and draws a final picture of design chosen.
Responsibility for the next part of the project falls to the student with the Mechanical Engineer role. They facilitate the “develop models” phase of the engineering process. They take charge of the actual build, and must write a paper on what challenges they encountered in producing the design, and how they overcame them.
Responsibility for the next part of the project falls to the student with the Industrial Engineer role. They facilitate the “test models” phase of the engineering process. Students are introduced to basic design of experiments methods and must create a full-factorial design, test the product under each of the conditions, record the results, and create graphs/charts that detail the results.
Responsibility for the last part of the project falls to the student with the Materials Engineer role. They facilitate the “Implementation and Commercialization” phase of the engineering process. They create a detailed set of construction/operating instructions, give the project a finished look, and give a pitch to sell their product.
The project culminates with a competition where each of the 4-person teams compete for the design most loved by kids. Sometimes I have brought children to the college, and sometimes I have brought the engineering students to a local elementary school, where the children get to try out the different designs and choose the one they liked the most.
By the end of the term, students understand the engineering process, are generally “on the same page” when it comes to doing engineering, and are motivated to learn more.
AU - Daniel Paul Harbowy
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - GIFTS: Dangerous Toys Project
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47499
ER -