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Designing Bridges

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Students learn about the types of possible loads, how to calculate ultimate load combinations, and investigate the different sizes for the beams (girders) and columns (piers) of simple bridge design. Students learn the steps that engineers use to design bridges: understanding the problem, determining the potential bridge loads, calculating the highest possible load, and calculating the amount of material needed to resist the loads.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Authors: Christopher Valenti, Denali Lander, Denise W. Carlson, Joe Friedrichsen, Jonathan S. Goode, Malinda Schaefer Zarske, Natalie Mach

Time for Design

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Students are introduced to the engineering design process, focusing on the concept of brainstorming design alternatives. They learn that engineering is about designing creative ways to improve existing artifacts, technologies or processes, or developing new inventions that benefit society. Students come to realize that they can be engineers and use the design process themselves to create tomorrow's innovations.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Authors: Denise W. Carlson, Jackie Sullivan, Malinda Schaefer Zarske, Megan Podlogar

Chair Design

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Students become familiar with the engineering design process as they design, build and test chair prototypes. The miniature chairs must be sturdy and functional enough to hold a wooden, hinged artist model or a floppy stuffed animal. They use their prototypes to assess design strengths and weaknesses.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Andrew Afram, Elissa Milto, Erica Wilson

Designing a Mechanical Invention for the Ocean Ecosystem

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In this activity, you will design a device that will substantially impact our environment. You can write words around your device’s image to help explain your ideas. This device does not have to be realistic. See the example of how to draw a device prototype below. An example of an approach could be to create a sizable water Roomba-like device that cleans the top of a body of water and burns the trash collected. This process turns the trash into oxygen.

Material Type: Lesson

Authors: Jamie Marquitz, Candice Anthony-Cazenave, Amy Erb, Jessica Brown

VT PEERS: Microcontroller Kit - Environmental Conditions

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Teachers and students can learn how to put together a Microcontroller Kit with an environmental conditions sensor that measures temperature, humidity, pressure and altitude and could be used for multiple experiments and shared collectively amongst departments or schools.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1657263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive

Author: VT PEERS

VT PEERS: Microcontroller Kit - Temperature Sensor

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Teachers and students can see an example of how to put together a Microcontroller Kit with a Temperature sensor that could be used for multiple experiments and shared collectively amongst departments or schools.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1657263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive, Lesson Plan

Author: VT PEERS

Communication and Comics

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This is an online activity for students to compare and constrast settings,characters, and plot events.Students will design a storyboard using four to eight panels that will include digital props, characters, background settings, and character speech bubbles. Upon completion of comic story, students may print projects to share with others.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment

Author: Terry Phillips

Robot Design Challenges

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Through the two lessons and five activities in this unit, students' knowledge of sensors and motors is integrated with programming logic as they perform complex tasks using LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots and software. First, students are introduced to the discipline of engineering and "design" in general terms. Then in five challenge activities, student teams program LEGO robots to travel a maze, go as fast/slow as possible, push another robot, follow a line, and play soccer with other robots. This fifth unit in the series builds on the previous units and reinforces the theme of the human body as a system with sensors performing useful functions, not unlike robots. Through these design challenges, students become familiar with the steps of the engineering design process and come to understand how science, math and engineering including computer programming are used to tackle design challenges and help people solve real problems. PowerPoint® presentations, quizzes and worksheets are provided throughout the unit.

Material Type: Full Course, Unit of Study

Authors: Pranit Samarth, Riaz Helfer, Sachin Nair, Satish S. Nair

Design and Manufacturing I

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Welcome to 2.007! This course is a first subject in engineering design. With your help, this course will be a great learning experience exposing you to interesting material, challenging you to think deeply, and providing skills useful in professional practice. A major element of the course is design of a robot to participate in a challenge that changes from year to year. This year, the theme is cleaning up the planet as inspired by the movie Wall-E.

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Daniel Frey, David Gossard

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