Engineering Design

On September 20th, we hosted our Engineering Design Workshop at the Pacific Beach Library. Before the workshop, I spoke with a first-time AGSS participant. She said, “I’ve never been to an AGSS workshop before, and I’m nervous about this one. I also don’t know a lot about engineering, but I really wanna learn more.” 

First, our participants had a lecture where they learned about the different steps of the Engineering Design process. They learned how to identify a problem, conduct research on past solutions, brainstorm, create the prototype (following different Criteria/Constraints), finalize the prototype, analyze (by creating a pro/con list), and continue to improve their solution! They also learned about the different types of simple machines, including the wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane, pulley, screw, and wedge. They used this knowledge to help them create a solution that would help their friend, Bella (who fractured her legs), transport her backpack up the stairs. They had to follow the specific constraints and criteria when proposing their solution.  

After the snack break of yummy cookies and bananas, our participants learned about models(simplified representations of a system). They learned that there were two types of models: physical and abstract. Additionally, they were able to understand that models needed to fit the correct requirements of having the correct scale, dimensions, and 4 views (3D, top, front, and side). Applying this knowledge, participants designed their own wind turbines using the design process. One participant said that “I liked that even though it was a model,it still worked and moved like an actual wind turbine.” We ended the workshop with some Engineering Design Trivia.

Our next workshop is on Algorithms on October 4th at Pacific Beach Taylor Library. We hope to see you there!

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