Building Better Mousetrap Builders: Courses to Incrementally and Systematically Teach Design
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| Audience/Grade: | 5-College Sophomore |
| Discipline(s): |
Design Engineering Mechanics General Engineering, Engineering Science Industrial Design Industrial Engineering Manufacturing Engineering Mechanical Engineering |
| Special Topic(s): | |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: |
Audio |
| Author(s): |
Daniel Jensen Joseph Bezdek Kevin Otto Kris Wood Michael Murphy |
| Description: | Paper presented at ASEE Annual Meeting 1995, Session 2666. Abstract: "A variety of design-process and design-methods courses exist in engineering education. The primary objective of such courses is to teach engineering design fundamentals utilizing repeatable design techniques. By so doing, students obtain (1) tools they may employ during their education, (2) design experiences to understand the “big picture” of engineering, and (3) proven methods to attack open-ended problems. While these skills are worthwhile, especially as design courses are moved earlier in curricula, many students report that design methods are typically taught at a high-level and in a compartmentalized fashion. Often, the students’ courses do not include opportunities to obtain incremental concrete experiences with the methods. Nor do such courses allow for suitable observation and reflection as the methods are executed. In this paper, we describe a new approach for teaching design methods which addresses these issues. This approach incorporates hands-on experiences through the use of “reverse-engineering” projects. As the fundamentals of design techniques are presented, students immediately apply the methods to actual, existing products. They are able to hold these products physically in their hands, dissect them, perform experiments on their components, and evolve them into new successful creations. Based on this reverse-engineering concept, we have developed and tested new courses at The University of Texas, MIT, and the United States Air Force Academy. In the body of this paper, we present the structure of these courses, an example of our teaching approach, and a brief evaluation of the results." |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | design engineering design creativity innovation invention DTEACh |
| Is Component of: |
DTEACh - Design Technology and Engineering for America's Children |
| Usage Tip | |
| Related ABET Criteria: |
(c) Design a system, component, or process |
| Use of Resource: |
A concerted effort has been made to evolve design-methods courses at UT-Austin, MIT, and USAFA. Reverse engineering and redesign form the cornerstone of our evolution efforts. Six courses at these institutions have been restructured. The advantages of the new course structures provide an exciting way to teach design to students while making use of ?hands-on? projects. In addition, many current ?hands-on? projects in use in academia are not methodical in their approach. The proposed structure incorporates the benefits of ?hands-on? exercises in general, while also stressing the importance of a structured approach towards problem-solving. |
| Difficulty: |
Medium |
| Interactivity Level: |
Very low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | June 1995 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.engr.utexas.edu/dteach/aboutus/publications/BuildingBe |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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