Lecture slides on prototypes. Topics include: role of prototyping in the design process, prototyping strategy, types of prototypes, risk mitigation, prototype fidelity, and future of prototyping.  ... more

Lecture slides on prototypes. Topics include: role of prototyping in the design process, prototyping strategy, types of prototypes, risk mitigation, prototype fidelity, and future of prototyping.   less

Teaching activity for ages 7-11. On this day in 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Ask learners to organise a survey of favourite toys in their class and swap results with  ... more

Teaching activity for ages 7-11. On this day in 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. Ask learners to organise a survey of favourite toys in their class and swap results with another class. Encourage them to use IT to present the results in different graph formats. They may need support in deciding how to group different answers together, for example whether to count all kinds of dolls in one category, or have separate categories for each individual kind of doll. They could swap results with another class or age group, or ask parents and grandparents about their favourite toys when they were children, or re-run the survey in relation to their own favourite toys when they were younger. Help them to compare and interpret the results, looking for differences and trends. What sorts of toys do older / younger learners seem to prefer?   less

"It's more than a trend - school greening is quickly becoming the method of choice for improving both the school learning environment and the community's environmental health. As you prepare for the academic year, consider what yo  ... more

"It's more than a trend - school greening is quickly becoming the method of choice for improving both the school learning environment and the community's environmental health. As you prepare for the academic year, consider what you can do to "go green". According to the EPA, 75% of the electricity used to power electronics is consumed when they are turned off. Have your class take turns being a weekly "energy monitor," making sure electronics are off and unplugged when not in use. Talk to your school about switching to LED Exit signs. LED signs last longer and use much less energy, which means more money goes back to your child's academic needs. Or better yet, perform an energy audit of your school! Have your children live healthier lifestyles while helping the environment by organizing a "walking bus," a group of students who walk to school under the supervision of an adult. Pack a waste-free, lunch for school, using reusable containers (not juice boxes, plastic water bottles, or paper bags) and a cloth napkin. Don't waste food by packing more than they will eat! Make a class project of measuring how much junk mail the school receives, and then contacting companies to remove the school from their mailing lists. Then measure again and see how much paper is being saved."   less

Case study from the Lemelson Center on the invention of the diaper. Excerpt: "Late one night in 1946, a very tired mother was faced with a wet, crying baby yet again. Changing her second daughter's soaked cloth diaper, clothing,  ... more

Case study from the Lemelson Center on the invention of the diaper. Excerpt: "Late one night in 1946, a very tired mother was faced with a wet, crying baby yet again. Changing her second daughter's soaked cloth diaper, clothing, and bed sheets, Marion O'Brien Donovan knew there had to be a better way to keep babies dry. Soon after, she tore down the shower curtain hanging in her bathroom, cut out a section, and sat down at her sewing machine, determined to create a diaper cover that would prevent leaks. That first shower-curtain experiment eventually led to the creation of a reusable diaper cover made from nylon parachute cloth--and a collective sigh of relief from women across the United States. Marion Donovan displays a package of Boaters in 1951, on the day she sold the rights to her diaper cover invention to Keko Corporation for $1 million. Marion O’Brien Donovan Papers, NMAH Archives Center, SI Photo 2000.5050 In 1951, Donovan received four patents for her invention, which was the precursor of the disposable diaper. That same year, she sold the rights to Keko Corporation of Kankakee, Ill., for $1 million. She called the cover the Boater, “because at the time I thought it looked like a boat.” She used the money to finance other invention projects and went on to create numerous products intended to make life more efficient, organized, and convenient." Photo caption: " Marion O’Brien Donovan Papers, NMAH Archives Center, SI Photo 2000.5055 Christine Donovan visited the Archives Center in July and recounted memories of growing up with an inventor mother. “Every room in the house was a laboratory,” she said. “There would be rubber bands, staples, straws all over the place. As children, we formed an assembly line to work on prototypes. She was always doing two or three things at the same time.” Marion O’Brien was born in South Bend, Indiana. Her father, Miles O’Brien, was a mechanical engineer who, with his identical twin, John, invented a kind of lathe. He helped his daughter produce her first invention when she was a child: a new tooth powder. Her interest in dental hygiene surfaced again some 50 years later, when she invented a new kind."   less

"Graduates with an accredited degree in engineering management have gained a strong understanding of the engineering relationships between the management tasks of planning, organization, leadership, control, and the human element  ... more

"Graduates with an accredited degree in engineering management have gained a strong understanding of the engineering relationships between the management tasks of planning, organization, leadership, control, and the human element in production, research, and service organizations. Engineering managers work in most industries, particularly on larger projects or programs which require overarching organization and planning to ensure success. Preparation Those interested in a career in engineering management should consider reviewing engineering programs that are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET). ABET accreditation is based on an evaluation of an engineering program's student achievement, program improvement, faculty, curricular content, facilities, and institutional commitment. Engineering Management students take courses such as Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Operations Management, General Management, Strategic Management, Management of Technology, Industrial and Quality Engineering, and Manufacturing and Packaging Engineering. The following is a partial list of universities offering accredited degree programs in engineering management."   less

Website with traveling exhibits from the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center. The site is organized around Centerpieces, Events, Curricular Resources, Video & Audit, Search and Invention at Play. The tagline is" Behind every invention t  ... more

Website with traveling exhibits from the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center. The site is organized around Centerpieces, Events, Curricular Resources, Video & Audit, Search and Invention at Play. The tagline is" Behind every invention there's a story . . . "The Lemelson Center’s mission: • To document, interpret, and disseminate information about invention and innovation • To encourage inventive creativity in young people • To foster an appreciation for the central role invention and innovation play in the history of the United States Through public events, programs for students, publications, research opportunities, exhibitions, and this Web site, the Center: • Records the past, by preserving and increasing access to records and artifacts • Broadens our understanding of history, through research, discussion, and dissemination of ideas • Looks towards the future, by engaging young people in the study and exploration of invention and innovation."   less

Educational game with lesson plans. "A massively collaborative imagining of the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis. An alternate reality chronicled online in 1,500 personal blog entries, videos, voicemails and images.  ... more

Educational game with lesson plans. "A massively collaborative imagining of the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis. An alternate reality chronicled online in 1,500 personal blog entries, videos, voicemails and images.   less

MIT's "inventor of the week" on Ruth Handler of the Barbie Doll. "Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so quintessentially American as to be included in the official "America's Time Capsule" buried at the celebr  ... more

MIT's "inventor of the week" on Ruth Handler of the Barbie Doll. "Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so quintessentially American as to be included in the official "America's Time Capsule" buried at the celebration of the Bicentennial in 1976: the Barbie doll. In the early 1950s, Handler saw that her young daughter, Barbara, and her girlfriends enjoyed playing with adult female dolls as much or more than with baby dolls. Handler sensed that it was just as important for girls to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become as it was for them to focus on what caring for children might be like. Because all the adult dolls then available were made of paper or cardboard, Handler decided to create a three-dimensional adult female doll, one lifelike enough to serve as an inspiration for her daughter's dreams of her future. Handler took her idea to the ad executives at Mattel Corp., the company that she and her husband, Elliot, had founded in their garage some years before: the (all-male) committee rejected the idea as too expensive, and with little potential for wide market appeal. Mattel finally agreed to back Handler's efforts; and the Barbie doll debuted at the American Toy Fair in New York City in 1959. Girls clamored for the doll, and Barbie set a new sales record for Mattel its first year on the market (351,000 dolls, at $3 each). Since then, Barbie's popularity has rarely flagged; and today, with over one billion dolls sold, the Barbie product line is the most successful in the history of the toy industry."   less

Khan Academy's library of videos covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately  ... more

Khan Academy's library of videos covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer. "The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge." Image caption: "Practice math at your own pace with our adaptive assessment exercises. You can start at 1+1 and work your way into calculus or jump right into whatever topic needs some brushing up. Each problem is randomly generated, so you never run out of practice material. If you need a hint, every single problem can be broken down, step-by-step, with one click. If you need more help, you can always watch a related video. "   less

Great archive of technologies associated with recorded music with images. Some were successful, others not. Excerpt: "From phonographs to records to iPods, with a few hiccups along the way. Edison's phonograph, which came about a  ... more

Great archive of technologies associated with recorded music with images. Some were successful, others not. Excerpt: "From phonographs to records to iPods, with a few hiccups along the way. Edison's phonograph, which came about as a happy accident, paved the way for the entire field of recording technology - recordings on thread, ungrooved records for home recording and a whole slew of magnetic wire recorders, initially used during World War II and eventually adopted by civilians. Several attempts were made to improve the record player, from making it wireless and broadcastable through a radio, to developing hi-fi systems, to installing an in-car record changer that could play up to 14 records with minimal skipping, before cassettes and then CDs took over. Between CDs and iPods, we were treated to the Mini Disc (pictured above), Sony's attempt to miniaturize CDs and make the players more portable. And finally, after loading MP3 after MP3 onto their iPods, people became nostalgic for vinyl. Follow the development of recording tech in our gallery."   less