Invention and Design
SKU:
$300.00
$300.00
per item
Students will go through the Engineering Design Process from "I wish I had something that does ________," to a working prototype device that solves that problem for an actual adult market, all within this 36 week course. They will then develop a marketing plan for how to generate interest in their solution, as well as a business plan to describe how they will get it to their newly adoring public. Finally, they will come up with a product testing video to convey their solution to the world. Students can walk out of this course with a turnkey career, before they even leave high school. Scroll down for more information.
"In Jerusalem he made engines of war invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong." --II Chronicles 26:15
Additional resources required:
- Textbook: The Mechanical Engineering Design Process (any edition) by Ullman. You will need to show proof that you have your copy before you can start class.
SO, what's the story?
This course came from Stradivarius, but that probably needs a little explanation.
The idea for this course actually came to me while I was on my way through Amsterdam Airport on my way to Kenya for a mission for my last profession.
I saw a copy of the Economist magazine on the newsstand with a cover picture of what was very evidently, a plastic violin. The caption read: “Print me a Stradivarius.”
It was an article about 3D printing (about which I knew nothing at the time), and I remember thinking two things.
First, if I could print Stradivarius violins, I could finally buy that submarine, private island, and a castle to go on it, that I had been dreaming about, but I digress.
Second, I thought: “How would a high school science class look different with one of these (3D printers) in the classroom? What could I expect the students to do then that I cannot expect them to do now?” The answer came to me: I can expect them to design, invent, prototype, test, and refine a device to solve a real world problem!
By the time these students are 15-16 years old, they have either said themselves (or heard someone they care about say): “I wish I had something that does _______.” What holds them back? In most cases, it is the lack of a production facility to prototype and test such a device, or the costs associated with that process.
That printed Stradivarius changed the game in my mind.
I could have the students come up with what goes in the blank above. Then they could go through the Engineering Design Process to solve it. With a working prototype, they could test and refine it without having to rent a factory to do it!
Rounding out the process with a business and a marketing plan helps prevent the most common innovation tragedy: not going public with the solution.
So this course is designed to give the students a leg up on a career to invent the future. Thanks, Stradivarius!
The idea for this course actually came to me while I was on my way through Amsterdam Airport on my way to Kenya for a mission for my last profession.
I saw a copy of the Economist magazine on the newsstand with a cover picture of what was very evidently, a plastic violin. The caption read: “Print me a Stradivarius.”
It was an article about 3D printing (about which I knew nothing at the time), and I remember thinking two things.
First, if I could print Stradivarius violins, I could finally buy that submarine, private island, and a castle to go on it, that I had been dreaming about, but I digress.
Second, I thought: “How would a high school science class look different with one of these (3D printers) in the classroom? What could I expect the students to do then that I cannot expect them to do now?” The answer came to me: I can expect them to design, invent, prototype, test, and refine a device to solve a real world problem!
By the time these students are 15-16 years old, they have either said themselves (or heard someone they care about say): “I wish I had something that does _______.” What holds them back? In most cases, it is the lack of a production facility to prototype and test such a device, or the costs associated with that process.
That printed Stradivarius changed the game in my mind.
I could have the students come up with what goes in the blank above. Then they could go through the Engineering Design Process to solve it. With a working prototype, they could test and refine it without having to rent a factory to do it!
Rounding out the process with a business and a marketing plan helps prevent the most common innovation tragedy: not going public with the solution.
So this course is designed to give the students a leg up on a career to invent the future. Thanks, Stradivarius!
Adult Accomplishments:
- Working prototype device solving an actual market problem
- Business plan for how to get your device to market
- Marketing plan for how to generate interest in those sharing the problem
- Product testing/promotion video showing the world what your product does
- Crowdfunding campaign to fund your research and development costs (i.e. 4 x prototypes, testing, marketing costs, etc.)
Transferable Skills:
- Ability to use the Engineering Design Process to solve problems
- Ability to do market research
- Ability to do competitive benchmarking to understand what competitors are already providing the customer
- Ability to resource (fund) your own ideas
- Ability to write a business and marketing plan
What careers would this course give me a leg up on?
- Entrepreneur - Average Salary: "The Sky's the Limit!"
- Mechanical Engineer - Average Salary: $68,549 (https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Mechanical_Engineer/Salary)
- Marketing Specialist - Average Salary: $49,221 (https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Marketing_Specialist/Salary)
General syllabus (subject to change as needed)
- Course start: 24 August 2020
- Week 1:
- Identify the problem that you are going to solve
- Week 2:
- Identify the various customers for your solution to the problem, and their requirements for that solution
- Week 3:
- Refine the list and weighting of customer requirements
- Week 4:
- Initial competitive benchmarking
- Refine list and weighting of customer requirements
- Week 5:
- Refine competitive benchmarking
- Conduct patent search
- Refine list and weighting of customer requirements
- Week 6:
- Translate customer requirements into engineering requirements
- Refine list and weighting of customer requirements
- Refine competitive benchmarking
- Week 7:
- Establish engineering targets
- Refine list and weighting of customer requirements
- Refine competitive benchmarking
- Refine engineering requirements
- Week 8:
- Create/refine project plan
- Week 9:
- Create a functional decomposition tree
- Refine list and weighting of customer requirements
- Refine competitive benchmarking
- Refine engineering requirements
- Refine engineering targets
- Week 10:
- Refine functional decomposition
- Create 3 concepts per function
- Create concepts for classmates' functions
- Week 11:
- Refine functional decomposition
- Concept completion
- Week 12:
- Evaluate completed concepts with absolute evaluation
- Prepare Decision Matrix (DECMAT) shells for relative evaluation
- Week 13: Thanksgiving Week
- Complete classmates' DECMATs
- Choose winning concept from classmates' work on your DECMAT
- Revise concept generation
- Week 14:
- Concept refinement
- Identify separate components
- Research commercially available versions of these components
- 3 initial layout diagrams for your device
- Week 15:
- Initial Bill of Materials (BOM)
- Refine components list
- Week 16:
- Refine list of components
- Define critical functions
- Revise BOM
- Revise Layout Diagram
- Christmas Vacation: 14 December 2020 - 3 January 2021
- Week 17:
- Create external interfaces for functions
- Create interactive interfaces for critical functions
- Refine list of components
- Week 18:
- Initial connection for functional interfaces: shape of components
- Force flow diagrams for the different interfaces
- Revised Layout Diagram
- Week 19:
- Refine interfaces and force flow diagrams
- Use material properties and force flow diagrams to find failure points in the interfaces and evaluate engineering targets
- Refine BOM
- Week 20:
- Create Marketing Plan
- Create initial cost estimate
- Week 21:
- Update Layout Diagram with tolerance calculations
- Create initial Detailed Drawing
- Revise cost estimate
- Week 22:
- Launch crowdfunding campaign
- Week 23:
- Refine/patch for assembly
- Create initial assembly diagram
- Revise BOM
- Refine tolerances
- Week 24:
- Refine/patch design for cost
- Revise cost estimate
- Week 25:
- Refine/patch for reliability
- Revise Detailed Drawing
- Design evaluation methodology to measure compliance with engineering targets
- Finalize Prototype #1
- Week 26:
- Prototype #1 testing video published
- Limits Bounding Analysis (LBA) #1 due with respect to engineering targets
- Week 27:
- Refine/patch material production techniques for Prototype #3
- Revise Detailed Drawing
- Week 28:
- Business plan
- Revised cost estimate
- Revised Marketing Plan
- Finalize Prototype #2
- Week 29:
- Prototype #2 Testing Video published
- LBA #2 due with respect to engineering targets and possible patent search
- Spring Break: 3 - 11 April 2021
- Week 30:
- Refine/patch for maintainability
- Revise Assembly Diagram
- Week 31:
- Refine/patch for "noise" resistance
- Week 32:
- Refine/patch for reliability
- Refine/patch for cost
- Refine/patch for assembly
- Refine/patch for production method
- Finalize Prototype #3
- Week 33:
- Prototype #3 Testing Video published
- Week 34:
- Final LBA with respect to engineering targets and at least one conditional concept created during concept generation
- Week 35:
- Final Detailed Drawing
- Final Assembly Drawing
- Final BOM
- Week 36:
- Patent application and/or final business plan
- Final product video published
- Final Journey of Learning Narrative (JOLN)
- Course End: 28 May 2021
Average Weekly work load
- Typically one or more tasks that you must perform to move your project iteratively "down the road"
- One or more discussion questions from the teacher to answer
- Responding to classmates' answers to the discussion questions
- Ensuring that you go through any of the learning activities for skills where you are not yet proficient to help you in future weeks' tasks
***All of this is designed to take you about 5 focused hours per week, which is less than you would have if you were attending class in a traditional school.
How can I write this up on a high school transcript?
- You could write this up as a Science or Engineering credit by emphasizing the force flow diagrams and materials and engineering targets and tolerances that you will have to develop
- You could write it up as an Economics/Business credit by emphasizing the cost analysis, business and marketing planning, and the crowdfunding campaign
- You could write it up as an Applied Mathematics credit, depending on the nature of your device and how much mathematical modeling you had to do in order to complete your project
- You could write it up as a Marketing/Arts credit by emphasizing the technical drawing required for the Assembly Diagram, the Layout Diagram, and the Detailed drawing, as well as the product video and any graphics that you had to create for your crowdfunding campaign