Educational Design Project: Part I

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that the Academy students are working to design actual products to be used by our own Providence teachers, and that a grant from New Matter would provide us with three more 3D printers to help accomplish this. The students submitted their final work today, and we wanted to show a snapshot of some of the pieces.

Alec, a freshman, responded to several small projects, the first of which was to design a close-fitting cone/cylinder and pyramid/box set. These will be given to the Geometry class, as a hands-on experiential proof that the volume of a cone is truly one-third of its enclosing cylinder. Students can place the cone inside the cylinder, and fill up the empty space with rice or beans or beads. When they remove the cone, they will find that exactly two-thirds of the cylinder's volume is still full, meaning the cone took up one-third of the volume. Simple, handy demonstrations like this tend to stick well in a student's mind, and Alec has provided just the tools to do it!

Alec with his cone/cylinder demonstration, destined for the Geometry class

Eva, also in the 9th Grade, responded to a design brief coming from our middle school engineering elective (Eva participated in this elective last year ... and did very well!). At the end of each semester, the middle school students create LEGO robots that attempt to complete a particular challenge. The challenge usually takes the form of collecting or depositing small objects, and we have used coins and foam cubes in the past. Eva is bringing us into the 21st Century with custom-designed 3D-printed hexagonal... things. The "things" are strong enough for an adult to stand on, have gaps and angles that make it easy for the robots to grab on to, are brightly colored for the robot sensors, and are surprisingly light, being mostly hollow. Way to go, Eva!

Eva shows off her game piece for the middle school engineering elective

Gabe, Tys, and Aaron were given permission to respond instead to the "Star Trek Replicator Challenge", a public competition organized by the ASME Foundation and NASA. The three of them are working individually to create food-related items that could be one day 3D printed by astronauts and interplanetary explorers. While this may sound far-fetched, 3D printing is actually an ideal solution for isolated spacemen and spacewomen; if a tool or part breaks, or if you suddenly need more of a particular item, you can produce it at will from CAD plans, which could either be created locally or transmitted from a design team on Earth.

Gabe's product, one section of which is pictured, is a food storage container, made in two pieces, with self-locking tabs. He has also taken the opportunity to learn additional CAD skills, such as running finite element analysis (FEA) to determine crucial stress locations.

We wish Gabe, Tys, and Aaron the very best for their submission to the competition!

A small section of Gabe's NASA food storage solution, with locking tabs

Lastly, sophomore Sarah Jane set about designing the promotional material for next year's Engineering Academy students. This year, we had a simple flat key tag designed by Mr. Meadth; next year, Sarah Jane's design will feature a 32 GB USB drive housed in a hexagonal sheath with the Providence "P" logo proudly emblazoned on the front. Creative and useful!

Sarah Jane's USB drive housing (the final print will be in two colors

and include a 32 GB USB drive)

Part II of this story will come later in the semester, after the students have actually given their printed products to Providence teachers and received feedback. Learning this iterative design loop is a key component of any engineering experience, and the students have taken to it with gusto. Subscribe to this blog to hear about it when it happens!