What is engineering?

What is engineering?

Engineering is a scientific field and job that involves taking our scientific understanding of the natural world and using it to invent, design, and build things to solve problems for people and achieve practical goals. This can include the development of roads, bridges, cars, planes, machines, tools, processes, and computers.

Engineers use models of how materials, systems, and even people behave, and use these models to design things that they predict will work,

Engineers need expert knowledge to be able to model how materials and systems will behave

Engineers need to understand the properties and characteristics of the materials and system they are using to create their design, whether the strength of a beam, the traffic capacity of a road or bridge, or the rules governing the computer program they are using.

Before we ask students to design things, they need to have experience working with the materials they are working with, and common design solutions.

Engineers design things based on their expert knowledge of the properties of the materials they are working with, or established design solutions or practices.

Example: Pizza Party Engineering

Pizza Engineering: How many pizzas do you order if 10 friends are coming for a pizza party?

Engineering Model: Average person eats 2 slices, but some might eat more.

Calculation: If 8 slices per pizza, you might order 3 pizzas( safety factor of 2 slices) or 4 pizzas ( safety factor of 10 slices). The most efficient design is the least expensive one that meets the performance criteria. Engineering designs almost always involve trade-offs- speed vs force, cost vs performance.

Example: Design a Sand Castle

Children building sand castles develop an expert knowledge of the mechanical properties of sand, both wet and dry- how much will hold a shape, how to use forms to shape it, how tall a tower or wall of a given size can be built, how to reinforce it with sticks and pebbles.