Architecture & Engineering Design

Architecture and Engineering Design class

Architecture and Engineering Design (AED) is a STEM class offered in New Providence High School

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Architecture and Engineering Design is a course for students who have interest in a career in engineering, architecture, or any of the many design fields that create innovations for our home and environment.

The major focus of the course is to expose students to the engineering design process by which people design innovations, inventions, and systems to improve our lives. They will think critically, make decisions, integrate knowledge, and use problem-solving skills to create their own innovations. It gives them the opportunity to invent, design, and work in design teams, applying teamwork, communication methods, engineering standards, and technical documentation. The students will design their own residential building project, applying residential building components and systems, applying the standards that are used for visual communication in careers in the design and construction industry.

The course is based around project-based learning in which students will analyze, design and build 2D and 3D computer models of their own designs, using state of the art software programs, Autodesk Inventor® and REVIT®. While implementing these designs, students will develop their interpersonal skills, creative abilities and understanding of the design process.

Manual drafting and the technical visual communication standards of the industry are very important for students pursuing careers in architecture, interior design and engineering. By learning the techniques of drafting designs on the drawing table with conventional drawing tools, students will develop transferable skills in which they will be able to visually communicate their designs to others, whether to a professional contractor or to a layperson. They will also experience, through the use of the CAD programs, how computer technology has provided a means to perform these same tasks more efficiently and more precisely with the computer .

Students will develop workplace readiness skills by using technology, information, and other tools to communicate their designs while applying the professional standards of the industry.

Students will demonstrate self-management skills, working at their own pace, creating a portfolio and sets of drawings of original products. Students will also demonstrate ability to work with others as a team, solving problems and delegating responsibilities in the group to work through the engineering method.

Units of Study:

Unit 1: Intro to Engineering & The Engineering Design Process

Unit 2: Mechanical Drafting and Orthographic Projection

Unit 3: Computer 3-D Modeling original innovations with Autodesk Inventor (ie. Designing a 3D puzzle)

Unit 4: Innovations for Laser and 3D Printing of original student designs (ie. Innovating the tape dispenser)

Unit 5: Architecture: Investigating the life and careers of modern Architects

Unit 6: Architecture: Designing (Student's own) Residential Design for contemporary lifestyle

Unit 6: Designing a House 2nd Floor

Unit 7: Revit: Computer Aided Drafting in Architectural Design - BIM!

Video above is this year, in our first day of class, doing an "instant challenge" as a team, building a paper bridge.

The Video below is the Cardboard Chair project in 2017-2018, which replaced the tape dispenser innovation in the curriculum that year. My objective was to give them a challenge that is given in major design schools, including RISD and other universities. It is a great project that teaches structure and the design process. I would do it again if it hadn't been so difficult to store in my room! ha.