Step 1: Present students with a general overview of what a CNC machine is.

Step 2: Present students with a brief history of machine tools starting from the early wood lathes until the modern fully automated machining centres.

Step 3: Summarise what was discussed.

Step 1: Present students with a summary of activity 1.

Step 2: Guide an open discussion comparing and contrasting a modern CNC machine vis a vis a manual machine tool. CNC machine advantages and disadvantages should emerge from this discussion where these points are listed on the whiteboard.

Step 1: Present students with a summary of activity 2.

Step 2: Present students how a CNC machine works. (A G code program is fed through the input device, it is read by the MCU, the CLU converts the instructions into electric signals, these are sent to the axes drives which move the machine head or table and the workpiece is cut to the desired shape.)

Step 1: Present students with a summary of activity 3.

Step 2: Show students a demonstration of a working CNC machine is shown to the students. (No set-up is required at this stage. The demo should show the capabilities of the machine)

Step 1: Present students with the applications of CNC in manufacturing engineering. The teacher will introduce different processes requiring CNC machine tools including; lathes, milling machines, laser cutters, laser welders, laser hardening, water jet cutters,   plasma cutters, EDM, wire EDM and additive manufacturing machines. For each CNC machine, typical products are shown.

Step 1: An industrial visit is organised to show some of the machines described in Activity 3 in action.

Step 1: Have students take an educational quiz (can also be online) in which they are asked to select the best CNC machine tool to produce a given product.

• K1 To describe what a CNC machine is and how it works.