CS and Engineering

Living Hinges

Students can explore material properties by devising their own hinging strategies to be laser cut from a single piece of wood. How might such hinges be useful in different applications?

Flexible Design

This chainmail-like material prints in place on the 3D printer. Take it off the plate, then start moving it like fabric. How about we show students this design, then challenge them to do something similar? Additionally, we can 3D print onto a fabric surface, 3D print with bend lines, and use other strategies to engineer products that are joined yet flexible right off the 3D printer.

Engineering + Coding Challenges

Here's a page of engineering challenges that the Institute of Engineering and Technology created for the Micro:bit microcontroller.

Gondolicious

How about we teach your students how to control a servo motor with a microcontroller, then you challenge them to an engineering task? Here, a gondola (more of a ski lift chair, actually) traverses a kitchen upon snap activation. How to make the wheel? How to balance the load of the battery pack? How to have fun solving these problems!

Time for Coding

How about challenging students to engineer a clock made out of LED stickers? An easily programmable microcontroller is the brains, and students work to design and craft a working timepiece.

Prototyping

This prototype of a bike helmet that signals turns and breaking with motion activation is an example of applying some design thinking to an engineering challenge. What else can we invent?

Levers and Such

Look at this opportunity to showcase different mechanical engineering principles! What can teams build on their custom play surfaces to showcase engineering concepts and have fun doing it?

More Levers and Such

Many fun possibilities here to challenge students' engineering chops. How about a marble run that has to end higher than it started? (Would that be a marble retreat?) Maybe use a screw mechanism to transport the marble up? Let's think about your engineering concepts and how they might come to life in a project like this.

MORE More Levers and Such

Similar to above, only now with a Lego twist. We have Lego wall plates in the Bourn Idea Lab. Let's engineer some fun marble times!

Light It

The accelerometer in this microcontroller is controlling the behavior of these sewn LEDs. Students can use MakeCode or Circuit Python, and their wearable creations can respond to different inputs, like darkness, sound, or motion.

Accelerate

This example highlights the use of an accelerometer in engineering projects. Here, the microcontroller's accelerometer adds an LED light for every few second of balance and deductions lights if the user touches down. Can we apply this concept in some way to your engineering course?

More Pinball

This demo game shows more options for students to explore coding and making. They can design and fabricate surface elements with 3D printing or laser cutting, and they can control lights and servo motors using Circuit Python or MakeCode.