Fabrication & Assembly Projects
Class projects interact with every letter in the acronym STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics). We start the year learning about statics, a design area concerned with objects and structures that don't move. Next, we explore the intersection of art and engineering, learning about Rube Goldberg and stop-motion animation techniques. Then, we experiment with basic electronics, using DC Motors and our 3D printing skills to create movement.
Projects are hands-on, both individual and collaborative, and are open-ended challenges that have no one, correct solution.
The Engineering Icebreaker
At the start of nearly every class, fabrication & assembly students participate in a short (7-20 min) design challenge. This is a good way to get the engineering juices flowing; we take off our traditional learning caps and don our design thinking ones.
Examples of fabrication & assembly icebreakers include: make a drawbridge out of cardboard and string, create a self portrait out of paper, replicate the Eiffel Tower out of lollipop sticks, and many more.
Class Projects
Quarter 1 Paper airplane contest
Spaghetti Tower Challenge
User Design: Dream House (21')
Model Homes (22') (10th)
Truss Bridge Building (9th)
Quarter 2 Rube Goldberg Machine
Designers and Clients: 3D Printed Sunglasses (10th)
Stop Motion Film (9th)
Quarter 3 Vintage Trailer Construction (10th)
Coding: Computer Games
Electronic Design: Robotics
Quarter 4 Tiny Town
Solar Vehicles (10th)
Quarter 1
Paper Airplane Contest
A short, day-long challenge to design the best paper plane. Awards were given to the farthest flying plane and the plane with the fanciest flight pattern.
Spaghetti Tower Challenge
Students got into teams of 2-3 and competed against each other to build a tower out of spaghetti, tape, and string. The tower had one condition: it must support the weight of 1 marshmallow placed at the top. With a time limit of 20 minutes, it's always a surprise to see what marvels of structural engineering get created.
User Design: Dream House
Designers were randomly assigned a user to create the ideal living space for. Users ranged in age, ability level, and aesthetic preferences; designers were given a short profile on this information. Some important considerations for room design were height of furniture / doorknobs, color palette, storage options, and accessibility.
Our designers used the program Tinkercad to 3D model their structures.
Model Homes
Students are challenged to see the design process of creating a model home from start to finish. Designers start by using graph paper and pencil to sketch a to-scale blueprint of their home plans. Next, using their hand drawn plans, they model their homes in TinkerCAD (a 3D design software. Finally, using the provided materials of wood, stone, dowel rods, and moss, they construct their homes.
Truss Bridge Building
This project tasked students with constructing a bridge that spanned a gap of 15 inches, and supported the weight of at least 10 textbooks for 10 seconds without breaking. Students were restricted to a budget of $500,000, where building materials ranged in cost from $8k to $12k, and labor cost $45k per group member. In groups of 2-3, students first planned their build on paper, then came to the "contractor" (Ms. Young) to get their plans approved. Then, groups "purchased" their materials (wooden and paper dowel rods and hot glue). Over the course of 4 weeks, groups built and rebuilt, until their bridges successfully supported the required weight.
Quarter 2
Rube Goldberg Machine
In groups of two, students created a Rube Goldberg machine that completed a task. These tasks were chosen by the students, and some examples included popping a balloon, filling a cup with marbles, turning on a light, and ringing a bell. The machines were required to have at least 5 transitions (where energy transfers from one mechanism to another), and last at least one minute in duration.
Stop Motion Film
Individually or in pairs, students created a minute long stop motion animation short. Films were required to have a narrative plot (tell a story) and include homemade props/ backgrounds. Filmmakers were able to use any of the four animation techniques discussed in class (claymation, cut-out, pixilation, and object stop motion).
Designers and Clients: 3D Printed Sunglasses
Students act as both the designer and the client to create the perfect, custom pair of 3D printed sunglasses. When they are the client, they tell their designer exactly what they're looking for in an ideal pair of sunglasses. They have their designer measure the width of their face, and the distance between their eyes. The designer is in charge of meeting the demands of their client, and creating eyewear that is comfortable and stylish. Final designs are entirely 3D printed.
Quarter 3
Vintage Trailer Construction
Ninth grade students collaborated with Mr. Hartman's visual arts class to create small models of vintage camper trailers, inspired by the designs of the 1940s. Students first created a scale drawing on graph paper of their floor plan, then cut out wooden bases and cardstock walls. The final designs are equipped with wooden axels and functional wheels (and some pretty cool paint jobs).
Coding: Computer Games
After learning about the iterative process through which modern video games are created, students used the Processing IDE to code a simple computer game. The core functionality of the code was provided, and students were expected to figure out how it works in order customize it. Examples of customization included changing character speed, adding colors and images, changing direction of obstacles, and adding dialogue effects.
Programming: Microcontrollers
After spending a few weeks learning coding skills, students applied this knowledge to program Arduino microcontrollers. These day-long projects all utilized the microcontrollers to perform a myriad of functions, including creating an LED light display, triggering servo motors, engaging a speaker to play a song, and integrating tilt sensors.
Electronic Design: Robotics
The final task of our Coding & Electronics unit was to apply our programming and electrical skills to create a small robotic machine of choice. Projects, included in the Arduino CTC 101 Kit, ranged from a handheld pong game that responds to tilt sensors to a wooden "crawling" robot.
Quarter 4
Tiny Town
In collaboration with Mrs. Haberman's environmental science class, STEAM students must apply their design thinking skills to conceive a "tiny town", an idealized utopia to replace one of America's major metropolitan areas. Groups must think about all facets of urban human life, including energy, transportation, waste management, infrastructure, local ecology, agriculture, and scientific innovations. Final deliverables are a physical construction of a model of the tiny town, and a formal presentation that details each design choice.
Solar Vehicles
Tenth grade engineers wrap up their year by learning about solar power, and designing solar vehicles. This project begins with the building of solar cars (and testing on York Prep's roof), and progresses into the design of solar vehicles. These vehicles can be anything except for a four wheeled car; examples of vehicles include propeller boats, cranes, motorcycles / tricycles, tractors, and chariots.