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Activity Guide
Engineering from the Inside Out
Ask students the following questions:Before showing this program, explain that the four engineers in this program face difficult challenges in their work. The projects they are developing are large, expensive, and time-consuming. Whether they are building windmills, bridges, amusement park rides or new laser technologies, their jobs depend on a lot of preparation. These engineers spend long hours working out the details of their ideas, because when it comes time to build, they have to know that the plan will work.
- How do you know if a plan will be successful?
- How many times do you have to test your theory before putting it into action?
- What do you do if you can't build your project until you know that it will work?
- What happens if something goes wrong?
- Who needs to approve your ideas?
Hector Medina, program manager, Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.
Mr. Medina grew up in Puerto Rico. He has always been fascinated by the great bridges of the world. As a bridge engineer, he has had an opportunity to work on a number of bridges and to study the design and building processes that are involved in creating them. Now, he has won a contract to design a new bridge for a busy section of highway in Boston, Massachusetts. The design he has proposed is unusual, and government officials are not sure that it will be safe. Before the bridge can be built, Mr. Medina must prove that his bridge will be strong enough to support its load.
Discussion and Activity:
Mr. Medina's bridge will be built using a method known as post-tension technique. To demonstrate this technique to students, duplicate the activity that Mr. Medina performs with his son's blocks. Collect two corks or rubber stoppers, a length of strong wire (or use a wire coat hanger that has been twisted open and straightened) and about two dozen objects of a similar size, such as wooden blocks, polystyrene blocks, or thread spools. Drill holes through the center of the blocks and have students string them tightly onto the wire. Slide the corks or stoppers onto the ends of the wire to hold the blocks in place. Have the students test the strength of the span with weights such as books, bricks, or other heavy objects.
Steve Grey, manager, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory field office, Navajo Community College
Mr. Grey wants to use the wind to bring electric lights to the Navajo nation. As an engineer, he has been studying the technology involved in generating electricity from the wind. He thinks that the windy terrain of New Mexico may be an appropriate site to build residential windmills that would allow people in the Navajo nation to have electric power in their homes. Before he can proceed with his plan, however, he must get funding to buy the windmills. Most importantly, he must obtain permission from his Navajo community, balancing Navajo values with the technology he is developing. Then he will create a test site to collect data and determine whether his idea will work.
Discussion and Activity:
Before he can move forward with his experiment to build windmills, Mr. Grey must get the approval of people in the Navajo nation. In the program, we learn that the Navajo people believe that Earth, Water, and Wind are sacred elements, and that some of the people in the Navajo nation are concerned that Steve's project might damage the Earth or the environment. What ideas do students have about respect for the environment after watching this video? What are some ways that they can begin to think about protecting the Earth, Water, and Wind in their daily activities? For older students, expand this discussion into a data-collection project in which they take notes on the impact that they have on Earth, Water, and Air throughout their day.
Michael Spencer, Ph.D., director, Materials Science Research Center of Excellence, professor of electrical engineering, Howard University
Dr. Spencer is involved in an important race to make something that has never been made before - a blue laser. His work is exciting: As a project leader at Howard University, an African-American institution, he can lead black students into successful science careers. In addition, the blue laser will be an important development, since it will emit a much narrower beam of light than existing lasers. With blue laser technology, compact discs could hold much more data, and laser beams could be directed more accurately than is possible today. Dr. Spencer and his team are working to create a new compound that will lase, or glow, with a blue light when it is injected with an electric current.
Discussion and Activity:
Dr. Spencer quotes one of his advisors, who says that people don't learn anything when they get the "right" results immediately after trying an experiment. What does this statement mean to the students? How do they feel about an accomplishment that comes easily compared to something for which they must work hard or try again? After watching this entire program, ask the students for their comments about continuing to work on a project after a setback. How do they deal with discouragement when they are working toward an important goal?
Victoria Aguilera, mechanical engineer, Ride Mechanical Engineering, Walt Disney Imagineering
Ms. Aguilera is a mechanical engineer, one of a very few Mexican-American women in the field. As a child, she and her family hid in the back seats of cars to escape from Mexico into the United States for a better life. In school, she was placed in remedial classes until a teacher recognized her mathematical talent. Today, Ms. Aguilera a naturalized citizen, is a successful engineer who designs some of the incredible rides at Disneyland. After testing a ride, Victoria and her team must make a change to the design in order to be sure that it will be completely safe. In addition to safety, however, Ms. Aguilera must also design the ride to look appealing, so her change needs to fit in with the "look" of the attraction. Working with artists as well as other engineers, she tries several ideas to make the ride safe and fun.
Discussion and Activity:
Ms. Aguilera's job involves hiding many of the structural features of the ride. Have teams of students build models of amusement park rides (younger students may want to build simpler rides using ramps and tracks, while older students might use pulleys, levers, or springs). The challenge is to make each ride strong enough to support a bundle of 100 paper clips without letting any of the support structure show. Each ride should be designed around a theme. When the models are completed, assemble the entire amusement park and have each team explain their project, showing how the support structures work.
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