As seen by our last post, students put forth a great effort during our High School Challenge. While learning about ways to recycle, the students also were able to talk to current Oregon State University students about college life. Here are some pictures from those events. Additional photos can be seen on our Facebook page found here.
Like many IME activities in the past, we have talked about assembly lines. Usually, the activity includes pre-made instructions for each step of the assembly process. However, in this activity students get to create their own. How do you divide work evenly among each step in the assembly line? Is an assembly line cost effective? Students will get to discover this for themselves in this activity.
What is line balancing? It is when each person/workstation has a specific task to complete in order to make a product. The goal in line balancing is to complete a task in a specified amount of time so production does not fall behind. That is the main task in this IME lesson plan. Students must construct a “house” in a specified amount of time. But what do you do if you know you cannot make the time goal given? What would you compromise on? Ask your students these questions while going through the following material:
This is another great activity made for us by our IME Team. In this activity, students will use LEGOs to design the most cost effective airplane without compromising on function. See the links below to run this activity in your classroom:
This year, like previous years, our IME Team has made several lesson plans to share. This Optimization Methods Activity focuses on the most efficient path to travel, much like engineers do. Below are the materials to run this exciting activity.
In our most recent post, the ME team used a 3D printer for one of their parts. What is 3D printing? There are different ways to print three dimensional objects, which are detailed in this link. Our ME team used the fused deposition process for their part which can be seen below. These printers are not only used for small parts and projects, they are also used to make everything from medical supplies to an entire car (see below). Companies like Protolabs and Solid Concepts specialize in making molds and parts. These links will help your students understand the things mentioned in the previous ME video. For the future, the hope is that 3D printers will make manufacturing of tools and products faster without compromising on strength and durability. Check it out!
We enjoyed your company at the Winter Teacher’s Workshop! We hope everyone had a blast. If you are a middle school or high school SMILE teacher you should have received the following materials (pictured below): cornstarch, agar agar, gelatin powder, a bottle of glycerin, Styrofoam, cornstarch, and green biodegradable Styrofoam packing peanuts. With these materials we showcased several lesson plans including Fork it Over and Packing for the Future along with the bonus activity: Composting- Out of Sight Not Out of Mind. All of the lesson plans and presentations for these activities can be seen here. We would love to see pictures of your SMILE students performing these activities. Always feel free to e-mail us at smile.program.osu@gmail.com.
Once again our IME team has created amazing activities for our SMILE Teacher’s Workshop. They have created a great example of what an Industrial Manufacturing Engineer does on their job including optimizing manufacturing processes. Check out their activity below:
