This resource is a collection of student tutorial videos that explore various materials science and engineering topics using visualizations in the Wolfram Mathematica programming system.
Students learn about the causes, composition and types of volcanoes. They begin with an overview of the Earth's interior and how volcanoes form. Once students know about how a volcano functions, they learn how engineers predict eruptions. In a class demonstration, students watch and measure a mock volcanic eruption and observe the phases of an eruption, seeing how a volcano gets its shape and provides us with clues to predict a blast.
Students use inclined planes as they recreate the difficult task of raising a monolith of rock to build a pyramid. They compare the push and pull of different-sized blocks up an inclined plane, determine the angle of inclination, and learn the changes that happen when the angle is increased or decreased.
In this service-learning engineering project, students follow the steps of the engineering design process to design a hearing testing device. More specifically, they design a prototype machine that can be used to test the peripheral vision of partially-blind, pre-verbal children. Students learn about the basics of vision and vision loss. They also learn how a peripheral vision tester for adults works (by testing the static peripheral vision in the four quadrants of the visual field with four controllable lights in specific locations). Then they modify the idea of the adult peripheral vision tester to make it usable for testing young children. The class designs and builds one complete prototype, working in sub-groups of four or five students each to build sub-components of the project design.
Students use a thermal process approach to design, build and test a small-scale desalination plant that is capable of significantly removing the salt content from a saltwater solution. Students use a saltwater circuit to test the efficiency of their model desalination plant and learn how the water cycle is the basis for the thermal processes that drive their desalination plant.
Students learn about the importance of dams by watching a video that presents historical and current information on dams, as well as descriptions of global water resources and the hydrologic cycle. Students also learn about different types of dams, all designed to resist the forces on dams. (If the free, 15-minute "Water and Dams in Today's World" video cannot be obtained in time, the lesson can still be taught. See the Additional Multimedia Support section for how to obtain the DVD or VHS videotape, or a PowerPoint presentation with similar content [also attached].)
Students learn the history of the waterwheel and common uses for water turbines today. They explore kinetic energy by creating their own experimental waterwheel from a two-liter plastic bottle. They investigate the transformations of energy involved in turning the blades of a hydro-turbine into work, and experiment with how weight affects the rotational rate of the waterwheel. Students also discuss and explore the characteristics of hydroelectric plants.
Students apply their knowledge of scale and geometry to design wearables that would help people in their daily lives, perhaps for medical reasons or convenience. Like engineers, student teams follow the steps of the design process, to research the wearable technology field (watching online videos and conducting online research), brainstorm a need that supports some aspect of human life, imagine their own unique designs, and then sketch prototypes (using Paint®). They compare the drawn prototype size to its intended real-life, manufactured size, determining estimated length and width dimensions, determining the scale factor, and the resulting difference in areas. After considering real-world safety concerns relevant to wearables (news article) and getting preliminary user feedback (peer critique), they adjust their drawn designs for improvement. To conclude, they recap their work in short class presentations.
Het boek Werktuigkundige Systemen is een compacte inleiding op het systeemdenken in de werktuigbouwkunde, met nadruk op inzicht en grafische methoden, gelardeerd met prikkelende werkingsprincipes en constructie-elementen. Velen merken dat ze nog lang nadat ze het vak gedaan hebben dit boek als naslagwerk gebruiken en het steeds meer gaan waarderen, ook omdat het boek de basis legt voor veel vervolgvakken en projecten.
Het boek is al jarenlang in gebruik bij eerstejaars studenten Werktuigbouwkunde aan de TU Delft. Diverse docenten gebruiken het bij vakken of ontwerpprojecten.
De oorsprong van dit boek in de tachtiger jaren is een college geweest, waarin op eenvoudige wijze de werking van bestaande apparaten en machines werd geanalyseerd. In een later stadium is deze stof uitgebreid met een aantal constructieve bijzonderheden. Daarbij heeft de systeemleer en de modelvorming een belangrijke basis gevormd.
Meer uitgebreid: De fundamentele principes bij ontwerpen komen in dit boek ‘Werktuigkundige Systemen’ naar voren. Zo wordt de systeemleer toegepast op werktuigkundige constructies en wordt in het hoofdstuk over modelvorming de weg aangegeven om de complexe fysische werkelijkheid om te zetten in een overzichtelijk werkingsinzicht. Ook onder meer mechanische versterkers komen aan bod en is een hoofdstuk gewijd aan de belangrijke begrippen sterkte en stijfheid. Er is ruim aandacht gegeven aan wrijving en weerstand, alsmede aan de middelen om deze te vergroten of te verkleinen. Omdat veren tot de essentiële werktuigonderdelen behoren is een hoofdstuk gewijd aan de toepassing van veren in een ontwerp. Hier is het belangrijke begrip voorspanning behandeld. Het onderwerp Aandrijving wordt behandeld en daarin wordt aangegeven op welke wijze een motor met een last moet worden gekoppeld. Het hoofdstuk over comparalogie laat de problemen zien bij het verkleinen of vergroten van reeds bestaande constructies en bij de vaak noodzakelijke modelproeven. Het hoofdstuk over energie ten slotte, geeft een inleiding in de ‘warme werktuigbouwkunde’. Hierin is een technologisch rendement beschreven dat aangeeft in welke mate een machine warmtetechnisch goed is geconstrueerd.
Dit boek kan gebruikt worden bij verschillende soorten technisch hoger onderwijs; zowel door het globale overzicht van de gehele werktuigbouwkunde, de introductie van systeemleer en modelvorming, als door de specialistische behandeling van enkele bijzondere onderwerpen.
Students discuss several human reproductive technologies available today pregnancy ultrasound, amniocentesis, in-vitro fertilization and labor anesthetics. They learn how each technology works, and that these are ways engineers have worked to improve the health of expecting mothers and babies.
In this scenario-based activity, students design ways to either clean a water source or find a new water source, depending on given hypothetical family scenarios. They act as engineers to draw and write about what they could do to provide water to a community facing a water crisis. They also learn the basic steps of the engineering design process.
Three short, hands-on, in-class demos expand students' understand of energy. First, using peanuts and heat, students see how the human body burns food to make energy. Then, students create paper snake mobiles to explore how heat energy can cause motion. Finally, students determine the effect that heat energy from the sun (or a lamp) has on temperature by placing pans of water in different locations.
Students are introduced to the concepts of air pollution and air quality. The three lesson parts focus on the prerequisites for understanding air pollution. First, students use M&Ms to create a pie graph that expresses their understanding of the composition of air. Next, students watch and conduct several simple experiments to develop an understanding of the properties of air (it has mass, it takes up space, it can move, it exerts pressure, it can do work). Finally, students develop awareness and understanding of the daily air quality using the Air Quality Index (AQI) listed in the newspaper. In an associated literacy activity, students explore the environmental history timeline.
How does our climate affect us? How do we decide what to wear each day? What factors determine if our clothing choices are comfortable? What is the source of our water? Students explore characteristics that define climatic regions. They learn how tropical, desert, coastal and alpine climates result in different lifestyle, clothing, water source and food options for the people who live there. They learn that a location's latitude, altitude, land features, weather conditions, and distance from large bodies of water, determines its climate. Students discuss how engineers help us adapt to all climates by designing clothing, shelters, weather technologies and clean water systems.
In this open-ended design activity, students use everyday materials milk cartons, water bottles, pencils, straws, candy to build small-scale transportation devices. They incorporate the use two simple machines a wheel and axle, and a lever into their designs. Student pairs choose their materials and engineer solutions suitable to convey pyramid-building materials (small blocks of clay). They race their carts/trucks, measuring distance, time and weight; and then calculate speed.
Students learn about the Earth's water cycle, especially about evaporation. Once a dam is constructed, its reservoir becomes a part of the region's natural hydrologic cycle by receiving precipitation, storing runoff water and evaporating water. Although almost impossible to see, and not as familiar to most people as precipitation, evaporation plays a critical role in the hydrologic cycle, and is especially of interest to engineers designing new dams and reservoirs, such as those that Splash Engineering is designing for Thirsty County.
Students use DNA profiling to determine who robbed a bank. After they learn how the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is used to match crime scene DNA with tissue sample DNA, students use CODIS principles and sample DNA fragments to determine which of three suspects matches evidence obtain at a crime location. They communicate their results as if they were biomedical engineers reporting to a police crime scene investigation.
Students are introduced to the concept of a dam and its potential benefits, which include water supply, electricity generation, flood control, recreation and irrigation. This lesson begins an ongoing classroom scenario in which student engineering teams working for the Splash Engineering firm design dams for a fictitious client, Thirsty County.
Students learn how engineers transform wind energy into electrical energy by building their own miniature wind turbines and measuring the electrical current it produces. They explore how design and position affect the electrical energy production.
Investigating a waterwheel illustrates to students the physical properties of energy. They learn that the concept of work, force acting over a distance, differs from power, which is defined as force acting over a distance over some period of time. Students create a model waterwheel and use it to calculate the amount of power produced and work done.