Product Improvement

What is it about the products you use everyday that you like? What causes you to want to buy a cell phone or a backpack? Is it the commercials or the appearance of the product? Whatever the reason, design plays a vital role in the creation and marketing of any product.

Procedure

This activity is designed to provide an introduction to design. As a team of two, you will brainstorm ways to enhance or change an everyday object so that nearly every consumer would want to purchase it.

1. Brainstorm for 15 minutes with your team to identify enhancements or changes that you would make to the item. Changes or enhancements could be anything; you are not limited by cost. 
2. Select ideas to enhance or change the item from the brainstorming list. 
3. Each member of the team should develop and sketch a potential change or enhancement to your product.
4. Your team will take five additional minutes to develop a justification for each potential change to the item.
5. Your team speaker will present your changes to the class. 

Process Statement

• What factors must be considered when changing or enhancing a design?
• Why is it important to document the brainstorming process?
• What is the purpose of sketching your ideas?
• What effective or ineffective techniques did the group speaker use to communicate your idea to the class?

Self as Designer

I chose to use a camera and Photoshop to create this image because those are tools that I am comfortable using. I would like to continue learning how to use Illustrator as a tool for making vector images.

These are the goals I hope to accomplish at the end of our time together:

• demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles of design through the completion of complex projects and the development of problem solving skills
• communicate visually
• develop an understanding of scale, proportion and spatial relationships for the purpose of developing visual presentation and building aesthetic value

• ongoing portfolio of work

Bridge Design

Solving a problem is an amazingly creative process. Creativity can be messy. However, creativity can be channeled into a meaningful solution by using a structured design process. In this activity your team will design a solution to a problem using an engineering design process. You will document the process in your engineering notebook.

 

 

Procedure

1.    Follow the direction of the teacher while completing this activity.

2.    Use the design process learned earlier in this lesson. Document each step in your engineering notebook.

 

3.    Design and build a product that maximizes the distance between two blocks which are connected by a continuous route of paper. The product must meet the constraints below.

a.    The paper must form a continuous chain of connectivity from one block to another without touching the tabletop.

b.    Paper-to-paper linkage will be considered continuous.

c.    The two wooden blocks are ¾ in. wooden blocks.

d.    Both blocks are at table height.

e.    Card stock can be modified.

f.     Additional material can be used during construction, but not on the final product.

4.    The winning design meets the constraints above with the blocks farthest apart.

 

Process Statement:

1.    Why do you think brainstorming is helpful when solving a problem? 

2.    How did testing improve your design? 

3.    With respect to designing the solution of a problem, what are some important characteristics of a successful team?