Engineering Modern Automata: Ancient Machines in the 21st Century
My students need balsa wood, dowels, paint, flat and lock washers, and glue sticks to build their very own Automaton for an Automota museum. Students will be using balsa wood, paint and glue to engineer self-running machines that show their understanding of the engineering design process.
My engineering classroom looks very atypical from traditional classrooms. My students are never isolated and alone, but rather sit in collaborative groups that foster idea sharing and peer-teaching. Students in my class are learning how to solve real-world
I teach at a Title I school in Houston, Texas that is dedicated to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
However, we place a high priority on creativity and how art can facilitate students to think outside the box. As a result, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) best represents my school. Students at this school are diverse. They bring diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, interests and educational backgrounds. I would argue that my school represents one of the most diverse specialized public schools in the city due to the nature of Project Based Learning (PBL).
Many students come to my school looking for the non-traditional classroom that PBL provides. PBL is an avenue to introduce students to the engineering design process and the application of this process to many different disciplines (not only engineering). Teachers at my school work in cross-curricular cohorts composed of an engineering teacher, science teacher, English teacher and humanities teacher.
My Project
As my freshmen students first Project Lead the Way engineering project, they will be building automaton machines out of wood and other supplies to explore the engineering design process. These wooden machines will help students understand how to make an idea on paper come to life for possibly the first time. Students will be modeling a physical process that they study in their World Geography and Biology classes and then creating a life-like representation of the system in my class. Students will need a variety of building materials in order to make their machines reflect their personal voice and choice.
We need balsa wood, dowels, paint, flat and lock washers, and glue sticks to build their very own Automaton for an Automota museum.
Students will be using balsa wood, paint and glue to engineer self-running machines that show their understanding of the engineering design process. The wood and supplies from your donations will help students construct modern-day, mechanical automata modeled off of historical examples. These fully-functioning machines will operate off of non-electrical energy through gears, cams and shafts modeled off of historical machinery. The final automata will be displayed in a steampunk-style exhibition that integrates augmented reality with the student creations. The glue sticks, Gorilla glue and Easy Cutters will help students develop well-crafted machines while the paint supplies will help the machines look flashy and antique.
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