For the past two semesters, we have enjoyed a partnership with Mr. Baker and his engineering students from AL Brown High School in Kannapolis. Mr. Baker and I met at an AL Brown open house that I was attending with my daughter, a 2011 graduate of AL Brown. After a brief chat, a great partnership was born.
You see, AL Brown has a 3-D printer – basically, this is a machine that takes a design from a computer program and using a special plastic, “prints” it in three dimensions. And they have the intellectual capital – the students are bright and eager to design. Our lab was desperate for new props for our memory tests. So, a lesson plan was born.
As an introduction to the project, the students were invited to our lab at the Nutrition Research Institute. The project was presented like we were the client and they were a company bidding for the contract. They were given the goal – to design unique toys that a child could put together in two or three steps. We also explained to them rules for the toys – for example, there could be no choke-ables, no toxic glues, no pinching parts, etc. As part of the lesson plan, Dr. Baker had a child development expert visit the classroom and explain to the students what a toddler “is” – how they behave, how they play, how big (little) they are, and what their capabilities are. Groups of four or five students cooperated to come up with a single design.
The students then presented their designs to the customer (us) in a formal boardroom setting with VIPs such as the principal and reporters in attendance. I expected that the designs would be good, but they were great! I was very impressed with the innovative ideas and attention to details. During these presentations, we were given the opportunity to make suggestions for improvements. After making the suggested adjustments, the students printed the final projects for us.
We have several great new sets of toys for memory testing. I believe that the students had a great experience and from this project, they have gained real-world experience in engineering. We look forward to using the toys in the next research study and working with the upcoming AL Brown engineering students.