Engineering Communication

10/6/2017

In an effort to insert some of our engineering standards into the first week of school, we decided to introduce science and engineering communication together as a way to capture and share an idea/procedure. This lesson places an emphasis on thoughtful planning and the power that drawings/visuals have when communicating an idea.

Draw Me a Monster...

This lesson starts with a simple request. On a blank sheet of paper, draw me a monster that satisfies the following criteria:

One Tail
Two Feet
Three Heads
Four Eyes
Five Horns
Spots
Pointy Teeth

"You all drew this right?"

Only after everyone has created some sort of drawing (I usually give them about 5 minutes or so) do I show them the drawing that I was describing.

The goal with this opener to get students thinking about what makes communication of an idea "good enough". If the task is to perfectly reproduce the drawing that I had in mind, the communication provided clearly wasn't enough.

The Purpose of Engineering Communication

I see purpose of engineering communication to fall into three primary categories:

Communicate an idea across time zones - technology has allowed us to regularly collaborate with people in different cities, states, and countries. Since coworkers are no longer just "down the hall", engineers need to communicate their ideas in a way that no longer requires their presence. This means detail and careful thought to anticipate what questions someone might have.
Communicate an idea across cultures - in addition to a distance barrier, ideas must also be able to interpreted by people who don't speak the same language. I always give the example of IKEA assembly instructions. While many find the process challenging, it truly is impressive how much communication can happen without words. Pictures are universal and can be understood without language barriers getting in the way.
Communicate an idea across history - sometimes an idea is just before its time. Because of this, it is important to communicate in such a way that allows the idea to live on into the future. One great example of ideas that took hold later in life are the inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci. Many of his inventions impacted the world long after he passed away.

Tools for your Toolbox

As an engineering student in college, I took an entire course on engineering drawing so there is a lot to take in. I wanted to give my students a little taste of some of the diagramming tricks so they could use them in their instructions.

Multi-view Drawings
It's pretty amazing, but three simple, flat drawings can be enough to fully describe a 3-Dimensional object. Simply communicate what the object looks like from the top, front, and side views. This flattening approach is pretty easy to draw and can be "reassembled" by the reader to interpret what the object looks like.

Isometric Drawings
This is the classic 3D object presented in 2D kind of drawing. It requires a little bit of perspective and can be pretty challenging to freehand for some more complex shapes but can provide a really good representation that is easily interpreted as a 3D object. Start with the classic cube and work up from there :)

Assembly Drawings
If there is more than one piece, it is important to communicate how they interact with each other. LEGO instruction manuals and IKEA assembly instruction set an excellent example of how much can be shown with pictures, lines, and arrows.

Dimensions
Without dimensions, a drawing cannot truly represent an object. It is important to include call outs or some sort of scale so that the reader knows how to interpret the size of the object being communicated.

LEGO Time!

For this next part of the lesson, you will need some LEGOS. Since actual LEGO brand blocks are super expensive, we just use an off brand that we found on Amazon called Wonderbricks. The only real set up that we had to do was creating individual kits (two identical sets of 7 bricks in a baggie) but that went pretty quick with Netflix on in the background. We made enough kits for each student to have one. One bag of 1000 comfortably makes 60+ kits.

Step 1
Remove the LEGOs from the baggie and make sure that there are 7 sets of two represented. We have found that it is easiest to confirm this when they are grouped together in pairs like this

Step 2
Separate the LEGOs to make two identical kits of 7. One of these will be used to design and build the model, the other will be given to someone else in the class so they can attempt to recreate the design that has been communicated to them

Step 3
Build something interesting using the LEGOs in one of the kits that you separated. This should be something that is 3-Dimensional (no walls allowed) and has the potential to challenge the builder.

Step 4
Create instructions to communicate the design for someone to use and recreate the masterpiece. The only limit for these instructions is that everything must be done by hand (no photos allowed). This means that drawings (think back to the engineering communication toolbox), written descriptions, and step by step procedures are all on the table.

This is the most important stage of the process so it is okay to spend 20 minutes or so to give lots of opportunities to make the final product really good. When students get done with time still on the clock, I encourage them to think of new ways that they can provide even more information to their user. It's fun to see students using some of the techniques that we introduced minutes earlier to make their descriptions and drawings more meaningful.

Step 5
While keeping the original model intact but hidden, get the instructions to someone else in the class along with the bag and the unused LEGO bricks. Using only the written communication this new individual must try to recreate the original model. After everyone is done, they can compare and see how they did.

Reflection

To wrap things up, I have students return the brick into their original kits and we spend the rest of the class period reflecting on the experience of communicating our ideas. Some questions that are useful to discuss:

What techniques did people use to make it easier to interpret their instructions and build their designs?
What would you do differently if we were do do this again?
How does this connect to science class?

Resources

When I do this lesson in my classes, I use the Prezi embedded below to help me stay on track as I transition between activities and discussions. I have the same materials in a powerpoint presentation as well. Feel free to use or modify if you would like to use this in your own classrooms.

Engineering Communication Prezi