Transcript Engineering Projects add interest to your Troop meetings

Engineering Projects
add interest to your
Troop meetings
Mike Brown
2013 University of Scouting
What is an Engineering Project?
This is not an Engineering Project…
“Take some sticks and lash
them together with rope…”
This is an Engineering Project…
January, 1863. It has been raining for weeks, now, and the roads are churned into mud
deep enough to bury the horses and mules pulling the army's wagons. Cannon have sunk
completely out of sight in the mud.
Your company has received orders to stop here
and prepare quarters for an extended stay.
We have just received warning from
upstream: the rain has fed a local creek,
which is about to overflow its banks and
flood this spot in 10 minutes.
You must get your entire company,
plus all of its gear, at least 3 feet off the
ground before the water gets here.
What makes an exercise
into an engineering project?
• Start with an engaging story
• Present a problem, not a process
• Skill is needed to complete the project,
but demonstrating the skill
isn’t the point
• Invention and ingenuity
are key
• The best projects
build patrols
Types of Engineering Projects
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Structural Projects (static)
Dynamic Projects (movement)
Floating Projects (water)
Thought Projects
Structural Projects
We have been engaged by the King of Paranoia to
design and build a bridge over the great green greasy
NyQuil river in the kingdom.
Paranoia is a poor land - its primary natural resource is
its old-growth forest of giant rainbowstraw
plants, which provide long, hollow trunks,
long, stringy fibers and large, rectangular
leaves (none of which are worth much on the
world market). Because of Paranoia’s lack of
hard currency, we are limited to the use of
the rainbowstraw plant for building
materials. …
Dynamic Projects
You will be supplied with a
marble, a ramp and a
tabletop. The marble will be
rolled down the ramp to
start the experiment. Your
task is to delay the marble
as long as possible before it
hits the floor.
Floating Projects
To:
From:
Re:
Dewey, Synccem and Howe, Engineers
B. Obama, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Navy
Navy Contract
The severe salt problem which I have just discovered affects most of the world's oceans
has resulted in an immediate need for new cargo ships. We must act now!
Due to the cutbacks I have proposed in the Defense Department budget,
it is no longer possible to build the Navy's new ships using traditional
materials such as steel or wood. I have obtained a large
supply of enormous paper sheets and adhesive tape,
which I have determined will make an ideal naval
construction resource. Unfortunately, these
sheets are extremely expensive, so we must
conserve on them.
You have been supplied with miniatures of these
sheets, and rolls of tape. Your assignment is to
construct a scale model of the new cargo ship we will
build for the Navy. …
Thought Projects
From Cycle of Fire, by Hal Clement
The planet Abyormen is in a double-star system in the
Pleiades. It occupies a very elliptical orbit around the red
dwarf star Theer, which itself orbits the larger blue giant
sun Alcyone. The planet thus has a "short year" around the
dwarf, with the usual seasonal changes, and a "long
year" of about 65 Earth Years in length.
For half the "long year" (or about 32 earth years) at a
time, the planet is more or less Earth-like in climate,
although it can get fairly cold at the most distant
part of its orbit. However, as the planet approaches
the giant star in its orbit the temperatures rise well
above the boiling point of water for 20 earth
years.
What sort of alien might live on Abyormen?
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Look around you…
Home shop or garage
Office leftovers
Junk drawers
Supermarket discards
(Wegmans “please take” bin)
• Dumpster diving
• Dollar Store
Sources of Materials
Let’s try a project or two…