What do I include in a High School Engineering Tool Kit 5

[jpandf]

We have a High school engineering club and I am putting together three "tool kits" to be used by the club. I have $500.00 per kit to spend. The goal of the club is to introduce students to all branches of engineering so the supplies should be general / diverse. I need ideas on what to include in the kit. We are thinking a multimeter, solar cells, wire, a small pump, hand tools. Any other ideas on what I should include?

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Excerpts from engineering design manuals.

EIT with BS in Civil/Structural engineering.

 

[BRGENG]

A book on Ethics. Many in our Profession have none.

 

[owg]

Meccano and/or Erector stuff. Lots around used at very good prices. It will come in useful for building structures for all the fancy electronics, chemical, biological work, and someone may get interested in mechanical engineering along the way.

HAZOP at

http://www.curryhydrocarbons.ca

 

[bigTomHanks]

Take your $500 to a junk yard and start salvaging things that can be taken apart to see how they work. Set up some of the salvaged devices and set up fixtures to take measurements of force/temperature/pressure etc. Then you will need to lead discussions on various aspects of how that particular device works. One lesson could be all around an electric power window motor. Get two and take one apart for demonstration about the gearing. All you need to do is explain how an engineer influenced the parts design.

 

[jmw]

Heck, don't spend any money, just ask the junkyard for some loners... tell them they can have it all back once you're done with it. Dismantled if they like.
Maybe there is a lot of stuff "beyond economical repair" that can be donated and fixed for some money.
$500 isn't a lot to splash around and most will probably go on stationary and sundries.....

Oh, hang on, this is $500 per kit? That makes a difference. That sounds quite generous but.....good tools cost money.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[flash3780]

Took kit, eh? How about the following:

- A multimeter
- A soldering iron
- A TI-86 programmable graphing calculator with DataMate
- Computer interface cable for said calculator
- A thermocouple (

http://www.vernier.com/products/sensors/temperature-sensors/tca-bta/)

- A force sensor (

http://www.vernier.com/products/sensors/force-sensors/dfs-bta/)

- A photogate (

http://www.vernier.com/products/sensors/vpg-btd/)

- A vernier caliper

That should burn through about $500 and get some pretty cool tools.

 

[YoungTurk]

That Vernier line of products looks pretty cool.

Is there any programming / data processing capability with the DataMate software? An advantage of the LabView series is that it would allow the computer oriented kids to do some object programming in a common software suite.

Does anybody have sufficient experience with these systems to compare DataMate / Labview / Arduino kits?

 

[jmw]

If there is any money left over, two 6 meter retractable tape measures (as used on American Hot Rod, with a 1/4inch felt tip pen, to layout the frame so it is "exact"), 1/4" felt tip pen, file, hammers & paint.
Oh, and a Poster.
The poster is to accustom them to the ways of management communication. My favourite management poster is the one that says "The customer pays the bills", something management always forget come pay review or bonus time: they act then like the money is coming out of their own pockets.

The poster showing the simple rules:
[ul][li]Measure twice[/li]
[li]Cut once[/li]
[li]File to shape. [/li]
[li]Bash to fit [/li]
[li]paint to cover. [/li][/ul]
Job done.

Note (include on poster): when using a hammer, don't force it, get a bigger hammer.

For the ladies, a selection of Craftsman screwdrivers to be used as cold chisels or pry bars and returned under guarantee when broken, and some well honed wood chisels to be used as screwdrivers, tin openers etc.




JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[MrL68]

As you plan what tools to put in your kit, think ahead as to what projects or activities you want to work on. THEN you look at what tools/equipment is needed to complete these tasks. I have taught Ind. Arts for thirty plus years and a lot of projects can have engineering impacts on students. I teach POE now so for sure you need calculators to do the math that comes with any engineering study.

Good Luck,
MrL68

 

[MadMango]

If you have $1,500 to spend on 3 kits, I'd make a mechanical kit, electrical kit, and perhaps structural kit. Each one would have unique items in the kit, specific to the area of study.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."


Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[MikeHalloran]

One of my "mustering out" assignments at a job long gone was to develop a list of tools to be purchased for our electromechanical laboratory.

Unfortunately for you, I've long since lost the list, but most of the line items came from the Snap-On catalog, and the total list price came to a little over $5000. .. when that was a lot of money, mind you.

I thought it was total busywork and a complete waste of time.

To my utter amazement, they bought the entire lot, complete and unmodified, after my departure.

I know that because I got a call from the surviving lab tech asking why I had put a five pound ball peen hammer on the list; he'd never seen one so big. The remainder of the conversation went like this:
me: "Have you used it?"
him: "Yes."
me: "End of Discussion."



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[jmw]

Essential to have something you can make dents with.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[MadMango]

Dents? I thought those were field adjustments?

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."


Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[StogieFL]

Going inexpensive you can buy balsa wood and glue to build scaled down bridges.

Learn about Engineering at

http://www.whatisengineering.net/