Investigating Engineering Design 2

These activities provide students with an understanding of the importance of fitness for purpose when designing new products. Students learn how to effectively dismantle and investigate an engineered product to determine its function/purpose.

It is essential that products used in our everyday lives are fit for purpose. In order to design a product which will be useful to the customer it is important to understand how products function and why different materials and components are suitable for different applications. With this in mind, students will be required to carry out a ‘reverse engineering’ activity.

For this activity students should be provided with a pair of headphones which can be dismantled and reassembled. They then consider which of the product’s properties need to be addressed, how these might be scientifically tested, and how other considerations behind the design of a product might influence the choice of which material is best for the job. This activity illustrates how scientists and engineers have to work in collaboration to solve problems.

This resource, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), can be used as a stand-alone activity or with the other resources in the Sound Design collection.