The activity described below is intended for use by high school physics students as part of a material science unit. They will practice design work in teams, collaborating with community college engineering students to produce a glass object. Having previously been exposed to materials testing and the properties that can be determined from such tests, students will learn in this activity some of the desirable and undesirable properties of glass and some of the procedures involved in working with it. No previous experience with glass or ceramics is necessary. Classroom instruction, labs and demonstrations will provide the background information needed to make decisions about design and processing. Math skills needed include the ability to calculate percentages, batches, per unit cost, cooling rates, and parameters related to strength and toughness. Students who have previously taken chemistry will be at an advantage in determining quantities of raw materials needed.

High school students will work in groups of 5-6 to design a glass object that will be of sufficient utility or decorative value that someone might actually want to buy it. The design will be forwarded to community college (CC) engineering or engineering technology students who will be responsible for the manufacture of the items. The CC students will recommend changes and work with the HS students until a workable, economical and mutually satisfactory design is attained. Costs of materials, supplies and other resources (including labor) will be determined.

The CC students will provide manufactured goods to the HS students, who may need to perform finishing or other operations. The HS students will by this time have developed packaging and a marketing strategy. Finished products will be run through a series of appropriate tests, designed by the HS and CC students together. Procedes from the sale of the items will 1) repay all expenses and 2) any profits will go toward the groups’ 4th quarter design project.

Since there may be more than 10 groups involved in marketing glass artifacts in a fairly limited market area, there will be keen competition to come up with clever, economical designs of desirable objects. It is envisioned that 2-4 college students will work with each group.

Students will work in teams to:

1. Select an object that they would like to make.
2. Assign roles to each group member to facilitate team work.
3. Establish a protocol for communication within their team and with their community college collaborators.
4. Design the object, preparing drawings with dimensions.
5. Submit the design to the CC team members.
6. When a final design is completed, create a materials list and sequence of operations describing the manufacturing process completely. Estimates of cost and labor will be made.
7. Maintain a detailed journal describing the design process, recording meetings and other communications of importance; listing material requirements, questions, problems encountered, sources consulted, etc.
8. Send the final design to the CC team for the fabrication of one or more prototypes. These will be subjected to tests as determined by the team.
9. Revisions in design and process will be made by both parts of the team. When a suitable product is made, materials will be purchased and production will commence.
10. Finishing and inspection will take place. Packaging and marketing follow. Full accounting of expenses and revenues will allow the calculation of profit or loss. Profitability will be expressed per unit, as a percent of revenue and as total return on investment.

Class discussions will produce the method for evaluating group work and individual contributions. It will probably look something like this:

Submitted By

July 22, 1997

Word 97 doc file of this project:  shorewood.doc