Using Engineering Notebooks

Remember Reverse Engineering 
by Cathy K.

Reverse Engineering (RE): "disassemble or analyze in detail in order to discover concepts involved in manufacture." 
- The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, New ed. 2004.

One of the sessions I attended at the E4 Conference was on using writing to document and communicate engineering ideas.  We worked through ideas on how using engineering/science notebooks connect to the ELA standards.

The main activity we did in the session was titled: Pen & Teller, Inc.  We started by writing and sketching in our notebooks our pen observations and what we noticed when we disassembled the pens.  Then we documented how the pen actually worked, using what we knew about springs, locking mechanisms, etc...  At the end, we were given a design challenge.  I enjoyed the learning experience and feel it would be a great reverse engineering project for students at CP.

Here is a glimpse of how the reverse engineering challenge starts:

Click on the link for more details about the activity: https://www.ieee.org/documents/Pen_and_Teller.pdf

To engage the audience in the topic of pens, the presenter used these video clips on Inkjoy pens...