TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Engineer a Cane
This lesson focuses on how engineers improve assistive devices such as a cane to meet the needs of the elderly. Students work in teams to re-engineer a cane for a "client." They are assigned a client profile, develop a design to suit the...
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The Design Museum: Lesson Plan: Redesign Your Kitchenware
Young scholars will learn about the unique kettle invented by designer Philippe Starck. He designed the Hot Bertaa kettle to be different from everything else available. There was no lid to pour the water in, no handle, and no way of...
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Rooted and Growing: Kindergarten Science Unit: Objects and Materials [Pdf]
A collection of science lessons where young scholars explore the characteristics of different materials and everyday objects and create their own objects and art. They study the properties of the materials that make them strong,...
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Fast Company: Improving the Everyday: 8 Useful Objects That Need Fixing
Some designers offer their ideas about everyday objects that they think need to be improved, things like plastic furniture, the shopping cart, the clothesline, and a hammer and nail.
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Oxo: Behind the Design of the New Oxo Pop Containers
This article describes the process by which an engineer at OXO looked at design, size, and variety when he redesigned OXO's line of POP containers.
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Cool Things: Reinvented Products
A collection of articles on products that have been reinvented to improve their designs.
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Trench Brothers Project: Designing a Soldier's Survival Kit [Pdf]
This activity was created by the Trench Brothers project in England which uses drama, music, and art to share stories of World War I's ethnic minority soldiers with British schools. In this lesson, students are asked to research what...
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Intercom: How to Make Product Improvements to Existing Products
Product improvement is the process of making meaningful product changes that result in new customers or increased benefits realized by existing customers. The two most popular ways to make product improvements are to add new product...