Project Guided Assembly

Overview and Time Arrangement

Within the Project Guided Assembly Module, students learn the basics of mechanical and electrical engineering through the manual build of their kits. Each group of students is presented with a disassembled set of mechanical, electrical, and control parts. Students collaborate together to complete each portion of the build with reference materials and teacher guidance.

This module is separated into 4 sessions of approximately 50 minutes each with corresponding learning exercises and review. If wished, quick builds of the hardware may be completed in approximately a 2 hour session.

Note: The module must be completed before proceeding to any other curricular units. All other curricular units require completed assembly of the STEM kit.

Big Ideas

• What is mechanical and electrical engineering?
• What are microcontrollers and how do they interact with other materials?
• How do I designate and accept tasks for my team?

Module Goals

By the end of this unit students will be able to identify the essential parts of a real world technology product including controllers, motors, sensors, breadboards, power sources, switches, and related mechanical and wiring pieces. Students should be able to define hardware elements into mechanical and electrical components and should be able to delegate, accept and collaborate on strategies to build these items and check them with others. This module wishes to create a tactile, hands on experience that empowers students to guide their own learning in groups with teachers playing a co-learner role.