Soft-drink bottlers worldwide depend on diminishing supplies of clean water. Here’s how Coke copes.

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Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on Thirsty Giant

Tags: ASEE Prism magazine, Coca-Cola, Conservation, Environmental Engineering, Industrial engineering, Technology, Thomas K. Grose, Water Resources

Middle school students learn about mineral properties and calculate the costs, benefits, and densities in this engineering-driven earth science unit based on the real-world design challenge of salvaging cargo following a train derailment. Students also will strengthen communication skills by creating a presentation to explain their process and justify their decisions to a “client.”

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Lesson: Mineral Mayhem

Tags: Class Activities, Common Core mathematics, Earth Science, Engineering Design, entrepreneurship, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Industrial engineering, Lesson Plan, Mathematics, mineral, NGSS, Purdue University engineering education outreach, scatterplot, STEM integration

In this collaborative math and art lesson, students in grades 4 through high school explore central ideas in industrial engineering – including productivity, efficiency, and quality – by designing their own assembly line and working together to mass produce greeting cards.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Greeting Card Assembly Line

Tags: Art, assembly line, Class Activities, Common Core State Mathematics Standards, girls in STEM, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, greeting card, Industrial engineering, Lesson Plans, Math, STEAM

In this delicious exercise, middle school students in teams of 3 to 5 learn about the field of industrial engineering by creating an assembly line to pack as many snack bags in 2 minutes as possible. They then see if they can improve their process.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12 | Comments Off on Snack Bag Assembly

Tags: assembly line, Class Activities, cookies, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Industrial engineering, industrial process, Lesson Plans, measurement, Northeastern University, snack, Systems Engineering, time motion studies

In this quick, fun activity, pairs of students in grades 2 – 8 will learn about industrial engineering and measurement by estimating how many times a partner can complete a task in one minute, then checking the estimate against actual performance. Students then can discuss ways to improve their performance and try again.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Just a Minute!

Tags: Class Activities, estimation, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Industrial engineering, inquiry, investigation, Mathematics, measurement, time management, time motion studies

She pioneered the field of time-motion studies and was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Yet industrial engineer Lillian Moller Gilbreth remains best known as the domestic engineer who presided over her family in the beloved children’s classic written by two of her 12 children: Cheaper By The Dozen.

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Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on A Woman Who Made Work Easier

Tags: Cheaper by the Dozen, ergonomics, Industrial engineering, industrial psychology, Lillian Gilbreth, time motion studies, Women in Engineering

Who hasn’t been frustrated by hard-to-open, clumsy containers?
Assuming the role of engineers, students learn about the design process and examine the packaging of everyday products. They then analyze a specific product and devise a better design, producing a written report that recommends helpful changes.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | 1 Comment »

Tags: Design, Engineering Design Process, Industrial engineering, package design