A dessert and hot chocolate reception was hosted this week on campus in the Carter Innovation Studio to showcase the work of Upper School students in engineering and architecture courses. Students taking 3D Art and Architectural Arts with Monica Tiulescu, and students taking Applied Science & Engineering, Engineering I, and the Art and Science of Making with David Otten, exhibited a range of projects. 

The appliance dissection project undertaken by the Engineering I class challenged students to understand the inner workings of a colorful range of mechanical devices. 

First, students were asked to individually choose an appliance that felt interesting to them. From there, each student was tasked to perform a careful dismantling of their appliance followed by an identification and study of how each component worked. In order to display their findings, students laid out each deconstructed item on a flat piece of cardboard and integrated written explanations of the purpose and function of each mechanical part into the display.

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Items selected for dissection spanned several decades: a vintage radio, an Atari Video Pinball console, an Atari Super Pong console, a boom box, a soldering gun, a Black & Decker drill, a mouse, a color printer, and a digital camera were on display. Seeing the dismantled products side-by-side gave spectators the opportunity to observe key differences among the appliances. For example, the complexity and number of parts contained in a digital camera differed significantly from that found in a toaster.

Apart from the experience of dismantling a complex object and researching its components, learning also came from inviting students to think about what drives complexity in product design. The role that manufacturing capabilities and the availability of technology during any given era was also considered as a contributor to design thinking. Experiential learning is alive and well at Athenian thanks to our amazing faculty, students and the Carter Innovation Studio!