It’s No PROBLEM To Be an Engineer – Week 3 bESTology

Image: fineartamerica.com

National Engineers Week! As bESTologists, we are focusing the spotlight on the careers of transportation and civil engineers and how they impact our world.

Did you know that transportation and civil engineers have a –

• responsibility to move people and goods safely and efficiently?
• salary that is often more than $80,000 per year?
• knack to effectively apply problem-solving and teamwork skills?

Transportation and civil engineers must solve current and future transportation issues. Issues such as integrating transport systems, creating transportation hubs for rail, bus, taxi, walking and bicycle paths and parking lots that all conveniently meet or how to provide safety for all residents by creating effective evacuation routes and plans.

These engineers play a vital role in developing novel construction materials, new construction methods, advances in computer science and automated road construction using ROBOTS – all of which speed up construction time, lower costs and generally improve our nation’s infrastructure.

Resources:

• Transportation Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Song:  I Want to be an Engineer
• Interactive Emergency Evacuation Guidebook
• Glass and Solar Roads
• Paving roads with technology
• Bridge Inspections using Robots

Brainstorm:

As America’s highway infrastructure ages and the volume of traffic increases, the manpower to inspect roads, highways, bridges and tunnels becomes increasingly labor intensive and time consuming.  Generate a complete list of career opportunities that are associated with civil and transportation engineering.   Then assess ways robots can assist these engineers with inspections – such as testing the load bearing cables on bridges, tethers on cable cars, underwater surfaces of tunnels, pilings under bridges, road surfaces and safety.  Give examples of the various types of robots and sensors that would be deployed – underwater, climbing, flying, rolling, etc.

Writing:

Safety always comes first.  Draft an emergency evacuation plan/manual for your town; be sure to include a map. Determine the population (is it seasonal?) and calculate the number of projected vehicles/people to be evacuated.  Consider how the traffic lights, electronic signage and contraflow could be incorporated into the plan.  Evaluate various types of emergencies and determine how the evacuation plans would differ for each, e.g., low lying areas during hurricanes, bridges during earthquakes, hills during ice storms. Once your manual is complete, locate a copy of your town’s official manual and compare and contrast the documents.

BEST Robot:

BEST mimics industry in the design, development and delivery of a robot to market, aka the game competition.  As a team of problem-solvers (engineers), determine which team members fill the following jobs – mechanical engineer, computer engineer, electrical engineer, materials engineer.  Identify additional engineering roles using the list from the BRAINSTORMING activity as a trigger.

Community Connections:

As the price of petroleum rises (petroleum is the key ingredient for asphalt and tar), new innovative road systems need to be created by engineers and bESTologists.  Examine the current construction materials used to create the surfaces in your community:  roads, highways, bike lanes and sidewalks. Evaluate whether or not future glass-solar roads would be of benefit your community.  Indicate the advantages and challenges of this material. Invite a team of transportation and civil engineers to your classroom and share your ideas and listen to their future projections.

In addition, invite your community Emergency Management coordinator to discuss the evacuation manual and how it continues to evolve as technology changes and the community grows.

Bloom’s Taxonomy:  Assess, calculate, compare, consider, create, determine, discuss, evaluate, examine, generate, give example, indicate, list, listen, locate, write.

Workforce Skills:  Active listening, active learning, critical thinking, equipment selection, mathematics, writing.

 (Correlates with Week 5 – What is Your Problem – bESTology 2013)