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Just in time for the holidays ...
Faculty and staff in Purdue University's College of Engineering have come up with a holiday gift guide that can help engage children in engineering concepts.
The "Engineering Gift Guide" was developed through the INSPIRE Institute for Pre-College Engineering, a part of the School of Engineering Education.
It features toys, games, books, movies and apps for mobile devices for a variety of ages. In addition to the selected items, the guide includes suggestions on finding other engineering-themed gifts.
"It's important to introduce engineering to children at a very young age – even before they reach kindergarten," says Monica Cardella, associate professor of engineering education and INSPIRE director. "One way to achieve this is simply putting a puzzle together or playing with building blocks and talking with the child about what they want to design, what ways they can accomplish that, and who or what could use their creation.
http://phys.org/news/2014-11-gift-parents.html
http://inspire-purdue.org/parent-materials
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Monday December 01 2014, @08:01PM
All I ever got was old broken medical equipment .
In all seriousness I had lots of fun tearing apart all that old stuff my dad brought home from the hospital. We got old TVs, intercoms, fans, a wide assortment of old medical equipment, even some old computers. Lots of it got repaired, lots got taken apart for scrap or to be cannibalized to fix other stuff.
Letting kids play and explore their world is a great teacher. Mine are still young (6 and 3) so things like getting up close to giant machines is still really cool to them so seeing and explaining how a 240 ton dump truck [roadsideamerica.com] works as you stand under it great. They also like going to things like the local threshing show [nowthenthreshing.com] and seeing those old tractors and stationary steam and internal combustion engines in action. I am probably a bit to willing to entertain some of their questions at times as I did construct a more or less functional (no clutches, torque converter, or valve body) automatic transmission with planetary gear sets out of Legos (this is a pain) since my oldest asked how do gears work in car transmissions. The manual transmission was much easier but my car at the time had an automatic so he wanted to know how it worked.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 01 2014, @09:43PM
Thats the way to do it. Broad exposure. I think the contrast of the old and new makes for a good understanding and appreciation of how things work. From the primal hit-and-miss gas engines to todays precise computer controlled engines that are a fraction of the weight and tens or hundreds of times more powerful.
As a kid I loved trucks I always had tonka toys models, replicas etc. We used to travel to Vermont a lot during the winter and my father made sure to stop off at Depot 22, a truck stop along the NY thruway and rt 22. I loved it and to this day I still had trucks on the brain. So much that I went out and bought a 1961 Mack B61 semi tractor. Still working on it. I fell into the restoration underestimation trap like so many other n00bs: you don't realize how much money and time are needed until it's sitting in your yard. Still a fun project, save for the frozen grade 8 bolts that are just about impossible to remove.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:27PM
Vehicle restoration, a great time and money sink. I have an old MG midget that is about halfway restored and has been that way since I had kids so I know the feeling. I was lucky and grew up in a car culture working with my dad restoring his vehicles so at least I knew what I was in for.
Have you tried torching the nuts on the end of the bolt? Heat them up nice and hot (get them nice and red) with a propane brazing torch, spray with WD-40 to cool. They usually come off pretty easy at that point or that has been my experience. The trick is to heat the nut as quickly and as evenly as possible while not heating the bolt. Just realize that you will have to replace that nut and bolt after this. If that doesn't work you can always use the Sawzall, or drill and tap depending on application.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday December 02 2014, @09:08PM
Here is my issue: The 5th wheel, the trailer coupler, is mounted to a long 1/2" steel plate with two flanges that hug the frame rails and are secured by seven fine threaded grade 8 cap screws (or bolts, same difference) on each side. Now I have succeeded in removing the nuts from two of the bolts with a torch but the bolts will not turn or push out, I even tried applying 3 tons via a special long stroke jack and they didn't budge. They must have had an interference fit on the bolts because the bolts are frozen in about 3/4" deep of 5/16 steel frame rail, a 1/4" reinforcement channel and the flange. Another issue is the air tanks are mounted under that plate to the frame rails and 5 of the nuts on each side are covered by the tanks! So I have to figure out a way to get the 5th wheel plate off without destroying the frame rails or air tanks. Plus that plate must weigh in at around 300-400 lbs with the 5th wheel, which is not road worthy and will be scrapped. Big job, thats for sure.
However, I managed to use a punch to transfer a nice centered hole into the socket of one screw and drill a pilot hole. I then ground the head off and used the pilot hole as a guide for a mag drill and a 1/2 bit to drill out the bolt. So I managed to remove ONE bolt. Took a while to drill that thing out. So I have to do that for the other 13 bolts and I don't have enough clear frame because of suspension components so its a big hand drill from there on in.
I know a guy who is an MG maniac. He has a small warehouse for his business (that is what he tells his wife) but he told me 90% of that space is full of MG's, about 9 or 10 in total. Only a few are restored, I think 3 or 4 of them. I forget which model, but he managed to stuff an LS4 into one of them. He calls it the sleeper. I also heard he just dropped 50 grand on two more, one restored and one complete project car in pieces from the same owner. Dude has more money than time.