In this article we describe and build a model of a historical weighing device proposed by the Spanish engineer Dario Bacas in the second half of the 19th century. The balance was named "goniobarimeter" by its inventor, and the weighing principle is based on a curious, and not very well known, property of the cycloid. The simplicity of the design…

According to Jacoby (1996), service-learning, officially defined in 1967, is "a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development." Service-learning combines academic study,…

This paper examines two competing systems of work organisation in the British construction industry and their consequences for learning. Under the traditional "adversarial" system, conflict, hostility and litigation between contractors are commonplace. Such a climate actively militates against collective learning and knowledge sharing between…

In this article, the author suggests a classroom challenge that will engage students in designing a house on the hill. He suggests teachers ask a local builder to come to the school to discuss the kinds of concerns that must be dealt with when building homes in cold environments. The use of dioramas and cardboard scale models would be very useful…

The Edison School of Applied Technology, a comprehensive public high school, has long had a reputation for producing top-notch crafts workers, tradespeople, project managers, estimators, and industry leaders. The school's graduates helped build the city and many currently have successful, productive careers in the public and private sectors. But…

Even in difficult economic times, colleges and universities continue to invest in residence hall construction projects as a way to attract new students and keep existing ones on campus. According to data from "American School & University"'s 20th annual Residence Hall Construction Report, the median new project completed in 2008 was…

This article presents an activity that allows students to use mathematics and critical-thinking skills to emulate processes used by the ancient Egyptians to prepare the site for the Pyramids of Giza. To accomplish this, they use three different methods. First, they create a square using only simple technological tools that were available to the…

In the summer of 2004, Georgia Southern University began a library construction project that was to last 4 years. An important aspect was the installation of an Automated Retrieval System (ARC) to house a substantial portion of the library collections so that more space could be available for students, faculty, and the services to meet their…

This study examined general features of Lego block creations produced by Japanese adolescents with no known mental health disorders. The block creations of 33 participants were assessed for form, content, and gender differences. Time spent on the task, amount of area covered, and quantity and types of blocks used were measured and correlated with…

People normally do not think about the future of their home in terms of accessibility. But, since Americans spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors, shouldn't their home be as accessible as possible? By doing a few simple home upgrades on overlooked items, it will lessen the burden later. To live safer and healthier use natural…

The poor performance and inefficiencies of the construction industry are well recognized and documented. Through a variety of combined industry and government initiatives there has been a continual expression in the UK over the last decade of the urgent need to address the fragmented nature of the industry to improve its performance. A major…

A project-based laboratory for learning embedded system design with support from industry is presented in this paper. The aim of this laboratory is to motivate students to learn the building blocks of embedded systems and practical control algorithms by constructing a line-following robot using the quadratic interpolation technique to predict the…

The tiny town of Niangua, Missouri, made national headlines in 2008 when a rare cluster of winter tornadoes tore across the state on an unseasonably warm January night. The twisters killed a Niangua woman in her trailer home and destroyed numerous other structures. News photos of the trailer debris were a sobering reminder of the vulnerability of…

This paper investigates the effect of bringing real world case studies on college students' self efficacy, their confidence, and their motivation toward an engineering field. It was found that working with real cases increases student's motivation and maximizes their learning by becoming personally committed to course and program goals. As a…

The Rural Studio, an outreach program of Auburn University, designs innovative houses for poor people living in Alabama's Hale County by using "junk" such as car windshields, carpet tiles, baled cardboard, and old license plates. The article theorizes this particular architecture in terms of Critical Regionalism, developed by…