Today, many technology teachers in compulsory technology education teach design and design processes using a digital design tool, such as computer aided design (CAD). Teaching involving CAD is a relatively new element and not very much is known about what teachers intend pupils to learn in compulsory education. Thus, the aim of this study is to…

Spatial visualization ability is an important factor in a child's cognitive development. Its development is affected by numerous factors such as general intelligence, problem-solving skills, gender, playing building games, experience with engineering drawing and 3D modelling, etc. The study aimed to explore how engineering 3D modelling with…

In the field of technology and engineering education, educators are limited by their inability to predict what is coming; as the saying goes, they are preparing their students for jobs that do not even exist yet. Two adaptive approaches can help prepare students for this uncertainty: (1) teaching broad skills that can be applied in new situations;…

This paper discusses the design activities of students in secondary school in France. Graphics tools are now part of the capacity of design professionals. It is therefore apt to reflect on their integration into the technological education. Has the use of intermediate graphical tools changed students' performance, and if so in what direction, in…

3D printing is becoming ever more popular in both the manufacturing world as well as in technology and engineering education classrooms all over the United States. 3D printing is an additive manufacturing process in which successive layers of material are built up to produce three-dimensional objects from computer-aided design (CAD) files, making…

The mysteries of the deep aren't always unsolvable. The students of Natick (Massachusetts) High School's robotics club and robotics courses took on a project that resulted in their locating and remotely exploring a barge that sank in Newfound Lake in New Hampshire, likely in the early 1900s. They did it by designing, building, and operating three…

Industrial Designers need to understand and command a number of modelling techniques to communicate their ideas to themselves and others. Verbal explanations, sketches, engineering drawings, computer aided design (CAD) models and physical prototypes are the most commonly used communication techniques. Within design, unlike some disciplines,…

The main purpose of this study was to determine significant positive effects among the use of three different types of drafting models, and to identify whether any differences exist towards promotion of spatial visualization ability for students in Industrial Technology and Technology Education courses. In particular, the study compared the use of…

Design and drafting are subjects long taught in technology education, and subjects that retain high status in the profession. Admittedly, since the initial publication of Standards for Technological Literacy in 2000, design has taken on a larger role and meaning in the technology education profession. However, design continues to be delivered…

This quasi-experimental study investigated the application of visual literacy skills in the form of parametric modeling software in relation to traditional forms of sketching. The study included two groups of high school technical design students. The control and experimental groups involved in the study consisted of two randomly selected groups…

The present article examines how practices of computer-supported collaborative designing may be implemented in an elementary classroom. We present a case study in which 12-year-old students engaged in architectural design under the guidance of their teacher and a professional designer. The students were engaged in all aspects of design processes,…

This paper investigates the interactions between design students' cognitive styles, as measured by Riding's Cognitive Styles Analysis, and performance in 2D drafting and design tasks in digital media. An empirical research revealed that Imager students outperformed Verbalisers in both drafting and creativity scores. Wholist-Analytic cognitive…

This article describes a reverse engineering activity that gives students hands-on, minds-on experience with measuring tools, machine parts, and CAD. The author developed this activity to give students an abundance of practical experience with measuring tools. Equally important, it provides a good interface between the virtual world of CAD 3D…

Natural catastrophes and engineering failures provide timely, motivating, and conceptually rich backdrops for learning. Engineering educators have long embraced case studies of engineering failures as a sound pedagogical strategy for meeting several learning standards, such as "design within realistic constraints", and teaching failure…

There is a battlefield where no quarter is given, no mercy shown, but not a single drop of blood is spilled. It is an arena that witnesses the bringing together of high-tech design and manufacture with the outpouring of brute force, under the remotely accessed command of some of today's brightest students. This is the world of battling robots, or…