Design and Technology in Physical Science

Engineering Process Used When Developing New Products Using Science

Sep 15, 2009 David R. Wetzel

When engineers design new products, they follow specific design and technology engineering processes. This design process provides guidance or a road map for engineers as they set out to solve problems with a new product design. By working through these engineering steps sequentially, engineers increase the odds that their new concept ideas will work when the new product is completed.

Design and technology processes follow physical science and other science laws and theories when solving problems. The design process is used for new products such as buildings, bridges, cars, consumer products, airplanes, and any other product developed to solve a specific problem. One example is when engineers design and construct a new bridge to save people time, along with meeting society needs of easing the heavy traffic burden on another bridge.

Engineering Design: Six Steps of the Process

There are six steps used by engineers when developing new products. These steps are the guidelines that engineers follow when designing something new to solve a problem. These six steps are:

Identifying the Problem – engineers determine what the problem is that they must solve with a new product. They must identify and understand design limitations, material constraints, and budget limitations.

One example in physical science is when students must construct a Rube Goldberg machine that uses only four of six simple machines to solve a problem.

Brainstorming Ideas – this engineering process involves teamwork as several engineers work together to develop ideas to solve the problem. Key steps the team must follow in the idea development design process include:

• Safety – will the product be safe to use by people and safe for the environment

• Aesthetic – is the new product neat, clean, and pleasing to the eye

• Function – does the new product function according to design requirements to solve the problem

• Economical – is the new product affordable

One example in physical science is when a group of students collaborate on design and technology ideas necessary to construct a Rube Goldberg machine to meet project requirements.

Design Solution – once the engineers have reached a consensus on an idea for the design of a new product. The next steps in the engineering process include making drawings, gathering materials, and deciding how the new product will be constructed.

One example is when students determine materials that are available to use in their design and technology project. Then they make a detailed drawing of how the four simple machines and other materials are assembled to construct the Rube Goldberg machine to solve the project problem.

Test Design Ideas – this engineering process involves testing components of the new product to determine design suitability. Engineers and workers collaborate on the construction process as the new product is build. This collaboration is critical, because unforeseen problems with the design process become evident during the construction phase. Design and technology applications in physical science are an ongoing process, which must involve collaboration at all levels.

One example in physical science is when students begin the actual construction of their Rube Goldberg machine and must work as a team to test ideas and identify problems with their design as they arise. There are always unforeseen problems when ideas are transferred from paper to an actual device.

Evaluate and Redesign – this stage of design process requires a thorough evaluation by engineers to determine if they must redesign any part or the whole design idea. It is common for engineers to redesign parts of an original design idea as unforeseen problems arise in the testing phase.

One example is when students have selected the four simple machines they felt would solve the project problem, only to discover that one simple machine they felt would work, does not work effectively. Because of this problem, the students redesign their Rube Goldberg machine to replace the ineffective simple machine with another simple machine.

Build the New Product – this is the final stage of this design and technology project as engineers hand over plans to the workers who will construct or build the new product. The design process is now complete. Brainstorming ideas, designing, testing, and reevaluation steps have all resulted in a new product to solve the project problem.

One example is when students successfully construct their Rube Goldberg machine and it solves the physical science project problem.

Making Connections: Design and Technology with Physical Science

When students follow the processes of design and technology, they are following the same steps engineers use to build new products to solve problems. These processes also include the use of science process skills as students problem solve. In physical science, scientists following many of these same steps as they use a similar process called the scientific method. Scientists use experimental design as their design process to solve problems that affect people or explain the natural world.