Unit One: Introduction to Design
PUZZLE CUBE PBL
Taking an idea you have and transferring it from a concept to a sketch, to
working drawings, to models, and then to a working prototype is exciting and
fun. It also entails several steps. When you are a one-person design and build
team, the task of effective communication is rather simple. However, what
happens when you must communicate your ideas to others, or the
responsibility for building a team’s solution falls on someone else’s
shoulders? This increases the level of responsibility significantly and requires
the development of a complete set of design documentation in order to
communicate effectively.
Have you ever been tempted to buy a product just because the package and
its advertising appealed to your sense of need or want? Have you ever
thought that one product brand must be better than another because the
package that the product comes in looks better than its competitor? If this is
the case, do you think it was by accident that you had these thoughts? In
many cases, packaging sells the product.
This problem-based learned task is two-fold. First you will apply what you
have learned throughout Unit 1 by exercising your creativity and developing
your sketching and modeling skills in order to create a 3D puzzle cube. Next,
you will design a package to house your puzzle cube design.
Use the design brief and rubric to guide your work. Document all work in your
Engineer’s Notebook.
Puzzle Cube Design Brief
Client:
Fine Office Furniture, Inc.
Target Consumer:
Ages 3+
Designers: ____________________________________
Problem Statement:
A local office furniture manufacturing company throws away tens of
thousands of scrap ¾” hardwood cubes that result from its furniture
construction processes. The material is expensive, and the scrap represents
a sizeable loss of profit.
Design Statement:
Fine Office Furniture, Inc. would like to return value to its waste product by
using it as the raw material for desktop novelty items that will be sold on the
showroom floor. Design, build, test, document, and present a threedimensional puzzle system that is made from the scrap hardwood cubes. The
puzzle system must provide an appropriate degree of challenge to a person
who is three years of age or older.
Constraints:
1. The puzzle must be fabricated from 27, ¾” hardwood cubes.
2. The puzzle system must contain exactly five puzzle pieces.
3. Each individual puzzle piece must consist of at least three, but no more than six
hardwood cubes that are permanently attached to each other.
4. No two puzzle pieces can be the same.
5. The five puzzle pieces must assemble to form a 2 ¼” cube.
6. Some puzzle parts should interlock.
7. Puzzle cube must be sold in a package design that appeals to consumers.
8. The user must be able to insert and remove the puzzle without destroying the
package.
9. Text should be created in Microsoft Word and must include: designer’s name,
appropriate warnings, cost, country of manufacture, and fictitious company
name.
10. Graphics should include an isometric sketch of the assembled cube and a bar
code.
11. If you do not have access to a color printer, color must be added through the use
of markers, colored pencils, crayons, or paints.
12. A window through which to view the product is optional.