Joe Packhem
10 GSF Dubai Script
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Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What is brainstorming?
Individual brainstorming activity #1- Sand
Partner brainstorming activity #1- Sand
Uses for sand
Engineering education (EE) teaching methods
Learning methods, 2nd brainstorming activity: individual
Compatibility of learning and teaching methods. Partner and group discussion about
learning methods. Challenge: “How to meet the needs of students”
8. Challenges to EE, 3rd brainstorming activity: individual, partner, group discussion
a. Document the challenges in a google document for all students to access with a
google documents tutorial
9. Tracks and group brainstorming
10. Themes for the next GSF, brainstorming activity #4: individual, partner, group discussion
11. Introduction to the Airbus competition
a. Analyze existing system
b. Brainstorm improvements
c. Constructively chose the best idea
12. How to submit Airbus ideas to competition
*Ideally this document will be made available to all students by collecting their emails and
inviting them. This way those who do not speak or read in English can copy and paste to Google
Translate to obtain comments in their native language.
Breakdown
1. Ask students to raise their hands if they are mechanical engineers, electrical engineers,
biomedical engineers, civil engineers.
Brainstorming is the basis of innovation in engineering. In order to properly brainstorm
it is necessary to have a goal or topic that ideas revolve around. Engineers utilize brainstorming
to solve problems. Before books can be written about answers to problems brainstorming
sessions must have taken place guided by the creativity of the writers.
Take for example the Burj Khalifa that we will see later today. Brainstorming was used
to determine the initial geometry of the structure based on the needs of the client, and the
purpose of the building. The brainstorming preceded the analysis and design based on the
geometry. Highway interchanges are designed with the same first step of brainstorming. With
the inputs of the direction of the incoming highways simple lines are drawn on a piece of paper
to connect incoming highways and outgoing highways. Many different concepts are
brainstormed and then design moves into further refinement.
What are some ways to brainstorm?
-Venn diagrams
-Bullet point lists
-Creative writing (stream of consciousness: thoughts are written down without hesitation or
judgement)
-Pictures
Fundamentals of brainstorming
-Do not censor your ideas. Let them freely come out and do not second guess yourself based on
others perceptions of your thoughts.
-When sharing ideas respect the creativity of others by not shooting down ideas or judging
others. Instead focus on your next idea.
-Short spurts of time are idea for brainstorming. Think of your brain as a cloud and let your
ideas be the lightning from the clouds.
-Document your concepts and ideas for future reference. Include them in your final presentation.
Distribute paper and pens
2. 1st activity: Let’s take something that is found in abundance in Dubai: sand. What can
sand be used for? Please take 90 seconds to quietly brainstorm as many different
concepts as you can for the use of sand.
How many ideas did you get? Please take a second to count your ideas. Let’s not share
now, but please raise your hand if you had five ideas. Keep your hand up if you had ten ideas,
fifteen, twenty? Whose hand is still up? How many ideas were generated by the person with the
most?
3. Partner brainstorm: Now take the brainstorming that you created individually and share
your ideas with one person next to you. Please remember to be respectful of others. I
suggest letting each person run through their ideas and then continuing the brainstorm in
a conversation. Take 200 seconds to share ideas (3min and 20 seconds) and generate new
ideas together.
Ask audience what did you like better, partner brainstorming or individual
brainstorming? Why? What are some of the uses for sand that you generated? How did you
generate ideas in the partner brainstorm?
4. My favorite uses for sand.
-Sand castles
-Foundations
-Sand bags to protect against floods
-To make glass
-Cleaning off paint or rust (sand blasting)
-To make mortar and concrete
-As fill for retaining walls
-Substrate for putting greens
-Sand traps
-To make islands
5. What is engineering education (EE)?
EE is the methods employed by professors to teach students in engineering.
The traditional teaching method is something that I am sure you have all experienced. Lecture
based courses with book reading followed by homework and tests all on the same concept.
SPEED, in long form the Student Platform for Engineering Education Development, has
been formed to give a voice to students to speak up if current methods are not the best for their
learning, or they want to innovate in EE. Some more forward thinking methods are Project
Based Learning, Community Service Learning, Entrepreneurship Focused Learning, MOOC’s,
flipped classroom, research focused learning and many others.
6. The most important part of education is the student. The other half of the teaching
method is the student’s learning method. Please take 90 seconds to brainstorm about the
learning method that is best for you to understand and be graded. Are you strong with
audio, visual, hands on, repetition based learning?
7. Now with a different partner discuss your learning method brainstorm and listen to the
other person. Then try to develop a combined method that would work well for both of
you. This activity will take 200 seconds.
Take 30 seconds to talk to your partner about sharing your personal optimum learning
methods and what you developed together. If you both agree then when time expires and I ask
for your comments raise your hand to share your individual best methods and the conglomerate
method.
How many of you do well in the traditional teaching style? Please raise your hands.
Now think about the partner brainstorm. Did you have the same optimum learning style? Please
raise your hand if you and your partner had the same best learning method. In a classroom there
are many students and rarely do all of them have the same learning method. This is a major
challenge for engineering education.
8. Please take 90 seconds to individually brainstorm about challenges to engineering
education. Then with a different partner share your ideas and continue brainstorming for
200 seconds. Would anyone like to share their most difficult challenge in engineering
education? I would like to record some of these in a google document that we can make
available for your use throughout the GSF. Let’s pause for a minute to discuss how to
use google documents. First, it is ideal if you have a gmail account, but it is not
necessary. Google documents are ideal for collaboration, especially internationally,
because multiple people can be in the same document at the same time and everyone’s
changes are immediately made known to all of the others in the document.
Google documents, presentations, and other features are found in the google drive at the
top right hand corner of your email inbox in the apps. Go to drive. If you have not used this
before you will have to download it, but it should be very quick. The create button on the left
that is red allows you to make new documents, presentations, etc. In the new document changes
will automatically be saved, and the blue icon in the right hand top corner allows you to share the
document with other people’s email addresses.
9. Now that we all have a firm grasp on brainstorming, let’s use the skills to help affect the
GSF 2015 in Florence. During this GSF you will be separated into tracks that you have
ranked prior to arriving. The tracks are all derived from the overall theme for this GSF,
engineering education without borders. In your tracks you will be doing group
brainstorming. During group brainstorming listen to others comments, and remember not
to critique ideas. Use others ideas to build new ideas. Think of ways to incorporate
perspectives from all group members. It is important to have a group secretary to track
and record ideas. It is recommended to use Google documents. Remember that every
idea is important. There are no bad ideas during brainstorming. Crazy ideas are
encouraged and often lead to better ideas. It is your chance to raise your voice about
future themes.
10. Take 90 seconds to brainstorm about themes for the 2015 GSF on a separate sheet of
paper to turn in to Rohit for use planning the next GSF. Then take 200 seconds with a
partner near you to share ideas and continue brainstorming. Would anyone like to share
their theme? I will record some themes in the general google document from the
discussion
11. Introduce Airbus competition
12. Allow students to put their brainstorming skills to the test.