$25

weekly

or $250 for 10 classes

STEM: Basics of Mechanical Engineering With Hands-On Projects

Completed by 45 learners

Ages 9-14

Live Group Course

This course teaches the basics of mechanical engineering (building things) through hands on projects where each students creates their own design.

David Salch

Average rating:

4.9

Number of reviews:

(3,347 reviews)

Popular

Live video meetings

1x per week, 10 weeks

3-18 learners per class

55 min

About Learning Overview Teacher Reviews

What's included

10 live meetings

9 hrs 10 mins in-class hours

Homework

1-2 hours per week. Building projects from scratch with commonly available materials

Class Experience

This is a true engineering class! You will be building unique actual things from scratch, not from a kit. Learn do engineering from design to completion! Explore and experiment!

This is intended as a companion class to my other engineering series, and concentrates more on the basic skills of design and building itself. Everything learned here will be used in the full engineering series. 

Through the 10 weeks there will be several assigned projects to build. Each project will range from 1 week to 3 weeks depending on complexity.  Class time is spent exploring concepts and options, and understanding the assignment. Then build time is between the weekly sessions.  A review of the designs will be done the following week at the start of class. 

All of the materials for these projects should be commonly available. Check the materials Section for a List of things necessary. Improvising with similar things is acceptable. The intention is to not have to buy anything extra for this class. 

Note: this is a fast moving course, projects each week, and high expectations! Its a lot of fun, but can be challenging at times.  In other words.. true engineering style!

Learning Goals

The goal of this course is to encourage problem solving, creativity, and confidence in creating designs from scratch. This is at the core of engineering as a discipline. It goes beyond just building fun stuff, and beyond understanding how it works. This course dives into practice in the actual process of engineering and problem solving.

Syllabus

Curriculum

Follows Teacher-Created Curriculum

10 Lessons

over 10 Weeks

Lesson 1:

Building with Tape

 Learning how to properly select and use tape to build a strong structure. 
Project: Build a "T" shape from 3 wood sticks and test for strength.

55 mins online live lesson

Lesson 2:

Building with Glue

 Learning how to properly use different types of glues to build a strong structure.
Project: Build a "T" shape from 3 wood sticks and test for strength.

55 mins online live lesson

Lesson 3:

Bracing

 Learn how to increase strength of a structure by adding braces.
Project: Build one each of  a triangle, square and hexagon from wood sticks and test for strength.

55 mins online live lesson

Lesson 4:

Strength from Weak Materials

 Learn how to use weak materials to build a strong structure.
Project: Build a tower from only printer paper and tape, as high as possible, strong enough to hold a small paperback book.

55 mins online live lesson

Other Details

Supply List

Wooden sticks (toothpicks, popsicle sticks, wooden dowels, etc)
Printer paper
Yarn or light string
Eggs
Various cardboard boxes, plastic containers, etc (recycled trash!)
Tape
Glue or Hot Glue
dry spaghetti
Marshmallows

External Resources

Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.

Meet the teacher

David Salch

Joined December, 2016

4.9

3347reviews

Popular

Profile

Teacher expertise and credentials

I have been an engineering all my life. Built my first robot from scratch as a pre-teen, followed by a career of engineering (mechanical, software, hardware, etc) for 4 plus decades. There are several patents in my name, and products that I built acquired by major companies. I am retired now, and desire to pass along the experience of a lifetime to the next generation.