Imagine making over 200 sandwiches in just 20 minutes! This past week, my Freshman Academy Class had a seemingly simple task ahead of them. They found out soon enough though that something that appears to be easy at first–is much more difficult on a mass production scale.
The class was challenged with the assignment: optimize the process of making a PB&J sandwich. Given all the ingredients and supplies, the class had to take out their planning, communication, and organization skills to come up with a list of instructions that any user would be able to follow. They had to collaborate with each other and combine their individual ideas to develop the most efficient list of commands that could be carried out in the form of an assembly line.
PB&J competition! #engineering #academycoaches pic.twitter.com/NwBW5ZfplJ
— Hannah Luk (@hannahgluk) September 18, 2014
The project ultimately reflects real life engineering processes. The main goal of several engineering problems is to improve efficiency under all circumstances. Like real engineers, the groups had to think creatively and critically and make use of only the resources available. Indeed, some impressive strategies were made such as stacking 5 sandwiches on top of each other and cutting them at once rather than one at a time.
Afterwards, all the sandwiches were donated to a local food bank. Again, similar to engineering outside of school: our work aims to contribute back to society.
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