Hello! I actually don’t know what to write about this time. Usually the idea just pops in my face after a certain thought or experience, but this time, I had a few good ideas that I ended up abandoning just a few seconds afterwards. Then I got another idea, but forgot what it was.
Oh well! I’ll just kill a few birds with one stone (not literally!). First, I’ll start by congratulating all the students who have done their Capstone symposium presentations so far. I couldn’t listen to any of them because I was working during presentation times, but all the projects looked really awesome! Just a few more weeks to go, right? I’m really happy for all of you and I hope you have a good time after graduation! For those of you who still have to present in the upcoming days (which, by the time this article comes out, might be no one), good luck!
Oh, and finals are popping up too, huh? To all students (whether finals or final projects), good luck!
I’ve also been thinking a lot about the Engineering Design Cycle (I prefer to abbreviating to EDC) these past few weeks. In my current co-op, in some of our activities, we’re teaching kids to use the EDC to design their structures, first understanding what they have to build, then designing it on paper (which just ends up being a funny drawing of what they want to make, with no measurements or materials specifications whatsover, kinda hilarious), next building their structure, and finally testing them out with the rest of the group in some kind of big challenge.
Last term, when I first learned about the EDC, I did not think much of it. Back then, it felt like… the Scientific Method, Engineering version. When we did our very first group project in CHE180, our report was somewhat based on the EDC, though it was very vague back then which section of the report was part of which step of the EDC. Anyway, I told kids a few weeks ago that we engineers live on the EDC; that it’s the water we drink everyday. Is that actually true?
Hopefully, upper-years still use the EDC in their projects or in their co-ops, right? Speaking of co-op, I guess I use the EDC everyday at work. For content development, I need to know the age group the activity is for, and if they are any specifications (e.g. theme or type of activity) that we need to follow (Understand). Then, I need to brainstorm what the activity is going to be (Design), and once I figure it out and talk about it with my supervisor to get it approved, I have to make a detailed report of how to do the activity (required materials, step-by-step instructions of how to run the activity, etc.) (Build). The natural ending to this process is to then run the activity with the kids (Test), see how they like it, and do a close-out report, where I state what went well, what went wrong, and recommendations for future uses of the activity (Design, again!). How funny is it that the job where I teach kids how to use the EDC, teaches me how to use the EDC?
At the end of the term, we apparently have to make a presentation on what we did during the term and what we learned from this co-op. Now I have one thing to talk about 🙂
I apologize if this article feels out of order… I did write it in one go. But if you made it this far, I hope you can also start appreciating the EDC, or appreciate it even more. Also, WHO ELSE IS HAPPY SPRING IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!** Winter is my favourite season, but this winter has been a bit too crazy… There was this one time in early February where we got stuck in a ditch while travelling to a reserve near Stratford. Plus, it was that one day in early February that was EXTREMELY cold… We called CAA, and their first truck couldn’t pull us out, so they called a second truck… that effortlessly pulled us out. At least the inside of our van was still hot… And then there’s the snowday, which cancelled my first ever time visiting the Cambridge Campus!!! 🙁 (though for all of you that had midterms on that day, the snowday was hopefully a good thing).
Anyway, to all final year students graduating, great job on surviving UWaterloo, thank you for your advice and support, and we wish you success in your future endeavors! To all other students… get ready to cook finals!
**Edit a week later: Bruh. Why is the snow back?
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