| Intermediate Technology Education | Energy and Power Technology | Pre-Design | Topic 5 | Activity 2 |

Setup the Design Team

Setup the design team to work on an Energy and Power design project
  • Identify Team Members
  • Identify Team Roles
  • Identify Design Tasks
  • Develop a Design Timeline

Team Members

Team members may be identified several ways.  The teacher may just assign them.  Assignment may be done to ensure that each team has people with different kinds of skills.  Students may be asked to self-select team members.  If this is the case, try to be strategic.  Look at possible candidates and think of the different roles that team members play, and choose accordingly. 

Team Roles

In a previous activity, you looked at the different roles that team members can play. 

  • Team leader
  • Recorder
  • Time keeper
  • Team member

Since this design team will be operating for a prolonged period, roles can be assigned for a specified time.

Design Tasks

The design team will be engaging in the design process, which will last for the duration of the module.  The team will be responsible for all the design activities.  Activities need to be identified, sequenced, and placed on a timeline.  The major tasks are

  • Design Stage 1 - Identify the Opportunity
    • Opportunities (team activity)
    • Select the best opportunity (team activity)
  • Design Stage 2 - Conduct the Design Study
    • Write a brief (individual work leading to team activity)
    • Research (individual work, compiled into team collection)
    • Resources (individual work, compiled into team collection)
    • Solution options (individual research, developed as team activity)
    • Best option (individual analysis, completed as team activity)
    • Action plan (individual work, combined into team action plan)
  • Design Stage 3 - Develop the Solution
    • Fabricate (large collection of activities, some individual, some team.  Initial planning in the action plan.  Modified as necessary during solution development
  • Design Stage 4 - Evaluate the Solution
    • Evaluate (individual and team activities)
  • Design Stage 5 - Report the Results
    • Create report (individual and team activities)
    • Give the report (team activity with all members participating)

Develop a Design Timeline

A timeline will help ensure that the project gets completed on time.

This module has a number of non-design activities.  They will need to be included in the total time for the module.  Of the time allocated to design, the following may be used as an approximation of how long to allocate for each stage of design

  • Design Stage 1—5%
  • Design Stage 2—15%
  • Design Stage 3—60%
  • Design Stage 4—10%
  • Design Stage 5—10%

You teacher will tell you how much time will be available to do the design.  If, for example you have 20 hours, and classes are 40 minutes long, that would mean you have 30 classes to work on design (20 hours times 60 minutes divided by 40 minutes).  That would give the following time for each design stage

  • Design Stage 1—60 minutes
  • Design Stage 2—180 minutes
  • Design Stage 3—720 minutes
  • Design Stage 4—120 minutes
  • Design Stage 5—120 minutes

Can you determine how many classes are allocated for each?

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