Exploring perceptions and attitudes towards teaching and learning manual technical drawing in a digital age

This paper examines the place of manual technical drawing in the 21st century by discussing the perceived value and relevance of teaching school students how to draw using traditional instruments, in a world of computer aided drafting (CAD). Views were obtained through an e-survey, questionnaires and structured interviews. The sample groups represent professional CAD users (e.g. engineers, architects); university lecturers; Technology Education teachers and student teachers; and school students taking Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) Graphic Communication courses. An analysis of these personal views and attitudes indicates some common values between the various groups canvassed of what instruction in traditional manual technical drafting contributes towards learning. Themes emerge such as problem solving, visualisation, accuracy, co-ordination, use of standard conventions, personal discipline and artistry. In contrast to the assumptions of Prensky's thesis (2001a&b) of digital natives, the study reported in this paper indicate that the school students apparently appreciate the experience of traditional drafting. In conclusion, the paper illustrates the perceived value of such learning in terms of transferable skills, personal achievement and enjoyment

Product Focused Freeform Fabrication Education

Presented in this paper is our experience of teaching freeform fabrication to students at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and to high school students and teachers. The emphasis of the curriculum is exposing students to rapid product development technologies with the goal of creating awareness to emerging career opportunities in CAD/CAM. Starting from solid modeling, principles of freeform fabrication, to applications of rapid prototyping and manufacturing in industry sponsored product development projects, students can learn in-depth freeform fabrication technologies. Interactive course content with hands-on experience for product development is the key towards the success of the program.Mechanical Engineerin

Weaving Worldsheet Supermultiplets from the Worldlines Within

Using the fact that every worldsheet is ruled by two (light-cone) copies of worldlines, the recent classification of off-shell supermultiplets of N-extended worldline supersymmetry is extended to construct standard off-shell and also unidextrous (on the half-shell) supermultiplets of worldsheet (p,q)-supersymmetry with no central extension. In the process, a new class of error-correcting (even-split doubly-even linear block) codes is introduced and classified for $p+q \leq 8$, providing a graphical method for classification of such codes and supermultiplets. This also classifies quotients by such codes, of which many are not tensor products of worldline factors. Also, supermultiplets that admit a complex structure are found to be depictable by graphs that have a hallmark twisted reflection symmetry.Comment: Extended version, with added discussion of complex and quaternionic tensor products demonstrating that certain quotient supermultiplets do not factorize over any ground fiel