Pre-College Education

Hands-On Pneumatics Workshop

Fluid power is most easily understood by students of all ages when instruction is accompanied by hands-on experiments. The Hands-on Pneumatics Workshop and the Portable Water Hydraulic Demonstrator and Curriculum pair hands-on portable apparatus to demonstrate principles of fluid power with student and instructor guides appropriate for middle and high school student audiences.

Hands-on Pneumatics Workshop: Three curriculum modules are being developed: (1) a basic hands-on tutorial, (2) an advanced workshop tailored to experienced FIRST Robotics teams, and (3) web-based self-learning material. CCEFP member companies are contributing by donating or offering discounts for kit parts. Materials have been field tested with FIRST Robotics teams in Atlanta and Minneapolis, with PLTW teachers, with RET teachers and with additional groups of high school students. Workshops and kits will be disseminated nationwide through engineers from CCEFP member companies and CCEFP faculty.

[Project Leader: Will Durfee, UMN]

Portable Water Hydraulic Demonstrator and Curriculum: The goal of this project is to develop a demonstration kit and accompanying activity-based curriculum that teaches the basics of fluid power in a way that is complex enough to provide challenging learning experiences for teachers and students, yet simple enough to be economical, reliable and portable. The kit includes materials needed to assemble a complete working mini-excavator, using water hydraulics or pneumatics, which can be built and implemented in classrooms or hands-on displays. Fabrication instructions for the apparatus have been developed for dissemination throughout CCEFP and its member companies.

[Project Leader: John Lumkes, Purdue]