Engineer Pin

Did this in January 2001 at Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum as an overnight. Fairly good coverage of material. Kids had fun. But I missed doing the catapult that's in the book, which is a blast, but takes a lot of time.

Not as impossible as it looks at first. In fact, this is fairly easy to do.

You can do it at home, or the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum runs overnight camp-ins for dens at the museum where they do either the Geologist, Engineer, or Scientist pins throughout the school year.

#1. List 10 things engineers do. See the handbook, or check the Yellow Pages. Or do you know anybody remotely connected to construction, or to civil, building, or mechanical engineering businesses that would tell your Scout what their business does and let them visit a site?

#2. Visit a construction site. Look at a set of plans and tell your den about them. Any subdivision going up in the area is a possible resource. They don't generally want kids running around the building sites for insurance reasons, but you can watch houses in different stages of construction from your car - digging the basement, pouring walls, electric boxes, framing, etc. You can get simple house plans in the brochures if you go to the new models office. Or they sell books and magazines of house plans (the library should have some). Do you know anybody who built a house or wants to do so, who might let you borrow the book? Or look up Blueprints in the Yellow Pages; maybe they have old ones you can have. Or, do you have a set of blueprints for your own house? Usually these stay with the house, passing from owner to owner.

#3. Measure the length of a property line. Explain how property lines are determined. My son didn't do this. Maybe you look up a surveyor in the Yellow Pages, or maybe you call the building permit department for the township or county.

#4. Make a drawing of how electricity gets to your house. My son did this. Check the 4th grade science book used at Lincoln Schools or the handbook.

#5. Make drawings of 3 kinds of bridges. See the handbook.

#6. Make and show how a block and tackle works. We made the block and tackle and the spring scale in the book. You can use a spool of thread with the thread still on it - just wrap it with a rubber band or tape to keep the thread from unwinding. You need needle nose pliers or wire cutters and some arm strength to help your child cut the coat hanger for this (have the Scout wiggle the wire back and forth at the cut point; it will break). Calibrate the spring scale by marking off how far the wire indicator goes down for every five(?) pennies added to a baggie hooked on the bottom.

#7. Build and show how a catapult works. My son loved this thing. You can get the really big rubber bands you need (we didn't have a bike tire we could cut up like the book suggests) in a package at Office Max (Arborland). If you use the picture in the handbook, use something stronger than a dowel and brace it, or it will quickly come apart. Get some string; you probably need to tie the upright post and the catapult loosely together to limit how far back the catapult can be pulled. Otherwise, the device throws wild or the arc of the throw curves down and your ammunition hits the floor, and after a while the rubber bands get too stretched.

#8. Draw a floor plan of your house. See the handbook. Graph paper might be helpful.

Have Questions? Need Help?