A childs cognitive development process is a frequently overlooked area in the engineering education curriculum. Since a child's learning progress reaches its peak between the ages of two and eleven, the duty of every education oriented engineering organization should be to become involved in the early development of a child's conceptual understanding of the world. This past summer, the Carnegie Science Center asked students working at the Engineering Design Research Center (EDRC) to help them design exhibits that demonstrate certain concepts of fluid mechanics. Our designs were to allow children between the ages of eight to fifteen to interact with the exhibits. Under the direction of civil engineering professor, Susan Finger and mechanical engineering professor Cristina Amon, a group of seven students completed the first stage of the project. At first, the group conducted a brainstorming session in which we gathered many fluid mechanics principles. We researched on basic child development concepts, child motivation techniques, and the science museum's practices. This helped us rearrange and consolidate the list of brainstorming ideas. After subsequent brainstorming sessions, we then proposed a list of twelve exhibit ideas to the Carnegie Science Center. From this initial proposal they chose, based on previous experience and expertise in designing exhibits, six ideas that they wanted us to further analyze and prototype. The overall expeirence proved to be very beneficial and exciting for all of the group members.

During the summer, Edgardo Torres was able to experience various features of the engineering design process and group interactions. The first thing he noticed was the team's diversity. "We had people from all around the world (Indonesia, Hawaii, Pureto Rico, and various parts of the E.U.), and all of them seemed to have different aptitudes and abilities. We had a mixture of everything: analytical scientists, technical draftsmen, business managers, practical engineers, ideal engineers, writers, artists, designers, etc." They stood up according to the specific needs of the group. For example, during the brainstorming period not everyone contributed the best ideas., but again, there were others who reallyu improve the initial ideas given. During the meetings we had with our project advisors (CSC employees and Susan and Chrisina) the ideas were not explained by the creators but rather by the most outgoing members of the group. By the end of the summer the group created posters and write-ups for a presentation, those more artistically inclined concentrated on the aesthetics of the posters, while the more practical ones worried about the overall structure and function."

"I also noticed that while the process progressed, the necessities of the group changed, thus demanding different things from all of us at varying times. We needed the abilities of our group members at different points of the design process. First, ideal and original people for the brainstorming period; then practical and analytical to bring the brainstorming list down to a considerable number; after that the need for manual labor for the prototypes etc...Each individual of or group went through a cycle of frustration/excitement according to the outcome of his work at that specific point. We also experienced that as a whole. As a member of the group, I felt that we began in a "honey moon" state, and as the summer progressed, our energies and excitement decreased. It may have been that the ideal thinking of "everything is going to work" was slowly overcome by the reality of "this is impossible to build." In addition, the relationships between the members of the group and the ever-changing composition of our team got tense at times. It wasn't because of personal problems with the group members, but rather differences in opinion with respect to the process pace ands importance of certain steps. I was not that one or the other was right, but the differences in opinion of how things should have been done. Fortunately, we were able to overcome these differences in a subltle way, mainly through comprehension of everyone's viewpoints. It is also important to note that our group composition constantly changed throughout the summer. First, we began as a fairly small group, rapidly increasing with the additoin of various people, while at the same time, suffering over the absences of others at some points in the process. The important thing was that groups of this nature almost always need a group of people or maybe an individual who can explain and interpret the information to the new group members." Torres said.

During the summer Edgardo Torres developed a working prototype for "The Water Table." It consisted of a vertical display of continuous laminar flow, in which different shaped objects are to be placed. This experiment will enable children to observe and examine laminar flow, as well as to compare the streamlines around these diferent objects.

When I first applied for a research job at EDRC, I had never had any prticular projects in mind. Professor Finger informed me that htere was a new project at EDRC and asked if I was interested. After a brief discussion, I decided to join this project immediately. The main purpose of this project was to design and develop exhibits in fluid mechanics for children. This project allowed me to apply the fluid mechanics principle, creativity, and probelm solving skills into a real world problem. Although this project was not related to the high-edged technology, it obviously demonstrated the social benefits of the scientific reseaches." Zen said.

"For the goal of this summer research, I expected that we would deliver at least one or two final exhibits to the Carnegie Science Center, although Professor Finger urged me to focus on working on one exhibit at a time. Later I found out that I was totally wrong. Our goal that I set at the beginning became uncertain. The research did not go as smoothly as we had planned.Our group encountered many problems during the research stages. There were many variables, some indirectly related to our problem such as administration and organization in EDRC." Zen said.

"We can divide our project into two stages: a design stage and an implementation stage. In the design stage, we learned that we had a very good access to many knowledgable resources. We also learned that we had to define all of the constraints for the problem, although it was easier to ignore these constraints durning our brainstorming sessions. To do this, we had to understand and maintain good comunication with our sponsors. I remembered that many of our ideas were rejected because we did not know exactly what they really wanted, except for the problem statement from our advisors." zen said.

"In the implementation stage, our problem was getting more and more complicated. There were more external variables we had to be concerned about because we needed to contact many companies and people outside of our group for supplies and tools. Time and scheduling was almost beyond our control, thus we learned to have a flexible schedule that could change to accomodate the external variables we were faced with, such as time alotted for shipping orders. During the prototyping process, we experienced that nothing matched our needs perfectly. Many parts we designed prototypes of had to be reconsidered simply because no one was able to manufacture it, otherwise would had had to build them ourselves. Learning that some of our prototypes failed and had to be rethought was very annoying, but it also taught us a good lesson at the same time. We also learned to consider costs and time for prototyping, and to consult the expertise in many fields in order to accomplish our goals. Working as a team then became the heart of our project. Furthermore, we knew that presentation was just as important as the reseach itself. It was a way to get outside support and to publicize our ideas. Personally, the most valuable thing that I learned from this project was getting ot know how to conduct research. Although we did not accomplish any outstanding results over the summer months, we did go through almost every process needed in any type of long-term research oriented project. Finally, I'd like to thank EDRC, the Carnegie Science Center, Professor Amon, ands Professor Finger, and my team for this great learning opportunity." Zen said.

Working on the Carnegie Science Center project also proved to be a great learning experience for me. As a writer and designer, it was very interesting to work with a group of scientific minded students. Since I entered the group a month into the project, I had a lot of catching up to do. Fortunately, everyone in the group welcomed me and helped me to learn about their proposed exhibit designs to the CSC. My main job was to write and maintain a detailed reseach journal of the group's progess. To do this, I interviewed each member of the group about their involvment in the project. I also did some outside research to get a better understanding of the fluid mechanics aspects that we were trying to demonstrate. EDRC is a great place to learn about professions and relating of my field of study. I am thankful to have had a chance to work with such a diverse and dynamic group of people, as the CSC group. My work experience at EDRC definitly expands with each project I work on.

The exhibit also interactive in two interesting ways: rotation of objects and variation of flow velocity. Rotating the objects will help t hem to discover the advantage of one orientation against the other. The change in velocity will cause effects like vortex shedding and chnge in size and number of vortices around the objects. Exposure to these phenomena will stimulate a child's intuition as to the behavior of fluid flow.

Our project group has constructed a preliminary prototype in which certainaspects of th ewater table have been tested. Basically, our prototype consists of a twelve by thirty-six inch clear tank with a half-inch thinkness, a half-inch diameter inlet, and a half -inch diameter outlet. Both orifices are connected ot a water reservior by means of two hoses. Water is then recycled using a constant velocity pump.

The water flow opens from a small circular cross sectional area of the inlet hose to a relatively large rectangular cross sectional area, causing vortices and turbulence throughout the water table. to solve these problems, we designed a device that consists aof two different parts. The first part is a series of diverging channels that equally distribute water flow; the second is a honeycomb structure that finally produces the desired laminalr flow.

As this exhibit project progresses, many other issues that need to be addressed are as follows. How will the observer visualize the flow? How is the team going to design the mechanics of the shaped objects so a child can interact with them? Is it possible to effectively demonstrate the the changes in vortex number and size, and the vortex shedding in our design of the exhibit? How interesting could this exhibit be to children between the ages of eight to fifteen?

During the 1995-96 academic year, Torres intended to investigate all of the potential posibilities for the above mentioned issues. He met Professors Susan Finger and Cristina Amon on a weekly basis to inform them of the project's progress and any uncertainties. The project team also met on a regular basis.

Torres also devised a project plan to organize the work and to focus on specific subjects at certain time periods during the fall semester. During the months of November and December, he experimented with two potential visualization techniques: solid tracers and gas tracers. He was most interested in aluminum, pliolite and polystyrene particles, as well as in the hydrogen bubble technique.

Once the most suitable visualization technique is determined, (the beginning of the spring semester), we will explore possible arrangements of the shaped objects. The team is currently considering sticks or magnets, although more ideas will certainly arise during this prototyping process. An adjustable velocity pump will also be order around this time os that be the beginning of February, Torres can begin testing the pump in conjunction with the prototype. He will be looking for strong evidence of interuputions in the laminar na dturbulent flow.

After examining all of the possibilities the team brainstormed, the optimized prototype containing all of the new integrated features, will be analyzed as a whole, so that by April,the efficiency of the water table could be exposed to children. Then children's interactions with the water table will be observed and analyzed. For instance, their interest level once they explore the interactive qualities of the exhibit, the average amount of time spent playing with it, and the number of possibilities explored for velocity and position. Furthermore, the team will also examine the motivational aspects behind the childrens' interactions with the exhibit. Are they motivated strictly by the excitement of the game or by the curiosity of it being something new to them? The group will then inspect these results for possible improvements to be considered in the exibit's design, and they will provide the Carnegie Science Center with a detailed guide to design and construct "The Water Table" exhibit. Once the investigation process and analysis is completed, we will donate the water table prototype to the Mechanical Engineering Department to be used in future class discussions.

In this respect, "The Water Table" exhibit should prove to be an overall success. Not only students will benefit from it, but also people of all age groups. The project and its results should invite and stimulate an interactive environment to learn and understand the behavior of our world.