Learning Activities

This learning activity centers around disassembling a relatively simple consumer product, decomposing into subsystems, assigning each part to one of the subsystems, and identifying the interactions between the subsystems. To conduct the activity, students are given the consumer product, appropriate safety gear and tools, and detailed instructions on how to safely disassemble the product. Students are assessed based on the subsystems they identify, the quality of the matching between subsystems and parts, and their ability to identify interactions between subsystems. The following document provides detailed instructions for the activity. Also, examples of products that can be used for the activity are given together with the disassembly steps for each one.
General instructions for the activity

Possible products & disassembly steps for each one:
 - Two-slice bread toaster
 - Hand-held vacuum cleaner
 - Blender

The objective of the homework assignments is to reinforce ST/SE concepts covered at the beginning of the course later in the semester. Each homework assignment starts with a brief background about a product or system. Then, that product or system is used to briefly illustrate one ST/SE concept and, in most of the assignments, one or more questions related to that ST/SE topic are included. Finally, one or two problems corresponding to a traditional course topic are provided.

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