The Design and Rapid Prototyping Instrumentation Project for Technology Teacher Education at Ball State University puts high-tech design equipment in the hands of tomorrow's technology teachers. As technology education evolves from industrial arts, there is an increasing emphasis on teaching secondary school students about technological design. Unfortunately, technology students and teachers often have experiences only with outdated and inefficient hardware and software design tools. The objective of this project is to give undergraduates in technology education experiences with advanced tools for technological design. These teachers of tomorrow will then be better equipped to help their students achieve in this area. Undergraduates in Ball State's Technology Teacher Education Program have added experiences from this project in both two- and three-dimensional design at two different stations. At Station 1, they input an existing design with a page scanner, from a file, or using design or drafting software. The design is then manipulated as needed. One of the output devices at this station is a laser cutting machine, where students cut out these designs from appropriate materials, such as 1/4-inch acrylic and wood. At a Station 2, the students use a three-dimensional laser scanner to input the surface coordinates of existing objects. They then manipulate this design data to suit the needs of their project. The output can be an illustration, or files that could be used with an existing numerically controlled milling machine or an existing fused deposition modeling machine to create a prototype.
