II.+Needs+Assessment



**This page shows the way in which a innovative needs assessment is conducted, formatted,**  **&** **explains the expected results of the project listed below:**

EWU 406 Welding Technology Project: Extension Lamp




Projects are excellent ways to link the gap between education and the professional world. Gaps are closed by projects that relate to the professional world and challenge the student’s knowledge of conceptual operations and psychomotor skills. For Tech 406 Welding Technology, the class project will be manufacturing a drafting light called the EWU Extension Lamp. The Extension Lamp is a professional development project to spotlight the course and curriculum mastery of the students. The EWU Extension Lamp project was designed to intertwine intrinsic learning with extrinsic learning while correlating with the welding principles and operations of the course curriculum. The Extension Lamp project involves fabricating an extendable drafting lamp from raw materials into a finished product, through the use of a variety of welding and fabricating techniques. What way could be better to learn a valuable process within the engineering field? But how do you evaluate these projects? Tech 406 Welding Technology is an ABET accredited course that is required by the EWU’s Engineering and Design Department for graduation. Tech 406 is a comprehensive course pertaining to processes used in the field of welding. Course Emphasis is placed on: shielding metal-arc (stick, SMAW), Oxy-Acetylene Welding (OAW), Tungsten Inert Gas welding (TIG), and Metal Inert Gas Welding (MIG, Wire-feed), multiple pass and out of position welding techniques and processes. The extension lamp project is a project that demands mastery of all of these course objectives. This project gives the student a professional production twist to the course curriculum while improving communication and participation from students in Lectures and classroom discussions. The Extension Lamp project is accentually an interactive instruction tool. Being able to relate to the material through course projects when lecturing, builds a common ground that all students can relate to. For example when lecturing on plasma cutting the students can relate the conceptual curriculum to cutting the base plate of the lamp. Additional benefits of this project are: the ability to implement a common ground, common curriculum goal, accomplishment of building a professional tool, the desire to come to class and work on lab projects, producing a quality product that showcases there work, and a professional drafting light. As a professional engineer many nights are spent up late creating and reviewing drawings and designs. Why build an Extension Lamp? The professional drafting lamp is a tool used in the industry. Professional drafting lamps, on average, run between $120 to $150 dollars. The EWU Extension Lamps design is based off of professional drafting lamps. These lamps are made to stretch over large scale prints, for example blueprints and work drawings. The lamps are a desk light designed to fold up into the size of an average desk lamp and extend out 40 inches. Due to the long extension, multiple joints and complex parts are needed. A key to being a successful engineer in the professional world is taking complex processes and simplifying them. Coming from an engineering background, it is an ethical obligation to set up my students for success. This includes the tools to do the job or the skills to run equipment and solve problems. Producing a project that can be learned from in so many ways enhances my student’s chances to be successful in the professional world. Tech 402 Extension Lamp project has the same functions as the professional drafting light made out of fewer parts. Fewer parts mean fewer building processes and malfunctions. To get as few parts as possible the professional drafting lamp was redesigned to maximize the following processes: OAW, MIG, SMAW, hand plasma cutting, CNC Plasma cutting, Oxy-Acetylene cutting, Water jet, drilling, punching, forming tools and multiple types of welds. Each one of the processes covered in the course are a processes required to convert raw materials into finished products. For the Extension Lamp the following processes will be used to make the following parts: a) Lamp shade- Forming, hand plasma cutting, saw, OAW, and MIG welding b) Keeper pins- Grinding, hand plasma cutting, saw, MIG welding c) Joint Pin Holders- Saw, hand plasma, Punch, MIG d) Base Plate- CNC plasma cutter e) Base Plate Ring- Saw, SMAW (stick) f) EWU Emblem—Water Jet Cutter g) Electrical soldering <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Each part of the Extension Lamp was designed to focus on specific details within the curriculum. Having a single application that incorporates multiple welding processes gives the student the opportunity to display their mastery of acquired skills. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">The project will be introduced to the class in the second week of the quarter. Handouts will include finished production print, bill of materials, part drawings, and the grading rubric. A description of the project will be given with a walk through of each of the handouts. All of the handouts are designed to give the students a sense of direction. The grading is laid out in detail in the grading rubric for structure and clarity. The Extension Lamp project is worth 50 points total. The rubric breaks down each of the processes into assessable categories. The categories are as follows: Welding (20 points possible), Fabrication (12 points possible), Function (8 points possible), Quality (5 points possible), and CNC operations (5 points possible). The five categories point weight is distributed based off of the course objectives. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Welding is worth the most points at 20 points. It is worth the most because numerous processes have to be learned to master each of the types of welding. Every week of the quarter a new type of welding process is covered in lecture to incorporate the conceptual aspect of the welding processes. In the lab weld samples are made to master the type of welding operation. Each welding operation has its own learning curve and importance in industry. For example, SMAW is a portable welder that can weld in almost any condition. However, MIG welding is more of an indoor activity because the cover gas protecting the weld will blow away outdoors. Every welding style has its pros and con. Being able to determine which welding process is suitable for which condition is an important tool the students learn in this class. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Fabrication is worth a maximum of 12 points. Fabricating in this assignment is taking the cutting and design aspects of the project and producing it in a psychical form. Parts have to be fabricated to fit and work as the design intended. Processes that will be assessed in fabricating the parts for the extension lamp are: cutting process, forming processes, and rolling processes. Cutting processes involve hand held plasma cutting, Oxy-acetylene cutting, and sawing. All of these cutting processes are valuable parts of fabricating and contributed to the structural integrity of the product. Like the welding process, there are numerous methods to get the desired effects from the materials covered in Tech 406 Welding Technology. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Function is worth 8 points max. It is an important piece within the production of the Extension Lamp because it shows the students mastery of the covered material and provides insight into the student’s abilities. If the lamp was built to the specifications given and works properly full points will be given. If any part does not work as intended the processes can be examined and reworked. Like any new task you might not get it right the first time but through trial and error success can be achieved. For the lamp to function successfully it must be able to rotate 360 degrees and extend to full length without tipping over. Both of these requirements set benchmarks to problem solving and application development. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Quality and CNC processes are worth 5 points apiece. A quality finish shows the student’s pride taken in their work. Quality is important because it is what is needed to sell a product. In the professional world, businesses are about selling a quality product. Finishes and coatings protect the material of the project and its users. Little finish details and aesthetics show the student’s attention to details. Anybody can produce quantity, but everyone wants quality. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Last but not least, CNC processes are valuable processes in industry today because they are used in every type of the fabricating process and its principles. This is a valuable process for this class because it displays how precision parts can be made rapidly and still be reproduced with the same standard of quality and precision. For the Extension Lamp there are two CNC processes. The first is using the CNC plasma cutter to cut out the intricate base. The second process is using the water jet to cut out a highly detailed EWU eagle. Through the use of automation and designing new processes more complex parts and processes can be used to save time and money. CNC and automation help companies to minimize waste and bottlenecking processes with quality, precision, and speed. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Extra credit will be issues for ingenuity. This is added to the rubric to give the student the opportunity to improve their project. There is always a better way. If students can demonstrate their critical thinking skills and problem solving skills they should be rewarded for going the extra mile. One goal education and the professional world have in common is constant improvement. We need to reward the people who contribute to the improvements. <span style="color: #254141; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Over all, the EWU Extension Lamp is a project that develops the course curriculum and showcases the student’s mastery of Tech 406 Welding Technology. Most importantly, the skills used to fabricate the EWU Extension Lamp correlate with welding principles and operations. The Extension Lamp project involves a variety of welding and fabricating techniques, and can be displayed in an educational setting as a quality curriculum development project.