Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC/RMS)

Interactive Museum Exhibit Focuses on Manufacturing

Contemporary American youth are avid consumers of manufactured products. They are very familiar with a wide variety of available consumer products as a result of marketing campaigns, advertising media, and their own use of the Internet. However, as they buy and use today's products they most likely have no concept of how these products came to exist or how they were made. This knowledge gap suggests a need to educate the general public—and in particular young people—about what constitutes modern manufacturing.

An effort to bridge this technological knowledge gap is currently under way at the University of Michigan's ERC for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC/RMS). To extend its educational reach to the non-university population, the Center has invested in designing and developing a museum exhibit highlighting the principles of modern manufacturing. The exhibit station consists of two main components: an exhibit kiosk, constituting physical display environment and housing the computer equipment; and a set of interactive computer games. One goal of the games is to introduce children, especially girls, to the professions found in design, manufacturing, and business and to encourage them to consider careers in these fields.

The gaming software aims to appeal to the target audience of students in grades 6-12 and its content takes into account the audiences' perspective and level of understanding. The interconnected, interactive games of Design, Manufacturing, and Business outline the main processes in the development cycle of an example product, a customizable pen. The choice of a pen as an exemplary product was deliberate: it is a simple product, it is well understood, and yet it can illustrate the complex concepts related to its design and manufacture. In the interactive parts of the game, the user is led through steps of market research, design selection, manufacturing, and marketing. Upon completion, the user is also given a brief test.

Since its installation in the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum in August 2003, the first part of the exhibit (Design Station) has been very successful. It had over 8,000 visitors in the first four months alone and continues to draw many visitors.

To learn more about this topic:
Visit the Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Machining Systems museum page at http://erc.engin.umich.edu/museum/

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Design Station exhibit in the Ann Arbor
Hands-On Museum.

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Last modified: April 12, 2006