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Exploration: Play in Engineering Education

  • Bruce KothmannEmail author
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Abstract

How many rubber bands does it take to cause a watermelon to explode? How far away can you stand and still blow out a birthday candle? Why can’t you flip your iPhone end-over-end without causing it to do a somersault? Most students come to engineering with a wonderful combination of inspiration and wonder. Why are things the way they are? How can we make them better? As educators in the Internet era, our primary mission is to help students hone and direct these instincts, helping them ask better questions and develop the tools and vocabulary they need to synthesize the best answers—and in the process discover even more profound and provocative questions! Play is an essential element of this process of discovery.

Keywords

Play characteristics Room to fail Imagination 
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Engineering and Applied ScienceUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaUSA

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