Technology/Engineering
The Technology/Engineering subarea tests engineering design, materials, tools, and systems, drawing on Massachusetts Technology/Engineering standards. Expect questions about constraints, prototypes, and trade-offs rather than memorized definitions alone.
Core concepts
- The design process: define the problem, identify criteria and constraints, generate solutions, build a prototype, test, analyze, and iterate.
- Criteria are what a design must do; constraints are limits such as materials, cost, time, size, and safety.
- Simple machines-lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, screw-change the direction or magnitude of force.
- Materials have properties (strength, flexibility, conductivity, durability) that suit different purposes.
Worked example
Design a paper bridge spanning 30 cm that holds 200 g using one sheet of paper and 20 cm of tape. Criteria: span and load. Constraints: materials. A flat sheet sags, so fold it into a corrugated or triangular beam to increase stiffness, then test with increasing mass at the center. If it fails, identify the failure mode (buckling or a tape joint) and change one variable at a time. The first prototype is evidence, not the final answer.
Traps that cost marks
- Ignoring a listed constraint.
- Changing several variables in one test.
- Treating the design process as a one-way checklist.
- Confusing a prototype with a finished product.