Coursework on engineering graphics as the first design experience

Abstract

One of the priorities for higher education and the country as a whole today is serious engineering education. Geometric and graphic disciplines are the first ones directly related to the specialty in the curricula of any technical field of training. The extent of this stage cannot be underestimated: they carry out the required program work, students study the rules and modern means of developing design documents, and receive basic knowledge to continue mastering specialized courses.
 However, simply knowing the standards or being able to work with computer-aided design tools to solve engineering problems is not enough. A design engineer is a creator, an inventor. This means that one of the main tasks of teachers is to form a systematic technical, design thinking based on developed spatial imagination, the ability to think comprehensively, logically and creatively, and manifested in the ability to take specific actions to solve emerging problems and tasks, make decisions to achieve a specific result in the form of a technical product, a finished design based on the selected technology.
 This article explores the possibilities of including design elements in educational tasks at the initial stage of training students of mechanical engineering specialties. A description of the course work carried out in the third semester as part of the engineering graphics course at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University is presented.
 According to the assignment, students develop design documentation for the product according to the diagram, description of the operating principle of the device and drawings of the main parts, make, if necessary, changes to the design to increase the manufacturability of parts and assembly and improve the technical and consumer properties of the product, and one of the parts, as directed teacher, is replaced by a welded assembly unit.
 The article sets the goals and objectives of the work, describes the stages of implementation and the role of the teacher, and also developed a training manual to ensure independent work of students. An assessment was made of the first experience of using the technique. Conclusions and recommendations are presented.