MIT Sketching -- Now Technology Helps Teach!

This has got to be one of the coolest, most useful teaching tools I've seen in quite a while. It is not only a method of teaching, notetaking, and/or concept designing, but it does it in a way that is natural to that way we often describe or try to do things. Consider this, have you ever tried to explain an idea or device and ultimately just grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and drew it?

That's what this MIT professor has done. As my Mechanical Engineering boyfriend pointed out, I'm sure there are all kinds of settings that have to be set (gravity, friction, etc.) before it can be used as demonstrated, but as a relatively simple start to exploring statics (think buildings) and dynamics (think spinning wheels), it's a pretty cool way to go. The best part is that you wouldn't necessarily have to set up the room with actual carts spinning down ramps. (Which can be really time consuming and a bit chaotic!)



Le Boyfriend, has also suggested for further interest into virtual prototyping software, you'll want to check out Working Model 2D and/or Adams.

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