On the first day of Honors Engineering class, students hurried into the Hall Physics Lab, found their seats, and met their preassigned lab partners. Waiting for each group on the lab bench was a box filled with cardboard rectangles and circles, pencils, rubber bands, paper clips, Scotch tape, and an instruction sheet.

Their assignment was simple: Build a rubber-band-powered car. How they were supposed to do it, however, depended on which instructions they received.

Some groups were given detailed written directions and diagrams showing how to construct the car’s body, attach the wheels, and create the propulsion system. Others received a series of pictorial steps. Still others were given only a picture of the finished product. One puzzled group had just three sentences explaining the task.

With twenty minutes on the clock, the students got to work. They measured, folded, taped, bent, and experimented, trying to figure out how the materials in front of them could become a working car. As the clock ticked down, the lab filled with the sounds of collaboration — and a few increasingly urgent requests for more time. “I will be hearing that a lot this year,” chuckled Science and Math Teacher Ellen Browne.

When time was called, the cars reflected the very different instructions each group received. Some had managed to attach cardboard wheels to pencil axles mounted on their cardboard bases. Others were still figuring out how to bend and attach the paper clip and rubber band to generate forward motion. At least one group had successfully figured out how to build a working rubber-band-powered car.

But whether the cars rolled across the lab bench, or barely moved at all, the students had already learned an important engineering lesson: good instructions matter.

“During the course of the year, you will provide instructions and analyze what makes sense to you, but if it can’t be replicated or understood by someone else, it is not helpful or useful,” Browne told the class.

The following week, the groups returned to repeat the construction activity, this time with clear, complete instructions. The second attempt gave students a chance to see firsthand what makes directions effective — and how much easier it is to turn an idea into reality when the steps are clear.

That lesson from the first day of class will resurface throughout the year as students build, solve problems, and learn to communicate their ideas clearly enough for someone else to understand and, importantly, reproduce them. And the lesson extends well beyond engineering. In every class, on every team, and eventually in every workplace, students will encounter the same lesson again and again: A good idea only goes as far as their ability to communicate it.
 

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