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49ers STEAM education
Course: 49ers STEAM education > Unit 4
Lesson 1: Innovations in football equipmentEngineering design process
The engineering design process consists of a series of steps that engineers follow when they are trying to solve a problem. This content is provided by the 49ers Museum Education Program..
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Video transcript
(soft rock music) - Hi everybody, I'm Jesse Lovejoy, the director of STEM education
for the San Francisco 49ers. Life is all about process. A process is the actions or steps we take to do things to achieve a desired result. Can you recall all the
processes you practice daily? Think about it, how about getting out of the house in the morning? First you woke up, got out of bed, put your clothes on, brushed your teeth, and then you walked out of the house, ready for the day, that's a process. Processes are present in
our world all the time, and are especially found
in the sports we play. Take the game of football,
from the design of a stadium to the execution of an offensive play, there are countless processes involved. And one of the most important of those that any student can learn is known as the engineering design process, which is a series of steps
that engineers follow when they're trying to solve a problem. The steps of the
engineering design process helps support the design, construction, and refinement of a product or a system. So what's that mean in football terms? Think about the way a
football helmet looked in the past compared to
what it looks like now. Do you think we just (fingers
snapping) snapped our fingers and went from a simple leather helmet to a more advanced helmet? Of course not, engineers had to come up with thousands of
different ideas and designs to be sure the headgear the 49ers wear on the field is safe,
efficient, and looks cool. Now that you know a little bit more about the engineering design process and its impact on football,
let's quickly explain the steps. The first step is identifying the problem. This is where you study
and understand the problem that you have to solve, at the same time, you identify the criteria
and the constraints, which basically mean what you
can do, what you can't do, and what you can use
and what you can't use. The next step involves brainstorming. In this step, you have
to use your knowledge and the knowledge of those
around you to come up with some initial ideas
about how to solve a problem. Then you and your team generate
possible solutions based on those ideas, then
you examine those ideas, refine your thinking,
and open up your mind to some additional concepts. Once you've picked the best
idea, you give it a shot. At this stage, sometimes
a solution comes easiest when you can see, touch,
and feel something physical that represents your concepts. This sometimes involves building a model. The final step involves
seeing if your solution works. If it did, could it be better? If it didn't, what can you do to fix it? So that's the engineering design process. If you're interested in learning more about these important
steps and how scientists and others use the steps
in the game of football, keep exploring this learning
module, and go Niners. (soft rock music)