The Dream Factory
Helping children to learn engineering principles firsthand
In January 2007 Honda of the U.K. Manufacturing organized the first Dream Factory at the Science Museum in Swindon, home to many historical aircraft and transport exhibitions. The event was comprised of an eight-day series of workshops aimed at students between 11 and 14 years of age who attended schools in the local community near the facilities of Honda of the U.K. Manufacturing and Honda Motor Europe U.K. Division.
The purpose of The Dream Factory was to provide inspiration and a sense of excitement about manufacturing and engineering to students—to communicate the importance of dreaming and taking on challenges.
Rather than being about winners and losers, The Dream Factory is an educational event intended to encourage every student attending, regardless of ability level, to realize his or her creative potential. The event helped the students gain a wider interest in and understanding of modern-day engineering and innovation, creating a sense of overall excitement.
Creating a ‘Eureka! ’ moment for every student
The inspiration behind The Dream Factory came from the excitement a child feels
when he or she makes something work for the first time. The goal was to
create this "Eureka!" moment for every student. Initially, through practical
demonstrations, the students were given an opportunity to make sense of
the basic principles of engineering firsthand, and then see how these
principles are applied in Honda’s advanced technology.
In addition,
in order to ensure that support from educators would help make The Dream
Factory a success, the program was developed to meet nationally recognized
science and engineering educational standards.
Creating, testing and gaining a deeper understanding of basic engineering principles
Three daily workshops are a key feature of The Dream Factory. After a brief explanation, students are given the opportunity to learn basic engineering concepts through practical experience. By experimenting with their creations the students gain insight into how engineering techniques are applied, and also learn how these same techniques are applied by Honda.
The greatest excitement came when every student was given the opportunity to create, build and test their own robot for the final workshop. The finale was an appearance by ASIMO, Honda’s advanced humanoid robot, which helped the students more fully understand the principles of robot design they had just learned.
Over 100 science teachers attended the annual conference of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, a national educational body in the United Kingdom. They were able to experience The Dream Factory before more than 2,400 students and their teachers attended the event. At the end of the event’s eight days, all of the students were given design sheets and workbooks so that they could continue to experiment and dream up new ideas at home.
