An Engineering Education toward Sustainable Society through Manufacturing a Flying Toy "Taketombo"

Abstract

In order to establish a sustainable society, a fundamental concept of industrial product design is to reduce as far as possible the use of starting resource materials. For education with respect to the design and manufacture of products, it is necessary to consider the environmental impact of materials selection. In the present study, we focus on bamboo as a design material because it has a wide habitat, grows rapidly, is carbon neutral, and can be consecutively deforested. In order to evaluate a practical educational approach, we examined the taketombo, which is a popular traditional Japanese flying toy made from bamboo, with respect to basic areas of mechanical engineering. In the present paper, practical design education is described based on the taketombo. By adopting this teaching material for design education, students who were not stimulated by traditional educational equipment, such as a Gettingen-type wind tunnel, became interested in our launch pad. Through this product design exercise, which incorporates responsible consideration for the environment in addition to ecological concepts, students were educated through design experience of the taketombo.