Working in a Widget Factory

Learning about the Industrial Revolution, we offered the following engineering challenge: Working alone or in teams, make as many widgets as possible that match the blueprint exactly.

Here's what it looked like:

Here are some of the things we learned:

Working alone it is hard to make a lot of widgets. Those who worked alone made only a few.

Working individually within a group might make a lot of widgets, but they don't all look the same, and this might be a problem if you are making parts for a car or airplane that need to be interchangeable.

Working as an assembly line is efficient, and produces a lot of widgets that all are the same.

It is good to have one person checking the widgets to make sure they match the blueprint (quality control).

And, last but not least:

It is fun to make widgets!