This week I audited a lecture given by the lead professor of a big mechanical engineering course that I’m involved in. I was there to signal my interest and get some information on an upcoming assignment.
At some point, the students were prompted to draw a human-powered hovercraft. I was sitting next to another communications lecturer, Mary, and we looked at each other, as if to say, Are we gonna do this, too? After all, we don’t draw — we write, we speak, we teach.
And yet, we were there. So, we gave it a whirl, too.
Anyway, mine is powered by a jolly human who steps up and down on resistance pedals, like on a stair master. The action of the pedals somehow fills a series of air bladders, which collect compressed air, and then force the air, incrementally, down into an air reservoir. The air forcefully puffs out of an array of pores, which creates a cushion of air between the craft and the ground.
I certainly felt humbled by doing the exercise — what I can’t draw, what I don’t know — but I also, by drawing, thought much more deeply about the challenge than I would have if I had just watched the students in the class draw.
It was a good chance, actually, to be a student myself for an hour.
And rudimentary as my drawing is? Once I submitted to the spirit of the task, making it was fun, like being 12 years old and building a fort with the neighborhood gang.
leaf stitch word 
I’m impressed–that you played along and that you could conceptualize such a device.
j3, I thought of you during and after the exercise. Or, more specifically, I thought of our IWCA writing workshop and how we had to prod our writing center peers to “play along,” and coax them into writing.
I wonder if, generally, as people get older, they are less willing to play. I don’t want to be that less willing person.
I just had my students last week draw their relationships to writing. It was a fun exercise, and drawing (even when you “can’t”) makes you think about things in a different way. It was neat to see what they came up with. (Though I feel a little guilty because I didn’t participate myself.)
You could still do it, and post the results on your blog! 😉
Here, at least, is a doable question: What did your students say about *each other’s* drawings? That’s what I’d like to know.
nice. kids must have loved it.
Mike, I wonder what the Crestwood Road gang would have come up with, if we tried this challenge 30+ years ago. I can picture you and Chuckie tackling this for real.
“air bladder”
’nuff said