Engineering: Exploration Methods
A bulk of the exploration for this research comes from an approach used beyond the realm of study and work, where time and effort are devoted to designing, building, planning, and executing practical engineering tasks.
Projects such as a driveway built to code, an over-engineered pergola serving as a carport, a kitchen installation, and plastering after insulating and tanking a bathroom all require specialised skills in fields where learning through observation and hands-on experience is the norm. Ideally, this approach allows the observer to identify and build tacit knowledge and apply this orientation to other fields where access or the ability to trial and error is prohibited.
Recent builds include:
A semi-permeable driveway built to building regulations.
Pergola as a carport.
A kitchen installation, including screeded insulated flooring.
Underfloor insulation - suspended flooring.
Bathroom plastering (post insulation and tanking).
These projects require specialist skills in fields where learning by watching and doing is standard practice. However, there is an observable pattern that transfers well to broad engineering:
What transformation action is needed? (In an active tense and as a SMART goal).
Planning: Assess costs and resources.
Initiate a single task and evaluate the results.
Identify potential next steps.
Organise around the anticipated outcome and immediate requirements.
Resume with Step 3.
Conclude when enough work is completed to satisfy Step 1. (Happy with)
Assess how reliable step 2 was (Happy in)
We can draw parallels to job-seeking, where coaches and reference materials guide their audience, viewers, and subscribers. Here, unlike explicit knowledge, self-efficacy is more complex to assess.