The other thing I've learned about failure is that it's not so easy to tease out of success. The two are not opposite sides of a coin, but often the same thing only viewed from a different perspective. I think of the successful bonding that takes place in the marshmallow project that Andy's school does. Or the unintended consequences or side effects of some products that Kelly mentioned. Or the intentional failure that is sometimes built in, as Petroski mentioned in the design of the pipes in nuclear reactors or the "planned failure" of Mary Ellen's chemist. Or there are the times when you fail at one thing only to discover you have succeeded in something completely different - as with the post its Mary Ellen mentioned. And then there is failure as a gift, a way to learn. I particularly liked Kelly's practice of thanking students who allow her to share their failure as a learning experience for the class.
In Chapter 16 Petroski gives examples of several different ways to categorize structural failure. I thought this was interesting because it shows that a project can fail in one way, yet be a success in another. I had a personal experience with this that I'd like to share.
Near where I live, the stream behind my house crosses the road through a culvert. Several years ago this culvert needed to be replaced. I assume this was a fairly routine engineering problem. The plan seemed to include using a moveable, sectioned metal dam on the downstream side of the road and a floating rubber dam on the upstream side with a variety of pumps then used to pump the water up to a containment tank they had build on my land made of bales of hay and filter paper. This would allow them to access the culvert and remove it. Right away there were problems.
Despite the fact that they kept the pumps running day and night, coming out at night to add fuel, they were unable to reduce the water level enough to work on the culvert. They kept at this for a number of days. The problem was that the water on the downstream side was deeper than they expected and there was a spring feeding the stream on the upstream side. To compound their problems, just as they thought they were making progress, we had several days of torrential rain which eliminated their progress completely.
They next decided to pump the water from the culvert area through large hoses across my property to the other side of the remains of an old stone dam. During this time, they were further troubled by a fatal accident. The company was from Medway and some of them were commuting daily. Driving home on unfamiliar back roads at night, going over the speed limit, a group of four men went off the road and one was killed. This stopped work for several days.
Eventually though, their second plan worked and they were able to empty the stream bed. I walked along it in boots, discovering old bottles and pieces of pottery, wondering what this sudden lack of water meant to the ecosystem.
In the end, they were able to install the new culvert and it is still carrying water under the road today. Was this a success or failure? How do we measure such things? Were any lessons learned? As we move forward, I think, we need to encourage students to see failure as part of the learning process, to find excitement in the challenge, and also to be able to tease out the possible failures embedded in success, to weigh the costs, to take care, to think of the future.
Judy, thanks for sharing this example. It truly illustrates the successes and failures inherent in all engineering feats. I especially like the questions you pose in the last paragraph - what great questions to add to classroom engineering projects - having the kids consider these aspects in their own work or in the work of others (perhaps examination of historical projects?!)
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