Designs for the manufacture of manipulable plastic DNA/RNA building blocks for learning life science

The subject of this thesis is the design of custom injection-molded manipulable DNA building blocks for use in a hands-on life sciences educational kit. The new design of the DNA building blocks is meant to replace the existing building blocks, which are hand-constructed from 12 existing LEGO® blocks and glued together by volunteers. The goals of the new design are to reduce the part count, increase the ease of assembly and outsource it to the end-user, and reduce dependence on the availability of LEGO components without sacrificing function and while keeping mold and production costs low. The functional requirements for the building blocks were determined through detailed conversations with the designer of the existing LEGO DNA Learning Center Set and its supplementary curriculum materials. Simple mechanical models and 3D-printed prototypes were used in an iterative design process. The part count for each building block was reduced to 3, which require 6 unique molds. Several design options for each of the three subcomponents of the DNA building blocks are presented for further assessment of mold cost and manufacturability.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Lemanski, Bethany I

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• J. Kim Vandiver.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/84400

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/84400