Putting Henry Ford's Assembly Line to the Test!

1. As a way to initially engage the students, show them a picture of Henry Ford's assembly line from the early 1900's (https://goo.gl/images/SQrtHk) and ask the following:

     a. What do you notice? What is going on? (Ideally, students will notice the incorporation of man and machine, or automation, what is being created, etc.)

     b. Do you know what this is called? (Ideally, a student will know this is called an assembly line.)

     c. Do you know who created this technique? (Henry Ford)

2. Have the students think-pair-share on the final question: Do you think it really is faster to separate work like this? Or would it be faster for one person to do it all by him/herself?

3. Once the students have shared their thoughts, inform them that we will be testing it out today. Separate the students into groups of three to four. One group will be the "control" group who will be creating paper airplanes by themselves. In the other groups, the students will each have a specific job on the "assembly line" in creating a paper airplane. (For example, one group member would do the initial fold then pass it to another student to fold it again, then the final student to complete the final fold into the paper airplane form.) The goal is to see if the group of three to four students working individually (completing all steps alone) will create just as many as the other groups working under Henry Ford's model (each group member doing a different step).

4. For consistency purposes all students (those in the control group working individually and those working in the assembly lines) will be making the same type of paper airplanes. To make sure all students understand the process, refer to this website for the step-by-step instructions on how to create "the dart", which is the most basic paper airplane: https://www.diynetwork.com/made-and-remade/learn-it/5-basic-paper-airplanes. In the groups that are using an assembly line method for creating paper airplanes, make sure each group member knows which steps he/she is to complete. The control group will be completing all the steps by themselves. 

5. Set five minutes on a timer and have students begin. Once the time is up, have each group count the number of airplanes they were able to create, taking note of the quality of their folds, etc. 

6. Have students reflect on the following (on a separate sheet of paper):

     a. In our experiment, which was faster? The groups who used the assembly line or worked individually? Why do you think this was the case? 

     b. How do you think the creation of the assembly line changed industrialization in America?

     c. What is different about assembly lines today in comparison to when Henry Ford created them?

     d. How has automation changed assembly lines?