Reverse engineering

In this activity, students will develop a new design for earphones and headphones using reverse engineering. The activity will also teach the importance of fitness for purpose when designing new products.  

It is essential that products used in our everyday lives are fit for purpose. In order to design a product which will be useful to the customer it is important to understand how different products function and why different materials and components are suitable for different applications. With this is mind, students will be asked to carry out a reverse engineering activity.

This is one of a set of resources developed to aid the teaching of the secondary national curriculum, particularly KS3, supporting the teaching in design and technology (DT). It can be used as a starter activity to be followed by our Materials for design lesson.

Activity: Developing a new design for earphones and headphones

In this activity students will analyse existing earphones and headphones that are on the market.

Students will reverse engineer the earphones and headphones through a series of questions provided in our worksheet that they’ll discuss in pairs. These questions will focus on identifying the target audience for each of these designs, evaluating technology and style, and exploring the balance between form and function.

Students will also look at a chronological exploration of earphone and headphone technology, reviewing designs from the past to put them in order from the oldest to the newest. They’ll then take part in a discussion that relates the design changes to societal and technological advancements.

Finally, students will use what they’ve learned to produce a design of their own, focusing on areas where they’d develop existing technology.

Download our activity overview and presentation for a detailed lesson plan for teaching students about reverse engineering.

What does reverse engineering mean?

Reverse engineering is the process of analysing an existing product or system to understand its design and construction. It's like working backwards from the finished product to uncover the original specifications. This can be done to understand how something works, recreate, or improve a product, identify design strengths or weaknesses, or simply to learn new techniques.

The engineering context

Engineers might reverse engineer a competitor's product to understand its strengths, weaknesses, and how it compares to their own offerings. This can help them improve their own designs or develop innovative new features.

Sometimes engineers will have to do this using just photographic or video evidence. For example, Ferrari and Mercedes F1 engineers might want to learn how a rival racing team like Red Bull have built their car but they will not be able to closely examine the car itself. They will have to rely on visual evidence for their reverse engineering analysis.

It's important to remember that there are ethical implications related to copying and intellectual property, and therefore reverse engineering should only be used for inspiration and to improve your existing understanding of a particular piece of technology.

Suggested learning outcomes

At the end of this lesson students will understand the construction and function of an engineered product or system for the purposes of reverse engineering.

Download our activity sheet and other teaching resources

The activity sheet includes teachers’ notes, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.

Download our classroom lesson plan and presentation below.

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