(Download Game Manual with Screen Shots)

The game begins by placing the student in a library. The goal in the library is to find the folder describing the time machine and its hidden location. The folder also provides details on each of the time periods and activities the students can work through. On each page in the folder, there is a location where students can be transported to an old factory where the time machine is located.

As they maneuver through the factory, they encounter two activities. The first activity involves solving a binary code to open a door; while the second activity has the students set a sequence of switches that will power up the time machine room. Click on the temporal jumps (Egypt,France, or England) to learn more about the interactive time periods in Time Engineers.

Binary-Coded Entry
In this activity, students must convert an integer into a binary number to open the door to the factory. Binary numbers represent all values within computers and are important to electrical and computer engineers.

Students will first have to convert the number 57 from decimal to binary using pencil and paper. Since both binary and decimal numbers are members of positional numbering systems, conversion from a decimal number to a binary number is accomplished using successive division.

Power Switches
In this activity, students must set switches to on or off positions in order to power up the lights and time machine within the factory. The switches must be set or cleared based on Boolean equations that are given to the students. Boolean equations can be used to describe computer operations and are important to electrical and computer engineers.

Students have three different switch combinations that must be set. These control the main power, the lights and the control panel. The switch combinations use the operations AND, OR and NOT, which describe which switches should be on and which should be off. Parentheses also are used to show which operations have greater importance. Just like arithmetic expressions, operations must work from the inner parentheses outward.