Engineering Before a 3 Day Weekend

8th Grade: 

I am very proud of these 8th graders this week. We completed a lot of work in class. Students presented their final prototype they created for the foot orthosis design challenge. We had some amazing designs. One thing that students can work on for the future is documenting design changes in their notes. Most notes were lacking detail and sketches.
Students also started learning how sketching can be an effective communication tool. Students worked on thumbnail sketches, isometric drawings, and multi view/orthographic drawings. It seemed like the students had a lot of fun playing around with the isometric grid paper.

Student Foot Orthosis Prototype 

Learning to use Isometric Grid Paper

Multiview/Orthographic Drawing

7th Grade: 

After a few days using Autodesk Inventor to design their Creature Amps students are now learning about shop safety. We already took a very simple general safety test and next week students will be taking a safety test over the band saw, drill press, power sanders, and the scroll saw. Students will be using all of these tools to create the Creature Amp that they are designing. I really like how this project shows that  we can actually create the objects that we design using tools and power equipment.

Drill Press Safety

6th Grade: 

Students have been working hard on their Air Skimmers. They had to measure and create these skimmers based on particular measurements. By this time students should be able to measure accurately. We are not introducing the 3D modeling software students will be using to design their next project which is a dragster that will be propelled by compressed air.