Engineering...being creative with a plan.

This week in all of my classes students are learning how to create and design with set goals in mind. I love when students are able to be creative and in my classes students get to learn how to be creative but follow certain design rules and constraints. It is really important that students know how to plan, develop, and prototype a design before they begin building.

8th Grade

Students are still working on the different types of drawings engineers use. Students also began documenting in their Gateway Engineering Notebooks their progress. We started the week learning about Isometric and Multi-view/Orthographic drawings. Now students should be familiar with dimensioning  multi-view drawings as well as following a multi-view drawing to create the actual 3D object. I always tell the students it is kind of like a puzzle.

A few weeks ago 8th grade students sent letters to various universities that have engineering degree programs. A few student received a reply form MS&T. It is amazing to see student work turn into something more than just a grade but have real world implications like the college letter assignment. 

7th Grade

We are almost done with our safety tests. Students took a safety test this Friday over the tools they may be using in class. If students missed 3 or more questions I am wanting them to retake the safety test online this weekend. The test can be found on their google classroom. Students also started designing their creature amps. I see a lot of good designs. Next week we should be in the shop working on the projects.

6th Grade

Students leaned how to use a 3D modeling software this week to prototype their dragsters that they will make in class next week. From learning a new program to creating their own plans students are being very creative but also get to think critically about what will make a fast dragster.