Indoor Winter Fun

Indoor Winter Fun

One of the tough parts about being indoors is that when the weather is so nice you just want to be outside. I personally love hiking, camping, backpacking and rock climbing which makes being indoors tough. But when the weather is below freezing being in the wood shop, designing engineering projects, or working with computers can be a great way to spend the time. Here is a brief description of what our current 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Technology and Engineering students have been up to this winter.

6th Grade: 

Every six weeks students change courses and sometimes it is hard to accomplish everything during those 6 weeks. All 6th grade students in my course are getting a chance to learn about Computer Aided Design Software and get to 3D print their designs in class. We just finished a chromebook tag/ key chain project and now are beginning our dragster design challenge.  If your student is interested in taking a class with me next year the course title is Engineering Innovators.

7th Grade: 

After reviewing shop safety before winter break  students are in the wood shop most of the time working on their creature amp designs. We probably have one more week of construction then students will paint their projects. It is really great to see students use tools such as band saws, drill presses, and power sanders independently. I always think it is very empowering to let students know they have the ability not only to design but to build and create things with their own hands. If you student is interested in taking a class with me next year the course is titled Engineering Challenge. As you can see in the 8th grade update below we get to build and design some pretty cool robots.

8th Grade: 

Students learned how to solder on a circuit board recently. This is always one of my favorite small class projects. Parents should have seen a night light circuit that students created come home last week. We are now moving into one of my favorite units of class "ROBOTICS"! As a transition from our electrical unit to our robotics unit students are designing and building an underwater robot from scratch. This robot is through the Sea Perch program. We will have an in class competition and the winners of that competition will have the chance to participate against schools from all over the area at a regional Sea Perch competition taking place April 7th at the Pattonville High School pool.