Week of October 29

We will learn to dimension drawings to communicate size and location of all features of an object that we will design.  This is important for communication between engineering professionals, but we will also use it when we start making objects in Inventor.  The dimensioning will help us to understand what dimensions are needed and how to place them to correctly constrain (which is what Inventor calls it) a part.

Wednesday is WOW, so you have a chance to make up missing or incomplete work, if you need to.  Get a WOW pass from any teacher that you need some tutorial time in, and you will be given extra time during the school day on Wednesday.  Tutorials without having to stay after school!  Also, Thursday is a late start day.

Progress reports will be sent home this week.  Look for those as well.  Note that this is a 5 week six weeks, so the grading period ends next Friday (11/9).  Be sure to stay on top of assignments and grades as you will have one less week after progress reports to get caught up.

October 22

This week, we will continue working on linear measurements.  First, we will convert between different systems of measurement (metric, Imperial, etc.) followed by how to specify measurement dimensions on a drawing and finally how to use dial calipers to take very precise measurements (down to 0.001").  Expect a quiz over unit conversions on Wednesday, and leave your journals in class for a journal check this week/weekend.

Don't forget that Friday is a pep rally, and Thursday is a late start.  Consult the RRHS main web page for the bell schedules on those days.

This is also the last week of the mid-six weeks progress reporting period.  All work needs to be done and turned in by Friday so that we can finalize grades early next week.  Progress reports will be sent out next Friday (November 2).

Money for College  
Be sure to keep up with the Scholarship Page that I have tabbed at the top of this page.  I will drop scholarship opportunities there as I find out about them.  The latest is Milwaukee School of Engineering.  They offer scholarships for students who have successfully completed one or more Project Lead the Way class.  If you are in our engineering program, want to major in engineering in college, and need more help than you are getting from A&M or Texas, MSOE might be worth looking in to for you with up to $12,000 in scholarships provided.  I will update it from time to time with others as they come available.

FADE Challenge Released

I received the challenge for our FADE setup late tonight.  In short, we are to build  a structure to protect a rover that will explore new and previously unexplored planets.  It should protect the rover from threats such as:

• Temperature extremes
• Meteorite strikes
• Rock slides
• Rain

You can check out the detailed design brief here.  Your teams may begin working on the designs as soon as possible.  

To answer some questions from today:

1. We are to build a prototype that will be tested in a lab at A&M.
2. No materials are provided, so we will have to provide everything ourselves.  Using materials already on hand (either at school or from a store like Home Depot) is acceptable, but we will have to account for the actual cost of such items in our budget.
3. We can use the engineering activity account to purchase the items needed.  
4. You will provide an "engineering notebook" of your design. I have notebooks that each team can use. However, they are requesting typewritten information.  I would suggest using the notebook in handwriting as we go along and then typing up a document with the final design solution that can be glued in to the notebook.  

Good luck teams.  

Week of October 9

This week, we will leave continue practicing different types of engineering drawings.  Our next topic will be more formal than the isometrics and perspectives that we just finished.  All engineers communicate their designs using multiview drawings.  While Inventor can create those for us for items designed using the solid modelling program, it is important that all engineers know how to draw and interpret multiview drawings, also called orthographic projection drawings.  Expect a quiz this week or early next week on the different drawing types.

Don't forget that Monday is a holiday.

Samsung Field Trip
For those going on the Samsung field trip on Tuesday, be at my room (601) at 8:45.  We will meet there so that you can leave any items that you don't need with you in the storage room.  Samsung does not allow any type of electronic devices (including phones, MP3 players, cameras, and USB drives or storage cards) in their facility.  It would be best for you to leave them at home or with a friend on Tuesday.  The bus will be unattended and unlocked in Samsung's parking lot and may not be secure for you to leave valuable items.  The bus needs to leave at 9:00 because Samsung wants to start at 9:45.  In addition to the travel time, it will take 10 or so minutes to get everyone signed in through security.  We should return to the school between 2:00 and 2:30, so you will be back for the start of 8th period.

FADE Starts Wednesday
For those who signed up for the Future Aggies Design Exhibition, the kick-off is Wednesday.  Meet in my room after school, and I should by then have the design task that we are asked to perform.  I am excited about this because we ended up with 18 students registered which gave us 3 teams of six future engineers each.  You can keep up to date with the information as it is released by the Texas A&M Student Engineering Council at their web site.

PSAT October 17
Juniors and Seniors will take the PSAT test during the morning periods of next Wednesday (Oct 17).  Freshman and sophomores are still expected to be at school and will have classes planned for them.  When all have finished testing, we will continue with the regular 7th & 8th period schedules for the afternoon.