Retest Available

Scores are in, and I am EXCITED!  So far, 24 of you have qualified for college credit for IED through Rochester Institute of Technology.  I have entered grades in to Gradespeed for the results.

Because of the problems encountered yesterday, some of you did not finish or the results were questionable. I have requested a reset/retest for select students.  If you did not finish or the results were not available for some reason, I entered a "1" for the final exam grade.  Those students will retest next week during the regular final exam period - Wednesday morning for 1st period, and Thursday morning for 2nd period.  In addition, I requested that the tests be reset for those students who failed the test as well.  Same rules apply as before except that the system has been working much much better since noon Thursday.  Basically, if you see a failing grade in the gradebook for the final exam, expect to retake the exam next week.

The outages did not affect 3rd period, and your grades are all fine s they are.

Last post for the year!

We are now at the end of the 2013-2014 school year.  I say this every year, but it has gone by fast.

As I have said previously, the EoC for all engineering classes is required per our contract with PLTW.  You will not be eligible to exempt.  However, I am moving it up to this Thursday and Friday.  You should finish your review before Thursday so that you are well prepared.

• You will be given a formula packet (9 pages) that has any formulas that you need on it.  It covers all of the engineering courses that we offer, so much of it is not applicable to IED.  However, it does have area and volume formulas, statistical formulas and others that you might use.
• Beyond formulas, you are allowed one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with notes and information that you have handwritten on one side.  We gave out some 1/2 sheets of pink paper that you may use to put your notes on both sides of it.  I would not waste any space on formulas because of the point above.  
• The test is in two parts, each with a 40 minute time limit, and both parts are 100% computer-based. There is no written portion or Inventor example to do.  
• The test will be used as our final exam, and it is what qualifies you for college credit through Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Tyler, and other colleges.  

Don't forget to submit your Product Disassembly Powerpoint to Moodle. Those were due last week!

Week of May 6

This next week, we will only see about half of the students in class on any given day due to a combination of EOC testing (which affects all freshmen and sophomores) and AP testing (some sophomores, but mostly juniors and seniors).  As a result, we will do what we did during the STAAR testing in early April: same lesson in class both days.  Some students will be in class on Tuesday, while most of the others will be in class on Thursday.

Students should be wrapping up the disassembly presentation by this Friday.  I have a link in Moodle for you to load the Powerpoint or other file or to load the link to Prezi or some other online presentation software.  

We don't have very much new material left in this year.  It has certainly gone fast.  Two weeks from now, we will start thinking about preparing for the final exams, and then finals are May 28-31.  The final for IED is the End of Course exam that is required by Project Lead the Way for all students.  There will be no exemptions for exams in engineering for the spring semester.  

The good news is that, if you do well in the course and the exam, you will get a letter from me over the summer stating that you have earned the right to get college credit through Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Tyler, or Texas A&M-Kingsville.  In some cases, those credits can be transferred to another school as a transfer credit.  Check with whichever school you may be interested in applying to see how they will handle it.  You would have to pay the school that is granting you the credit, so you need to decide if it is worth it or not for you.  

The final exam schedule has been released. Be sure to clear up all obligations and get your exemption forms turned in by the deadlines.

If you gave me your pendant design to print, it is ready.  Be sure to pick them up this week.

Finally, we will be starting an engineering club at RRHS next fall.  Five of our current students attended a summit with the other RRISD schools last week and are anxious to begin working on it.  If you are interested, let me know so that we can notify you right at the start of school (if not before) next year to get it moving quickly.  

I am finished with morning duty for the year, so I should be available most mornings and afternoons through the remainder of the year.  Also, the last Late Start and WOW for this year will be May 22 & 23, so the schedule for the next 2 weeks should be normal.

If you are interested in the Aerospace class that we will have next year, I started the blog for it already.  Yeah.  I'm a little excited about that one.  :-) I will post updates over the summer for those who signed up to take the class next year.