Week of Feb 23

This week in IED
You should have finished up the visual analysis in your journal and the density lab.  Be sure that you complete the calculations from the data that we recorded in your journals last week and have that in your journals by class this week.

This week, we will reverse engineer parts that you can bring from home.  You will disassemble the items, so make sure that they are easily taken apart and put back together again.  In the process, you will examine how they are made, what kinds of materials and methods are used, and then how the item is supposed to function. You will need these items in class Monday through Thursday so that you can complete a good structural and functional study of them.

Criteria for your items are:

• Easily disassembled and put back together again.
• Contain 5-10 or so separate pieces.
• The item should perform some type of mechanical function.  All electronic items, such as smart phones, are not good items.  They are not easy to take apart, and they have very little mechanical action (motion, leverage, etc.) to analyze.
• Good items from the past include a mechanical sprinkler head, pliers, mechanical pencil, game controller joystick (buttons and joysticks are mechanical motion). Many others are possible. 

This week's agendas:

Monday-Tuesday - Structural Analysis

Wednesday-Thursday - Functional Analysis

This Week at RRHS

It is hard to believe that we are already 1 week in to the FIFTH six weeks of this year.  I know that there are really more than 12 weeks left, but the year is far more than half over by now.  These last few months will go quickly.  Before you know it, we will be talking about the End of Course exam, where you can qualify for college credit for the time you have spent in IED through UT Tyler, Texas A&M Kingsville and other national colleges. 

Your course selections are due to your counselor on Tuesday.  The next course in the engineering sequence is Principles of Engineering (PoE).  After that, you can choose from the current offering of specilization courses that we offer: 

• Digital Electronics - Study how modern digital circuits (the kind that run your cell phone, automobile, traffic lights for the city and much, much more) operate.  Learn to design some simple digital circuits; analyze how they operate; and trouble-shoot complex systems that do not work as designed.
• Civil Engineering & Architecture - Learn about these 2 broad fields.  Civil Engineers concern themselves with a wide array of societal problems that deal with how we live safely and prosper as a community.  We will learn how engineers design building structure to withstand all of the forces that get applied to it; how they determine how heat is transferred through walls and design air conditioning systems to keep us comfortable; how construction affects area flooding and what can be done to control it.  Architects are concerned with the aesthitic (how it looks) and functional use of the space.  You will learn to design buildings from a simple shed to a large community library using Autodesk Revit, just the way that licensed professional architects do. 
• Aerospace Engineering - Learn how aircraft are able to fly through the air and even rockets fly through space.  In addition to studying the equations that govern flight, you will learn how to pilot an airplane and design your own glider and rocket and then test how well your design works.  At the end of the year, you will learn about the complex network of satellites that bring you your favorite television show, allow you to talk on a cell phone, and so much more.  

If you have any questions about the topics covered in these classes or the sequence, please see me.  

All juniors at RRHS will take the SAT test on Wednesday, but the rest of the week should follow a fairly normal schedule. 

College Visits This Week

Thursday - Texas A&M at Corpus Christi

Week of Feb 16

This Week in IED
If you are attending the Edison Lecture, be sure to be at the 700 bus loop by 10:15 Tuesday morning.  We will return by 2:00, so you will be back for C lunch on campus.

IED classes will update their portfolios with the recent Inventor designs as well as correct the formatting.  Remember that the structure should be:

• Main page (About You)
• IED
      Engineering Field Presentation
      Product Innovation Presentation
      Sketches
      Puzzle Cube
      CAD Modelling (add this one this week)
• Other Engineering Classes

Be sure that you  have detailed descriptions of these assignments for what you were supposed to do and what you learned to do as a result.  Remember that the audience is not me but a future recruiter who wants to know about your abilities.  They will likely not be familiar with our class and need to know what the assignment was about and how you improved your skills as a result. 

Thursday and Friday, we will conduct some experiments to calculate density of some irregular shapes.

Reverse Engineering
Following that, we will continue working on the Reverse Engineering project by doing a structural analysis (how it is built) and functional analysis (how it works), which will occur next week. 

I did not complete the journal check this weekend but will do so this week.  Be sure that you have things up to date and add the visual analysis charts from last week (and this week) to your journal.  Remember that a journal should be a daily digest of your work and not just notes that you take for class. 

Semi High Tech U

Semi High Tech U is an excellent opportunity for a few fortunate students to interact with high-tech industry engineers and see how what they are doing at school relates to highly demanding and rewarding jobs in the semiconductor industry.  It is 3 fun-filled and intense days of activity, tours, interactions with engineers and more that help to reinforce your understanding of the basic STEM concepts.  It would require you attending all 3 days (away from school), so you would have to make up the work that you will miss.  However, it is counted as a school-related activity, so it won't affect your exemption eligibility.  If you are interested, you need to apply at the Semi web site as soon as possible.  The application and selection 

This week at RRHS

It is hard to believe that this is the start of the FIFTH six weeks.  It always seems fast, but this year seems to have flown by even faster than most.  (Of course, it is a little deceiving since these grading periods are a little more than six weeks long.)  Look for report cards to come home this week.

Normal schedule this week at RRHS - no late starts or pep rally schedules.  I should be available for tutorials in my room each afternoon and each morning except for Thursday, when we have a faculty meeting scheduled.

College Visits This Week
Thursday - The University of Texas at Dallas
Friday - The University of Texas at Arlington (good engineering school)

Week of Feb 8

This week in IED
All Inventor work should be finished by now.   If you have not finished any of the parts from unit 5, please come in to tutorials this week to complete all of your work. Tuesday and Wednesday in class will include a test on part creation from Inventor before moving on to the Reverse Engineering unit, beginning with visual and then functional analysis.

Update your notebooks for a journal check this week.  You should have the portfolio instructions and the calculating properties of shapes.  Be sure to sign, date, and number all of your pages as well.

CTE has duty this week, so I will not be available for morning tutorials.  I will be here, however, every afternoon.  You can work on Inventor in Mrs. Saksena's room 603, if you need to work in the morning.

Agendas: 
Tuesday - Inventor Quiz + Visual Design Elements & Principles
Thursday - Visual Design Elements - Automoblox

You can download a copy of Inventor for academic use at the Autodesk web site.  The program is very graphic intensive, but many home computers are capable of running it.  Be aware that it takes several hours to download and install.

Edison Lecture
 On Feb 17, next Tuesday, engineering students can attend the Edison Lecture Series  at UT.  The buses will leave RRHS at 10:15 so that you will have time to visit UT engineering students and faculty showing off their current projects and activities.  Following that, we will attend the lecture on the topic of Big Data, which I can only guess has to do with the technology of storing data; how that has changed; and how it has enabled much of the technology we know today.  We should return to campus in time for C lunch (2:00).

If you are interested, be sure that you sign up on this form, so that I have the needed information.  You also need to complete the RRISD permission form, which requires signatures from your parents, teachers, and yourself.  You can print the linked copy or get one from me.

This week at RRHS
This is the final week of the 4th six weeks.  The year is really flying by quickly.  Be sure that you have all work caught up and turned in to me by Friday so that I have time to get it  graded before grades are due next Tuesday morning.

College Recruiting Visits
Tuesday - Oregon State
Wednesday - US Navy
See your counselor for specific information or to sign up.