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
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