Week 2: Wednesday, 4/14/21

TED Talk by an arduino creator

 

Today: 

  • Grades:
    • Grades are in PowerSchool, in your Block 1 Designing Solutions class.  I'm leaving block 2 blank.
    • Feel free to resubmit your chess piece if you want more credit.  If you do, email me to let me know, because I won't get a notification.
    • People with zeroes can still submit the assignments for up to 90% credit.  That percentage may drop in the future.  If you have a good reason for not being able to turn in an assignment, let me know.
  • Attach your paper projectile log in the engineering log assignment.  But don't "turn it in" yet.  I want to be able to check to see if you're keeping up and not just going from memory or making stuff up at the end.  You can do that now.
  • Load the STL files in Cura and send to the 3-D printer.
  • Capstone:
  • Coming up -- Look at the calendar
    •  Gold group finishes the projectiles and has the competition on Friday.  3-D parts are handed out (unless there's a printer problem)
    • Design for laser cutting
    • Capstone planning and sharing at next Meet.
Week 1: Wednesday, 4/7/21

 

Design Contest #1:  Paper Projectiles 

Your first design challenge is to design a process for creating a paper projectile that will travel the greatest horizontal distance when it is shot from a pneumatic launcher with 20psi of compressed air.  You can use up to one sheet of school copy paper, up to 10cm of 3/4" clear tape, and any sabot that you choose.  The sabot cannot travel over 20m from the launcher.  What is a sabot?

 

Today:  Class Information (I will be figuring this out as I go, so I have not prepared the typical "Course Expectations" document.)

  • Assignments to work on today and for the rest of the week.  Take a look at what's in Google Classroom and the class calendar.
  • Class goals
    • Improve engineering/creative problem solving skills (an emphasis on iterative design).
    • Build technical skills (CAD, 3-D Printing, Laser Cutting, Microcontrollers...)
    • Produce "capstone project" in engineering.
  • Philosophy -- acquiring problem-solving skills takes motivation and experience
    • Design competitions will provide structure and motivation for practice and skill acquisition-- 6 contests and the DS Cup
    • Grades are not based on contest success (but contest success may include extra points).
  • Graded Assignments (I hope to make the weighting of assignments clearer in the future):
    • Engineering Logs
    • Contest participation
    • Skill-building assignments
    • Possibly... skill tests
  • Grading Criteria:
    • Completion of assignments and meeting basic requirements
    • Timeliness (possible deductions for late logs, contest participation, or capstone project)
    • Extra points for contest success
  • Class Calendar
    • Notice that we will be working on several things at once.  There is not enough time to proceed sequentially.
    • In past years, students acquired skills over the course of the first 2-3 quarters and then applied those skills to the capstone project at the end of the year.  This year, there is no Arduino work planned until around the time your capstone projects are due.
  • Other details:
    • You should bring earbuds/headphones to school if you want to work on CAD tutorials during class time.
    • You will have a bin for storing your materials.  The bins will generally be stored in the "Fab Lab" (laser cutter room).
    • We will have Google Meets on Wednesdays, but on other days, classes will be asynchronous.
    • Wednesday attendance is required (one 9:00 Meet).
    • Behavioral Expectations
    • Who needs a loaner computer and/or a mouse with a wheel?
  • Reminder:  Assignments to work on today and for the rest of the week.