Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Washburn Miller Yacht Club Annual Invitational Design Challenge and Race


The Washburn Miller Yacht Club Invitational Sailboat Race and Design Competition will happen February 22, 2008.

Students are creating their boats from closed cell foam they designed using 3d modeling software t o compete in four categories:
  1. Speed
  2. Stability
  3. Weight bearing
  4. General Purpose

The race is set to happen for each class period starting hour 3 in Room 119B.

We invite you to come and watch.

Perspective drawing


You are going to need to sketch four perspectives of your boat design in your engineering notebook:

The back view -- the transom
The side view -- the gunwale
The top view -- The deck
The bottom view -- the hull/ keel

Make sure you have labeled the parts, listed the measures, and described your design rationale and documented where you got some of your design ideas from, i.e. from the hull.pdf document, or form other sources.

Also, give some background on what design challenge you are focused on: speed, stability, weight bearing, or general purpose.

These notebook entries are worth: 40 points

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Sail Away


This unit explores the role of engineering, physics, and mathematics in sail and boat design.

You will design a small scale sail boat to compete in a variety of competitions, including:




  • Speed
  • Stability
  • Weight transfer
  • General purpose

In order to be successful and receive a grade you can be proud of, you should:
  • Design and describe a hull for a sailboat. 100 points.
    • You should give support for why you are designing the hull in the design you have chosen. Specifically, will your hull be designed for a specific competition, or for the general purpose Grand Prize? Give your reasoning that supports your design and utilize information you have gathered to support your design approach

  • Describe the process of using Autodesk Inventor 80 points
    • What buttons you pushed, what shapes you used, how you connected those shapes, and what commands you made in the software to create the final product.
    • This hull shape does not need to include the bow, just the hull, transom, and keel shape.

  • Create a sketch of the hull in your engineering notebook 40 points
    • This should include four perspectives:
      • The back end: transom
      • The bottom: the hull
      • The side view: the gunwales
      • The top view: the deck
      • This should include the measures and descriptions of how you might construct the boat from foam.

  • Create a 4 perspective technical drawing of your boat hull 60 points
    • Create a technical drawing of your sail and describe the measures and materials you will use to build it and why.
    • Use the vocabulary in your reasoning and design description
  • Construct the boat based upon your design 100 points
    • Test and refine your design
    • keep notes and track your design and construction
    • measure times, weights, and degree of turbulence and average these.
    • create a graph that displays the distribution of the tracked measurements
  • Construct the boat and answer the questions in the Sail Away Packet 60 points
  • Race the boat 40 points
  • Reflect and describe your experience 60 points
  • Take the vocabulary quiz
  • Take the conceptual quiz describing how wind and water effect boat design 20 points
  • Post your measurements and charted averages, a picture of the boat, your team, and post it on your blog 60 points
    • Make sure that you post a description of the design process and use the vocabulary
Total points available: 640

Sunday, February 10, 2008

An approach to building a program


 

2/5/08


 

The process I am undertaking in Building my Engineering program is built upon several ideas and actions:

  1. Bringing attention to the positive.
    1. I have made a practice of going through my grade book with students each Friday and publicly addressing their success, the specifics of how they have achieved, and then asking if they would like me to call home and describe to a parent or guardian of how proud I am of their achievement.
      1. Showing that I value students through learning about their interests and engaging with them in fun and conversation.
      2. Honoring their interests and learning about what they know and can teach.
      3. Using "how am I doing" surveys.
    2. Giving opportunities for student leadership and acknowledging when it is instantiated through extending choice, autonomy, and rewards in the grade book.
      1. Especially when this leadership is focused on helping classmates.
    3. Display of student work and the creation of public venues for advancing their work and showcasing their talent.


       

    4. In grading I have built performance assessments through criteria referenced assessments so that students may have choice and description of how they grade out in my class—in essence, allowing them to choose their grades through effort and informed requests for assistance.
      1. This process allows students the power of scheduling and foresight.
        1. This process also allows for students to look ahead for aspects of assignments that build to their strengths.
        2. This process allows for clear and cohesive learning outcomes that can be used as a roadmap.


           

    5. Using the discourse of play and learning though doing and creating an open door for those who would like to participate in a continuous improvement system, allowing them to show mastery through additional attempts at an assignment.
      1. This process of resilience and academic tenacity is rewarded through public praise when appropriate.
      2. Removing the stress of achievement anxiety and test fatigue.


         

  2. Offering high interest, criteria referenced, and standards based curriculum that embodies the content of Project Lead the Way and experiential learning.
    1. Studying and practicing the curriculum so that traditional formal approaches to teaching can be modified to fit active learning where the content can be discovered and the process is built upon small steps that build early and instant success.
    2. Make the learning fun through offering educational experiences where the students can:
      1. Explore, discover, manipulate, share, reflect, build, display, and perform.
    3. Using cutting edge technology and tools that connects the learner with Millennial tools for the new labor market and information and innovation economy.


       

  3. Interacting in a community of practice with educators who are interested in continually improving their craft through both the art and science of teaching in continuing coursework, professional journals, and professional development.
    1. Connecting with educators in my content area
      1. In school
      2. In district
      3. At different grade levels
      4. Nationally and internationally
      5. Connecting to the practice in the professional spaces of public and private industry.
  4. Bringing resources to my students to enrich their educational experience.
    1. Working to help them make connections with their aspirations as they develop and refine them.
    2. Suggesting pathways to develop and extend their talents
    3. Asking them about their lives, who they are, and who they are in the process of becoming.
    4. Looking for scholarship, internship, and personal development opportunities in extra –curricular activities, community service, professional and student organizations, and affinity groups.


       

  5. Engaging in action research to question my assumptions about student learning and look for empirically sound methods for showing the growth and achievement of my students and refining my teaching practice.
    1. Looking at how I create learning contexts, of the students interact, and the outcomes of this process.
    2. Using validated models of data collection
    3. Engaging in the process of reflective practice.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Check list for Games Unit

Game Selection reasoning (30):

Create reasoning and support your choice for what game you will be examining for your project. Describe the game, whether you have played it before, and what you expect, or what you know about the contents of the game.

Work Plan (100):

Week by week schedule: 4 weeks @ 10 points a week: 40 points

5 points for task descriptions and completion dates

5 points for ideas and key vocabulary

Reflections on what happened week by week plan @ 15 points a week: 60

5 points for how things went

5 points for what you would do to improve for next time

5 points proof of success

Blog (300)

o Includes walk through (120) 12 * 10 points each

o Rubric review (110) 11* 10 points each

o Work plan (60)

o Embedded slide show (20)

Reflection (45) 5 paragraphs:

o What you liked about the unit

§ What you did not like

§ Be specific—what parts of the assignment did you like / not like

· What did you like/ not like about each assignment

o Would you recommend this assignment or do it again?

Slide show presentation (40)

o See rubric

Slide Show reviews (10 points for each review)

Slide show slides (165) 33 slides @ 5 points each

o Slides must be the required slides for points

Games Unit Reflection (100)

Contribution (20)

Total points possible_____________________910