Visitors!

Great to see engineering alumnus Hunter, Thomas and Joe today. Very satisfying to get to see these guys. Little Danish snuck in too!

Hall of Justice

Every super hero team needs a "base" to work out of. Today's final for the Principles of Engineering course had our engineers using circuit design and centroid analysis to develop the layout of their team's Superhero Headquarters.

Each team had to choose the six rooms that were most important to their team (living quarters, command center, research lab, etc.). Each of these rooms had a unique geometric shape and associated resistor value to simulate it on their "power grid". A successful "base" would be able to create a circuit with both parallel and series components (rooms laid out side by side or in a row) to create a total circuit resistance of 500 to 1000 ohms. The test would be to hook up a 9V battery and LED so that the LED was powered (not too much resistance in circuit) but would not blow out (not too little resistance in circuit). Finally, each team had to determine the centroid, or point at which their layout balanced using centroid analysis:

First!

Daniel, Ian, Conner and Monti have got their controller and motors hooked up to their battery and everything works. Nice job!

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch?

Thanks Mr Mueller :)

Centroids

Essential Question... Statics

How can we use an understanding of statics to build the most efficient manila file folder bridge?

These are our first attempts prior to our unit on statics. How will our designs improve when we play again at the end of the unit?
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High Surf Advisory

Enough students have been asking if I was going to be surfing this swell that I thought I'd share these photos. Here was yesterday afternoon... Yeow!

SDSU Compact Sign Up Link!

Visit this site to sign up for information on how to proceed with the SDSU Compact: pltwca.net/go/SDSU2013

Yeow!

Teachers like exciting learning experiences too! From the staff professional development this morning:

Puzzle Cube Battle!

We've started our 1st annual Puzzle Cube Tournament today. Who will be our grand winner?

Marshmallow Challenge!

CAD

It Pays to be a Winner

Circuits!

Click to Run

Puzzle Palace

Dr. Felix and Mr. Mueller got to try their hands at solving Ryan and Nick's puzzle cube prototypes.

They were tough ones to get!

Sea Perch!: Underwater ROVs

We're "underway" (that's a good Navy term, right?) with our NJROTC/Engineering cross-collaboration. We're building Sea Perch underwater ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles). Our first order of business is to build the original design. As usual we'll have a chance for some "friendly competition". Once we get our vehicles operational, we'll announce some challenges and let everyone have a go at designing solutions around them.

#instacane

See what people are posting on Instagram with the #instacane hashtag.

How Smart Can You Get?

Practicing a "growth mindset" (the idea that you learn each and everyday through your experiences) is a fundamental of my agenda for our classes. If I'm out sick, please watch this program in class (It may be broken into five parts for web viewing. If so, click through to the next section when each section finishes).

Watch How Smart Can We Get? on PBS. See more from NOVA scienceNOW.

Infrastructure

It's been a heck of a storm on the east coast. We sure feel for all of those that have been effected by these events.

What is "infrastructure"? How has the storm effected the infrastructure in the regions that have born the brunt of the weather?

What types of natural disasters should we be prepared for here in Southern California? Are you ready for the unexpected? 

Puzzle Parts!

For our 3 x 3 x 3 puzzle cube, how many unique puzzle parts can you make with three blocks? How many with 4? How about with 5 or 6?

Alexis has the nicest looking parts I've seen this year. Crisp, straight lines and a consistent, colored shading scheme:
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Better Learning Through Gameplay

The bell hadn't even rung for class yet and we have this level of interest...

MIT has an "open courseware" (free online class content) class on game design. We'll take a look at this since the majority of the class has been engaged with this game experience...