Story here: The Science and Engineering Behind Lego Man in Space
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Lego Man in Space
Two 17 year olds put this together. What other awesome Lego Man project can you dream up?
Story here: The Science and Engineering Behind Lego Man in Space
Story here: The Science and Engineering Behind Lego Man in Space
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tallest Tower Design-Build Challenge
We had some students really pushing the limits on this week's Design-Build challenge. With 2 minutes of planning and 4 minutes of building, who can build the tallest tower out of some straws, coffee stirrers, mailing labels and a few cups?
4th Period:
6th Period:
4th Period:
6th Period:
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Information Blackout
CHS Engineering is definately pro-Wikipedia. What an awesome resource for finding out about things! I wanted to refresh my memory on a few Calculus related issues and low and behold, no luck:
Hope the "blackout" isn't a problem for any of you during finals week!
Hope the "blackout" isn't a problem for any of you during finals week!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Game On!
The FIRST Robotics competative season is underway. CHS has the strongest team yet with a core of seasoned veterans as well as a selection of sharp newcomers.
The team has their own workspace so I enjoyed their suprise visit for a meeting after class on Tuesday.
This year's challenge involves scoring points by putting foam basketballs through baskets. It looks like the team is starting to refine their vision for the project!:
Class of Magicians!
We've turned our POE students into Magicians!
By calculating the material properties of this 2x4, they are able to predict the weight of another student based on how much it deflects (sags) beneath them.
It's a primitive set up but we've had groups calculate within a pound of the student's actual weight. Impressive!
The point of math and science is to be able to work our way up the "Knowledge Pyramid" (Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom)
Although this is a rough/hasty set up, we are able to take our measurements and gain a predictive capability from them. Very neat!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Secret-Recipe!!!
I won cookies from Mrs. Moore at this morning's teacher professional development.
I'm going to share these with whichever class they're delivered. Who's going to get lucky next week?
Yum...
I'm going to share these with whichever class they're delivered. Who's going to get lucky next week?
Yum...
Monday, January 2, 2012
Class Instructions January 03-06, 2011
Dear Engineering Students,
Happy New Year!
I'm away from class this week. Have no fear! We have some great content lined up for you to continue expanding your horizons as Creative Problem Solvers. The goal of sharing this material, as is the over-arching goal of the CHS engineering experience, is to broaden your view of the world and help you identify something you'd be passionate about pursuing beyond high school.
1) Please support our substitute instructor in their efforts to manage your experience. Being a good host is a positive life skill worth practicing.
2) We have some great video content to experience this week. During your period, please set up a class laptop with the projector to watch the videos specified for your class. Please feel free to use the powered speakers if that makes for a better viewing experience. If there should be a problem with the projector, students may watch the videos individually on their own machine. Otherwise, I expect that students are paying attention to the class video and not their own computer.
2nd and 4th Periods: Principles of Engineering
A number of you have seen the "Making Stuff" videos from last year so we're going to save those for a rainy day and move on to some other topics that tie in with our curriculum.
Block Day:
Engineering Ground Zero - We're going to engineer some structural designs in the coming weeks so this video sets a grand context for that work.
Power Surge - A further exploration of the topics of Energy and Energy Sources.
Thursday:
The Car of the Future - What is the best solution to our automobile crisis?
Friday:
The Smartest Machine on Earth - The core of the 2nd Semester experience is our exploration of programming and robotics. This video showcases the cutting edge of "intelligence" created through programming.
Each video post may have some questions associated with it. Please answer these questions and be prepared to discuss them next week. These are worth points.
Prioritize to get through The Smartest Machine on Earth and Engineering Ground Zero since these directly relate to forthcoming work. Cut either of the other two short if you need to.
3rd Period: Engineering Projects
You may choose to continue work on your current Engineering Project. That said, please consider watching the videos listed above for the Principles of Engineering course(the AI episode is excellent. Many of you will spend quite a few more years learning and this program makes a powerful case for experiential learning (you've heard me mention "empirical scepticism" more than a few times, correct?).
Bonus points if you can orchestrate watching the videos in class (either exclusively or while you work).
As far as your projects go, we need to start wrapping these up for the Semester so that we can get lined up to work on new material in the new semester. Our first efforts will involve using the Arduino microprocessors. Please get a hold of an Arduino if that's a possibility for you.
5th and 6th Periods: Engineering Design
Get ready for the awesome "Making Stuff" series. There are four episodes, each approximately an hour long. You will watch them in series, starting with two on block day, one on Thursday and one on Friday.
As you watch the videos, I want you to develop the following for each one:
- Create an essential question related to the video.
- Provide an answer to your essential question.
- Justify why your essential question is awesome in the context of the video (explain how your question cuts to the heart of the theme and is better than other possibilities you considered).
These questions are a chance for you to directly contribute to the development of the CHS Engineering program. I will use great essential questions to support these videos in next year's courses.
An Essential Question is an inquiry, so making one is like the game show Jeopardy where your answer is in the form of a question. (Make sure your questions are "open-ended" ("How?", "Why?", etc.) rather than simple "yes or no" or "number trivia" ("How Many"))
We will review your work next week. These are worth points.
Click here to watch the "Making Stuff" episodes!
Enjoy! Looking forward to seeing you all on the 9th :)
Mr. Olson
Happy New Year!
I'm away from class this week. Have no fear! We have some great content lined up for you to continue expanding your horizons as Creative Problem Solvers. The goal of sharing this material, as is the over-arching goal of the CHS engineering experience, is to broaden your view of the world and help you identify something you'd be passionate about pursuing beyond high school.
1) Please support our substitute instructor in their efforts to manage your experience. Being a good host is a positive life skill worth practicing.
2) We have some great video content to experience this week. During your period, please set up a class laptop with the projector to watch the videos specified for your class. Please feel free to use the powered speakers if that makes for a better viewing experience. If there should be a problem with the projector, students may watch the videos individually on their own machine. Otherwise, I expect that students are paying attention to the class video and not their own computer.
2nd and 4th Periods: Principles of Engineering
A number of you have seen the "Making Stuff" videos from last year so we're going to save those for a rainy day and move on to some other topics that tie in with our curriculum.
Block Day:
Engineering Ground Zero - We're going to engineer some structural designs in the coming weeks so this video sets a grand context for that work.
Power Surge - A further exploration of the topics of Energy and Energy Sources.
Thursday:
The Car of the Future - What is the best solution to our automobile crisis?
Friday:
The Smartest Machine on Earth - The core of the 2nd Semester experience is our exploration of programming and robotics. This video showcases the cutting edge of "intelligence" created through programming.
Each video post may have some questions associated with it. Please answer these questions and be prepared to discuss them next week. These are worth points.
Prioritize to get through The Smartest Machine on Earth and Engineering Ground Zero since these directly relate to forthcoming work. Cut either of the other two short if you need to.
3rd Period: Engineering Projects
You may choose to continue work on your current Engineering Project. That said, please consider watching the videos listed above for the Principles of Engineering course(the AI episode is excellent. Many of you will spend quite a few more years learning and this program makes a powerful case for experiential learning (you've heard me mention "empirical scepticism" more than a few times, correct?).
Bonus points if you can orchestrate watching the videos in class (either exclusively or while you work).
As far as your projects go, we need to start wrapping these up for the Semester so that we can get lined up to work on new material in the new semester. Our first efforts will involve using the Arduino microprocessors. Please get a hold of an Arduino if that's a possibility for you.
5th and 6th Periods: Engineering Design
Get ready for the awesome "Making Stuff" series. There are four episodes, each approximately an hour long. You will watch them in series, starting with two on block day, one on Thursday and one on Friday.
As you watch the videos, I want you to develop the following for each one:
- Create an essential question related to the video.
- Provide an answer to your essential question.
- Justify why your essential question is awesome in the context of the video (explain how your question cuts to the heart of the theme and is better than other possibilities you considered).
These questions are a chance for you to directly contribute to the development of the CHS Engineering program. I will use great essential questions to support these videos in next year's courses.
An Essential Question is an inquiry, so making one is like the game show Jeopardy where your answer is in the form of a question. (Make sure your questions are "open-ended" ("How?", "Why?", etc.) rather than simple "yes or no" or "number trivia" ("How Many"))
We will review your work next week. These are worth points.
Click here to watch the "Making Stuff" episodes!
Enjoy! Looking forward to seeing you all on the 9th :)
Mr. Olson
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Smartest Machine on Earth
The video players only show one chapter of an episode at a time. For a better viewing experience use the hotlink beneath each player to open up the full episode on the PBS website. Otherwise you'll have to click through five or six times during the viewing to see the whole episode.
What is "machine learning"?
How did the IBM team employ that concept in the development of Watson's AI? What advantage did that provide over previous attempts at "intelligence"?
I've often mentioned the term "Empirical Scepticism". What does that mean? How does that relate to the concept of Machine Learning? How does this relate to your life?
Watch Smartest Machine on Earth on PBS. See more from NOVA.
What is "machine learning"?
How did the IBM team employ that concept in the development of Watson's AI? What advantage did that provide over previous attempts at "intelligence"?
I've often mentioned the term "Empirical Scepticism". What does that mean? How does that relate to the concept of Machine Learning? How does this relate to your life?
Engineering Ground Zero
The video players only show one chapter of an episode at a time. For a better viewing experience use the hotlink beneath each player to open up the full episode on the PBS website. Otherwise you'll have to click through five or six times during the viewing to see the whole episode.
What different "trades" (types of construction work) are featured in this video? Name at least three.
What aspect of the project is most interesting to you? Why is that?
(as a side note, look for the steel cable that breaks at just after the 4 minute mark... yeow! that could take a limb off)
Watch Engineering Ground Zero on PBS. See more from NOVA.
What different "trades" (types of construction work) are featured in this video? Name at least three.
What aspect of the project is most interesting to you? Why is that?
(as a side note, look for the steel cable that breaks at just after the 4 minute mark... yeow! that could take a limb off)
Car of the Future
The video players only show one chapter of an episode at a time. For a better viewing experience use the hotlink beneath each player to open up the full episode on the PBS website. Otherwise you'll have to click through five or six times during the viewing to see the whole episode.
The above video window only plays the first chapter of the program.
Click through here to watch the whole video uninterupted!
Discussion
So what is the car of the future? In other words, what appears to be the most promising technology explored by Click and Clack? Justify your response.
What fields of study/work would support the development of the car of the future. Describe two different ones.
Watch Car of the Future on PBS. See more from NOVA.
The above video window only plays the first chapter of the program.
Click through here to watch the whole video uninterupted!
Discussion
So what is the car of the future? In other words, what appears to be the most promising technology explored by Click and Clack? Justify your response.
What fields of study/work would support the development of the car of the future. Describe two different ones.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Welcome to the NOVA "Making Stuff" series hosted by David Pouge. It spans four episodes that focus on making stuff Stronger, Smaller, Cleaner and Smarter respectively. These shows aired about a year ago so they're still quite "fresh".
The video players only show one chapter of an episode at a time. For a better viewing experience use the hotlink beneath each player to open up the full episode on the PBS website. Otherwise you'll have to click through five or six times during the viewing to see the whole episode.
The video players only show one chapter of an episode at a time. For a better viewing experience use the hotlink beneath each player to open up the full episode on the PBS website. Otherwise you'll have to click through five or six times during the viewing to see the whole episode.
Watch Making Stuff: Stronger on PBS. See more from NOVA.
Watch Making Stuff: Smaller on PBS. See more from NOVA.
Watch Making Stuff: Cleaner on PBS. See more from NOVA.
Watch Making Stuff: Smarter on PBS. See more from NOVA.
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