WHAT ARE SOME OF THE
ACTIVITIES INCLUDED
IN THE ENGINEERING
TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY?
Multiple engineering courses, available
from freshman year
Multiple levels of computer science,
including AP courses
Machine workshop and manufacturing
activities
After-school robotics club, including
competitions
Competition in the Governor’s STEM
Challenge
In-school visits from STEM professionals
“
The Academy has greatly
changed how I perceive the
math and science that I
learn at school by showing
me that there are multiple
ways to embed the subjects
into opportunities of
creation. In engineering,
I believe that you are
only limited to your
own imagination.”
D’Andre, Grade 12
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS;
BUILDING UP CONFIDENCE
Educators know it’s far from easy to get any large portion of students excited
about mathematics — especially those who aren’t already at the “top” of their
classes. Combined with the sometimes-daunting nature of coding, robotics,
and complex machinery, stepping down students’ fears about STEM is
important before asking them to rise to engineering challenges.
“There’s a perception problem in STEM, where a great deal of students don’t
even know what something like engineering is,” says Baxter. “We have the
opportunity to show them that the inputs for controlling a machine are often as
simple as concepts they learned in Algebra I. As a machine operator, they can
learn to program a computer with the right set of commands in the right order
to create the recipe of how things are made by the machine.” Brittany Walker,
who teaches computer science at West Catholic Prep, believes the project-
based learning approach “forces students to think differently, and helps them
gain confidence to learn new things.”
“In both computer science and engineering classes, students are encouraged
to adopt a mindset of ‘fail forward fast,’” she says. “Students are often afraid
to be wrong, concerned that there is only one ‘right’ answer. The courses in
ETA show them that failing is part of a process; you reflect, learn and improve.
And what we see is that students leave the program with a better handle on
the foundations of the math they have been learning for many years — and
greater confidence in actually applying it.”
A strong example of this confidence-building exists in the workshop, where
once-apprehensive students clamor over the opportunity not only to use
milling machines, but also to create the processes that define their use.
Foundationally, students in the workshop must apply existing math skills to
plan movements of the machine in three separate axes.
Moreover, they must create, compare, and vet their own checklists and
procedures for mill use — within established safety guidelines, of course.
In so doing they learn both from their peers’ thought processes and from
their own mistakes.
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