Happy Earth Day!

Have you practiced your random act of environmental kindness today? I've challenged my students to do so and report back to me on Thursday. We came up with a list of ideas.

1. take a shorter shower
2. take a cold shower
3. pick up litter
4. remind others not to litter
5. plant a tree
6. challenge others to commit a random act of environmental kindness
7. help your family start a plan to recycle
8. find a new use for a "disposable" food container

Sign up for Engineering Technology

CHS student interested in signing up for the Engineering Technology program? Check out the video below and find an application here.

Columbia County Teacher of the Year

Something amazing happened in my life this school year. I've thought a lot about this and what I want to post about. There are so many things that it will have to come in parts. The first step for me is putting this out there. It's been a great ride so far full of plenty of self-reflection, growth, and of course some celebration.

It started in November when I was named Teacher of the Year for Columbia High School. Thankfully Tabatha McMahon, our journalism teacher, was there to snap a photo for me when they presented this during an early morning faculty meeting.

The Lake City Reporter came for a visit and captured this picture in one of my engineering classes. 

 After essays, interviews, a video and a lot of thought and consideration ... this happened. Columbia County Teacher of the Year. I still have a little disbelief every time I hear it mentioned. There was an amazing group of educators up for this honor and, as you can tell from the picture below, I got a little emotional about the whole thing.

Thanks to the Lake City Reporter for the wonderful article. 

Banners in the commons and a parade too!

Having the support of my students at the reception meant a lot to me. I was told this has never happened before, which is just crazy. We really need to support our teachers more and I hope to start a trend of students attending in support of their teachers. 

2014 Orlando Regional

It was another successful build season for GET SMART. We now have our fourth regional under our belt. CHIEF performed very well, as did our drivers. We seeded in the top 8 to become alliance captains for the finals. We teamed up with Chaos (1421) and Octopirates (3502) and enjoyed working with both teams. Gracious professionalism all around. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll leave you with some photo highlights of competition.

Team Spirit

Mayken & Dr. Westra, ready for day 1

Check out alliance #7

Botley came to the Orlando Regional

Display of our awesome graphic design work over the years

Pit at competition

Bumper Captain awaiting his turn with the bot

Tim & Shawn putting bumpers on in preparation for our first match

2014 Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge Finalist

What happens when sports and engineering join forces? Good things, my friends, good things. Brayden worked very hard on his entry for the Extreme Redesign 3D Printing Challenge. We recently received notification that his design, The FANTASTAKICK, was selected as a top 10 finalist. 

In this challenge, students are tasked to find a design and improve it. Brayden is the kicker for the Columbia High School football team and, with the help of his coach, decided his kicking tee could use some improvement. After redesigning his tee on paper he took to SolidWorks, learned the program and drew up his new design. We printed his first redesign in our 3D printer and took it to the football field for some testing. Brayden decided it could use a bit more improvement so back to SolidWorks he went. His final design, The FANTASTAKICK, was ready for submitting. 

This contest gives students the option of presenting their design through either writing or a video. We had some good footage and decided a video would be the way to go. Brayden and I talked about his options and the idea of a cheesy infomercial was born. Brayden took off with this idea and did a great job. 

Top ten finalists receive a $50 gift card and have their design printed and sent to them. His final design was a little larger than our 3D printer can handle so he is pretty excited about receiving his printed tee. The contest says scholarship winners will be announced in early April so we should soon find out if he made the top 3. 

Regardless of the outcome, Brayden is already a winner. I've watched him grow in many ways over the past three years. He's contributed a lot of time and effort to our robotics program and is part of the very first group of students set to complete my Engineering Technology program this school year. As a level three student, he will sit for SolidWorks certification in May. He also recently signed with the Air Force Academy and will head to Colorado to play football and pursue a degree in aerospace engineering. (Yay!!)

And this is why we teach ... not for the pay (which is never enough), not for the recognition (not what we're about), but for the impact we make on future generations. We give them wings so they can fly.  

2014 Chairman's Video

Check out our Chairman's Award video. I think it's our best one yet. Fantastic job by Carlos and Allison!
Watch it on our YouTube channel here.

CTE Newsletter

Yours truly is featured in the CTE newsletter. Check it out here.

Stacking Layers @ FSU

A couple weeks ago I took seven of my seniors to Stacking Layers, a 3D printing symposium at Florida State University. It was a fantastic day for us all. We learned about the different areas of study 3D printing is impacting and how it is changing the world. There were quite a few printers working away while we were there and we were able to see them in action. The presenters were dynamic and kept us on the edge of our seats. We even shed a few tears when we learned of a little girl and her 3d printed "magic arms." We learned about the software programs Rhino and Grasshopper and were all drooling over them by the end of the session.

Harris from Lulzbot was very informative and we enjoyed talking with him.

I enjoyed watching my students interact with the exhibitors and presenters. They were great representatives of Columbia High School and were actively engaged the entire time. We brought many new ideas back to school with us and I'm sure this trip will have a lasting impression on us all. In fact, the organizers were so excited to see high school students at this event that they pulled me aside and gave me a bit of fantastic news: they were going to send us a Cube 3D printer. Then, after the Rhino presentation, they decided to give us that software as well. They were so entertained by my students' reaction to the Rhino demonstration they worked out a way to give us that too.

Cube

I was surprised and entertained by the artistic side of 3D printing. We saw toys and even pottery being printed before our eyes. The wide variety of printing material was also interesting.

3D Printed Pottery ... who knew?

Bendable Wood

It was an amazing day with some awesome students and I'm so glad my principal supported my idea of taking this group to Stacking Layers. I hope this event becomes an annual thing so I can take another group next year. I love seeing the faces of my students light up with possibilities when they learn about new technology and applications. This is a great group with a bright future and I hope this day will stand out for them when they think back to their senior year. I'm pretty sure I saw sparks of the "I know what I want to do with my life" variety.

You can see a video montage Rhino Fab Studio put together here. Look for the GET SMART shirts near the end. :)

We visited the stadium after the event.

3D Printed Brain Gear

2014 Build Season Video

Check out our latest build season video on our YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/O7lGDsfTD60

Meet CHIEF

Well folks, we did it again. I'm so proud of this team. This is definitely our best machine yet. We finished the bot early enough to get some decent driving practice in and we are hoping that pays off at competition.

Championship

Hope

In

Engineered

Form 

We had a little fun after bag & tag. Can you see what we spelled?

Magnum PSI YouTube Video

See Magnum PSI on YouTube

Mission Accomplished: Meet Magnum PSI

Meet Magnum PSI, our outreach robot.

We decided earlier this year that we would set a goal of building a robot in the off season (outside of our regular FRC build season) to tackle some things we had not yet learned to do. We decided the best use of the time and money we were going to spend on this challenge would come in the form of a robot we can share with the public. We want everyone to see what students can accomplish and want to share that with the younger generation so they can get excited about engineering too.

We were determined to learn how to use pneumatics so we felt comfortable with it come build season. What better way to use compressed air than to launch t-shirts at football games? That was our thought, anyway. We also wanted to upgrade our drive system by including a transmission. The third challenge we set  was to have the robot completely drawn in a 3D modeling program so we could order extruded aluminum pieces that would fit together perfectly. We spend a lot of time during build season cutting and re-cutting our framing pieces and fabricating brackets and corner connectors. If we can truly design first, then we will save a lot of build time. This leaves more time for testing and driver practice.

Another change for us during this build season was that every member of the team was part of a technical subsystem. Our historian and public relations students became members of the build team. They turned wrenches, wired electronics, learned to solder, and to use power tools. Since most of these students were the female members of our team, I was especially excited about this. It is my goal to get more female students involved in STEM and in my Engineering Technology program and the robotics team.

We set out on this mission on August 5th. Our initial goal was to have the robot completed by the first home football game in September. As the project progressed we realized this time frame, while doable, was not ideal. We decided to extend our deadline to Homecoming, October 4th. We wanted to take our time to make sure everything was just right and that we learned everything we could with this project.

While the last week of build was hectic, we accomplished our goal. Magnum PSI attended the homecoming pep rally and threw confetti over the football players when the homecoming king was announced. He also rode in the homecoming parade with our team. Finally, he launched t-shirts, footballs, and confetti into the stands during the homecoming football game that evening.

Homecoming Parade

Tiger Football Game

If you are curious about the name ...

We posted photos on our public Facebook page and Twitter account throughout the build phase of this project as a way to share our progress. (I'm sure you'll agree that every good robot needs a name.) When it came time to name the robot, we came up with a list of ideas then let the public decide for us by letting them vote on our Facebook page.  

2013 Youth Engineering Camp

This summer we held our first Youth Engineering Camp for students ages 7-10. The idea was piloted by our team captain, Dugan. We had ten team members and twelve camp participants. The week focused on teaching kids about science and engineering through hands-on activities. We built mousetrap powered cars, straw rockets and model rockets, and had several engineering challenges including paper airplane contests and an egg drop lander.

I enjoyed watching my students learn what it's like to run a classroom and help younger kids with projects. I think they earned a new respect for the teaching profession. I definitely earned a new respect for elementary school teachers. The week was a great success that we plan to make it an annual event.

We started the week with some fun icebreaker activities and asked each group to come up with a favorite food and a descriptive word. That's how our interesting group names were formed.

 Toxic Yellow Cupcakes

Mega Green Ribs

Juicy Orange Watermelons

Hard Blue Crabs

Campers meeting Maxwell, our 2012 Competition Robot