How I finished off the school year

[Sport Flyer]

I'm an Industrial Arts/Electronics and computer teacher. Well, at least I am for this year as next year I'll be mainly computers, with a possiblity of one or two woods classes.

I finished off the school year with my grades 11s and 12s having to make aviation projects. First they made gliders, which I never took pics of ( :o ), and then electric foam airplanes that they had to research, choose and construct, mainly from internet sources, which of course included RC Groups as their main 'go-to' place. The kids did pretty much everything except solder the connectors to the lipo packs - I did that for safety sake. Other than than, I only really got involved with their linkage setup ideas and radio programming.

The foam is 3mm depron. All the motors, servos and controllers came from Hobby City. Final results were a mini Diamond Dust from the girls group, a Goldberg Falcon-like built up trainer, a Sumo 3D and a built up Me 109. There were 12 kids in the class, 3 per group. The 109 is the only one that hasn't flown as it has yet to be completed and classes are done for the year.

I also had the grade 10s doing rocketry, building Estes Alpha kits. Overall, I think the kids had a pretty good experience.

[Treetop]

Cool.

[MTT]

Where were you when I was in high school ?? :):):)

[Sport Flyer]

Where were you when I was in high school ?? :):):)
In elementary. I'm 6 yrs younger than you. ;)

I had a grade 8 teacher that got us into rocketry. But that was a different era when kids actually did things like build models and played with toys like mechano instead of video games. I remember for one brief winter when a bunch of us were allowed to fly our Cox control line planes in the school gym until they discovered our fuel was eating the finish off the floor! :o

[foamnpacktape]

Sport Flyer,

You are a very cool teacher, I think most teachers with an rc background are, and to be an IA/electronics/computer teacher must give you many opportunities to apply our hobby to your curriculum. :)

I do a small presentation for a local grade six class: a discussion of flight theory and RC, followed by a park flyer demo. Recently I discovered the Palm Z (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/rc/93cf/) , and can't wait to use it in next years presentation. They are easy to fly and quite durable, I think the kids will love getting their hands on them, and flying them around the gym.

I am currently developing a community based program, I PM'd you but I will provide the link here in case others might have suggestions. I think I made a mistake many years ago when I went into the business faculty, I truly enjoy teaching, rc has given me the opportunity I missed. :)

Here's the link Aeronautics Class (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=882367)

foam.

[sketchanderase]

Please move to champlin and work in my school! And then move up a year every year starting this year in 7th grade.

This upcoming school year in 7th grade tech ed we make model rockets and c02 cars. I wish we could get into rc aircraft though. This past year I thought about joining the Radio Control club but I found out that I have all the same stuff and more and I don't have to pay $60 to use it 8 times.
Instead I joined the Archery Team and we got 18th in the national tournament. I think the best part about that was that we got to go to Kentucky for 4 days for the tournament. It was cool.

[Sport Flyer]

Kentucky is a very pretty state, you were lucky to get the opportunity to go with school for archery. Model Rockets and CO2 cars in 7th grade is pretty cool too. Sounds like your teacher there has it covered, but it wouldn't hurt to leave some RC mags around for him to read. He may get inspired.

[sketchanderase]

well the rockets and cars are part of the curriculum so it is nothing special.

[Sport Flyer]

well the rockets and cars are part of the curriculum so it is nothing special.

They are options a teacher can use and not standard curriculum used in every, heck, most tech ed classes. Believe me, as one who has talked to many tech teachers, he could have just as easily had you make a picture frame and pen holder. Or a bird house. Or even a birch bark canoe or plywood johnboat. The teacher's experience base and interests can form a huge part of what becomes part of a school's tech ed curriculum.

btw, closest thing I'll be to a tech class during the next school year is one science class. I wonder how I can fit model rocketry in with that...

[sketchanderase]

Well the model car and rockets have been part of the class for years now. I just found out from my friend that you can take an aviation part of the class, you get to do simulators, design a wing, and some other stuff. I also found out that you can take an entire aviation class in 8th grade. that is probably going to be one of my electives.

[wparsons]

It's great to see teachers like this around!! The models they made look pretty decent, especially considering it was probably their first exposure to anything like this at all. Must've had some good guidance along the way!

I had a teacher at my high school that taught a 'robotics' course. Grade 11's were tethered, and just used switches in a radio shack project box to control movement, while Grade 12's used two 2 channel systems. Each year there was a contest designed by the students before any building took place, then it was kind of like the 'first robotics' competition where the teams all faced off. The idea of using two 2 channel systems instead of a single 4 channel was so both teammates were involved in driving them.

My grade 12 year project(I got to skip the grade 11 course, since I had plenty of RC experience) had to grab ping pong balls and place them into a blue recycling bin.

Definitely the most fun I had in any class! I would've enjoyed it a little more if the projects were programmed by us and autonomous(I'm a developer, I think everything should be programmed and autonomous :D), but that's beyond the scope of a single semester for a group of two people.

[Sport Flyer]

Thanks for your kind words.

I've done tethered, autonomous and line-finder robot kits in class as well using Graymark kits and kits put out from the local science council. On a year when I had a particularly gifted senior I had the kids design a tethered robot for provincial competition that could move and shoot tennis balls through net targets. The gifted senior led the team, of course. Although his bot mechanically broke down on the obstacle course it had to negotiate, it did have the most innovative firing mechanism at the competition. It's great when you have students who can create, not just demand to be spoon fed on how to do everything.

No Industrial Arts for me this year. But I do have a science, so hopefully I can work in at least some rocketry. :)