Engineering Parents

Engineering Updates - November 2017

Engineering Seniors:

completed their solar oven designs and experiments. They are continuing to work on their senior projects before learning about Big Data and Quality Engineering Management.

Juniors:

are also working on their big projects and last minute shopping lists. 3D printing is in motion, and a little sawing and drilling have also begun:)

Sophomores:

in the engineering strand are learning Statics and refining their math skills by solving forces in truss systems. They will complete the unit by testing material properties using compression and tension to determine the failure point of different materials in multiple configurations.

Freshman Honors Stem Collaborative:

students have investigated a problem, designed a solution; developed a budget and timeline. They are beginning to create prototypes and interact with stakeholders.

Freshmen:

are working diligently on finding a problem, researching the problem, coming up with a solution, designing and building. They are now on the design and build phase, just finishing up with shopping lists and any last minute items they may need.

VEX/SkillsUSA robotics:

meets on Mondays in Startech room 10 and is looking for some more members to help out before our first competition in January.

First Tech Challenge

First Tech Challenge, or FTC, is a new club focused on teaching STEM principles by solving complex challenges using robotics. In FTC you will have the opportunity to learn engineering, electrical, and computer science principles and apply them, building robots from scratch to participate in a challenging game. This year’s game is called Relic Recovery, and involves sorting blocks into specific patterns to score points while you and your alliance partner work to defeat the other team.

All students are welcome and no previous knowledge is required to get involved. The FTC team meets every Tuesday and Wednesday in Mr. Vivers room after school from 2:10 PM to 4:00 PM. We’d love to have you come join us for a meeting if you're interested in engineering and robotics. Join us for our 2017-18 build season!

 

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Engineering Updates - October 2017

Freshmen and Juniors are hard at work on their semester projects.

 

Skills USA is in full force.  Meetings are held on Thursday after school for all interested students.

Fall Leadership Conference is October 16 at the Phoenix Convention Center, 7:30-4:00, and sign-ups are available now.  We may be looking for chaperones.  Anyone interested can contact Mrs. Setton.  You will need to make sure that you have the updated form on file with the main office.

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Engineering Updates - September 2017

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Engineering Updates - May 2017

The Paradise Valley High School chapter of Skills USA competed in the State SkillsUSA Competition at the Phoenix Convention Center on April 18 & 19.

Dozens of CTE students participated and demonstrated PV PRIDE.  Please congratulate the following students:

• Jack Baynham - elected to the office of SkillsUSA Arizona Region 5 President
• Robert Dodge, James Marlar, Zachary Nelson, Hayden Rhenfelder and Brandon Rudolf teamed up to take 3rd Place in the Quiz Bowl
• Dylan Holster, Sudarshan Kadalazi and Tomas Ponce took 1st Place as a team in Automated Manufacturing Technology.  They will be going to the National SkillsUSA conference in June to learn and compete.

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Engineering Updates - April 2017

Robotics

Team Paradise Robotics wins prestigious Chairman's Award! On to Nationals in Houston, TX.

The Chairman's Award is presented to the team that has the most significant measurable impact of its partnerships among its participants and community, and works avidly to spread and transform culture.  Congratulations to Team Paradise on inspiring others.  The CPG and PTO both granted club funding requests to support this trip to Houston!

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AZ Science and Engineering Fair - 2017

This just in: These awards were announced on the evening of Thursday, April 13.  Thanks to Mr. Howardell and the entire CREST faculty and the parent chaperones who supported the AzSEF!  Congratulations to these students and the full complement of CREST students who devoted their time to participating in AzSEF 2017.

CREST AWARDEES:

• 1st Place and Best in Fair - Zach Rolfness - Zach earned a spot on the 2017 AzSEF team and will represent Arizona at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) taking place May 14-19 in Los Angeles, CA.
• Category Award for Earth and Environmental Sciences - Melissa LaCross, Alexandra Rolfness and Cameron Gedris.
• Category Award for Microbiology - Nick Sierka
• 3rd Place Award for Plant Sciences - Elizabeth Church and Julia Lisk.
• Ricoh Sustainable Development Award - Jackson Banks, Isabella Wylie and Amanda Dahir.

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Engineering News

The seniors in the Engineering 102HS course started the solar oven unit. This ties in the design of experiments they learned in this course with all the skills and techniques gained in prior classes. They exercise their modeling skills to predict the internal temperature of the oven then build an oven to specification and test the prediction. They repeat this process with a design of their own, model it to predict the internal temperature and build it to assess their model.

CREST Engineering juniors that will be taking Engineering 102 next year may want to start saving up if they want to get three college credits for taking the class. This option is $495 and is separate from the required $25 class fee.

We have some very interesting projects being designed in the Engineering Design and Development class for Juniors this semester. One of the most interesting is the “BREAK PROOF DOOR”. The mechanism is quite complex. We also have a landing mechanism for drones being designed and various other items.

Sophomores are designing a now serving counter using asynchronous counters. This ties in all the skills they acquired in this subunit. They move on to synchronous counters next and will finish the year designing microcontroller based systems.

The Freshman are working diligently on the Geometry of Design -Density solids -Volume of shapes and sizes. Most importantly they are learning how to work with CAD (Computer Aided Design). This is a very important tool. When the students leave here this semester they will not only have a modeling skill for college and higher education level but a marketable skill for future employment as well.

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Engineering Update - February 2017

Freshmen

Introduction to Design and Development - In this class, Mr. Ottenbreit emphasizes the use of the engineering notebook early on, first in writing, and then in sketching.  Entries are required to be all uppercase, neat and well organized.  Mr. Ottenbreit's 32 years of industry experience provides insight and perspective on what is property industry standard.  In the real world, the engineering notebook is a legal document.  As part of that documentation, students are taught the importance of sketching details, which is how plans and ideas are formulated and substantiated.  After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Both proper writing and sketching take time and are skills that have to be developed.

Sophomores:

learned to solder while assembling a random number generator circuit board used to introduce combinational and digital logic.  They designed, simulated, prototyped a majority voting circuit as an introduction to combinational logic design.

Juniors

In Engineering Design and Development, students work to come up with a project from an idea to a prototype.  They have to go through several levels of documentation to define and design their project.  The final prototypes are constructed here in the CREST facility.

Seniors:

are busily engaged on their senior projects while learning about Quality Engineering, a new component added to the curriculum this year.