During the late 80’s, Jim Howie was a shop teacher in an affluent school district north of Chicago. Education was doing well there but his career had taken a big hit. Few of these primarily college-bound students considered traditional vocational courses relevant to their needs or interests and Howie became the victim of a “Reduction In Force.” He was determined not to be “RIFed” again if he could help it.
He realized that his subsequent position on the Applied Technology faculty of Glenbrook North High School would be tenuous at best, unless he could make a course in manufacturing technology fun, interesting, and relevant to the students of this suburban community. So he came up with a curriculum where “applied technology and pure science butt heads on a daily basis.”
According to a Web site posted by one of the student teams enrolled in this program: “SciTech is a project-based course designed to have students learn the science behind a series of hands-on activities. Problem solving is utilized to overcome problems of design, development, production, and testing of a product. Topics are from both applied technology and science including: robotics, pneumatics, hydraulics, computer design, computer controlled machining, optics (including laser technology), mechanics, electricity, and magnetism. Students work in design teams and present achievements to the class.”
Howie describes it more succinctly and colorfully as “Toys‘R’Us® in the classroom.”
Point Counter Point
Howie and his teaching partner, Jeff Jordan, a science teacher, are now in the 12th year of teaching this course together. In the SciTech class, instruction moves between the presentation of scientific principles and supervising students in the creation of unique (perhaps even wacky) artifacts which rely on the principles.
The entire year is punctuated with weekly problems and monthly challenges such as building and testing shampoo bottle vehicles, rocketing eggs to the height of skyscrapers and bringing them down again without breaking, and navigating their own lighter-than-air vehicles around obstacles. The monthly challenge typically culminates in a competition in which the teams test their inventions to see which travels the farthest or works the best. Each challenge actively requires the student to understand a specific set of scientific principles and apply them to achieve some real world result.
Mastercam to the Rescue
The place where practical and theoretical science come together most frequently in the SciTech curriculum is in the CAM laboratory. This is where students learn how to automatically manufacture objects on CNC manufacturing equipment. Glenbrook North owns small CNC machines (lathes and mills) suitable for classroom use.
Each of the computer workstations in the lab is equipped with Mastercam CAD/CAM software, which not only allows students to design parts in a simulated graphic environment, but generates machine code telling the CNC equipment how to automatically manufacture them. This is the very same software that is widely used in industry to generate programs for much larger and more sophisticated manufacturing systems. CNC Software, Inc. supports teachers through a dedicated Educational Division, which provides curricula, teacher training opportunities, project ideas, and Web-based Internet support. Mastercam has even volunteered its services to manufacture unique student parts that were beyond the capabilities of the school’s equipment.
During the first semester, students learn how to use Mastercam, design a cylindrical artifact and manufacture it on the CNC lathe. In the second semester, they design and manufacture an artifact with 2D or 3D engraving using the CNC milling machine. Students also work in teams on a comprehensive year-long project. This year, about 3/4 of the students enrolled in SciTech will be working with Mastercam to design components used in their projects and program them to be manufactured on the school’s CNC equipment.
SciTech Toys
Howie said that teachers can use the Internet to find dozens of Mastercam projects that are both fun and instructive. Here’s what he has to say about some of his favorites:
Darts. “The first semester, we use Mastercam and a CNC lathe to design and manufacture pub tip darts. It’s small and inexpensive and some of the designs our students come up with are amazing.”
Magic Tricks. “We use Mastercam and our CNC equipment to reverse-engineer cheap plastic tricks and make them out of a more substantial material like wood, aluminum, or brass. We redesigned and reworked the old disappearing quarter trick.
Bowls, Cups, Candle Holders. “Put a square piece of stock in the machine and it automatically cuts the student’s design and engraves the bottom.
Gears. “We wrote a ‘gear train’ curriculum module for the state of Florida. You use Mastercam to design a series of gears — the software makes it easy. The gear train uses a 12-volt hobby motor to drive the train, which is used to lift more and more weight as gears are added. The challenge at the end is for students to work in teams to design a final gear that will lift the most weight. At a more advanced level of this curriculum, students design and make all of their own gears.”
Combat Robots. “We had two groups build BattleBots last spring. They designed the robots and programmed CNC manufacturing of the chassis and other robot parts with Mastercam. “We cut some of the parts on the robot from titanium—a very interesting material. One robot was a spinning drum with sharpened titanium teeth, the other a ‘spinbot’ with a titanium blade. Both were whirring at 13,000 RPM.
Out In the Real World
Jordan and Howie have a lot of stories to tell about students who have taken some of what they learned and applied it outside the walls of Glenbrook North. They tell the story of how the parents of one of their first students begged him not to take SciTech because they didn’t want him involved in some greasy shop course. He went on to win second and then first place in Mastercam’s Wildest Part Contest and is now a teaching assistant and PhD. candidate in engineering at Notre Dame. The parents now have a very different opinion of the program.
Another student built a scale model roller coaster complete with a camera that allows full-size people to enjoy all the ups and downs remotely. Howie was choked with pride when he saw this creation exhibited at the Museum of Science and Technology in Toronto.
One college student came back to visit his SciTech teachers during a vacation. He said there was a CNC machine in his engineering lab but it was not being used because students and teachers thought it was too complicated. “I can show you how to use that,” he said. And he did.
Then there is the 2004 graduate who is now putting himself through college - by working in a machine shop. The stories can go on and on… |