MS Engineering: A Photo Update

The MS Engineering students just finished their penultimate project: to build a "stock" model according to instructions, and then to program it themselves to get it to work. This is a warm-up to their final project, which sees them build and program their very own robot in The Final Challenge without any instructions or other assistance.

Enjoy the photos, and feel free to browse our other articles, most of which are focused on the high school Academy. Send your comments and questions to us at rmeadth@providencesb.org.

Ryan and Mark show off their Znap, which moves around in
random directions, snapping at anything that comes too close;
apologies for poor photography!

Gideon and Kaitlyn built a challenging Elephant, which walks
and picks up items with its articulated trunk--very impressive! 

Dennis and Tully also put together a Znap, and learned a lot
about the importance of distinguishing between sensor and
motor ports!

Kassy and Liza (absent) also built an Elephant, which had an
impressively choreographed trunk routine complete with sound
effects; we also wanted to see if it could tip over one of the
puppies 

Evan and Angel built the only Robot Arm H25; it is something
similar to a factory assembly robot, picking up and releasing
objects within its reach

Jonny and Ella put together the only Stair Climber, which was
able to successfully climb the pile of books pictured 

A (mostly) successful earlier test run of the Stair Climber

Tzevon and Paul with their own Elephant and its unique slow-
motion dance routine

Audrie and Miranda consider their robot Puppy--almost as
troublesome as the real thing! 

Jeffry and Lily describing some of the challenges of just getting
their Puppy to stand and sit--who knew it would be so much work?!

Guest Article: STEM Without H

(The following is a student piece written by 9th Grader Joshua Frankenfield, in response to two days of discussion concerning the nature of technology, devices, and their positive and negative effects on all of us.  All students were asked to write their thoughts in the style of a blog article, and Joshua's was selected to be published on this site.  Enjoy, leave your encouraging comments, and be grateful for our deeply thoughtful students!)

STEM Without H

STEM is an acronym that many schools have begun to use to describe their academic program. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. However, if these are the main four focuses in today’s education, there is a cause for concern. As a student myself, I would recommend adding in an H for humanities, because I believe that we’d be able to learn skills that may benefit us more later in life.

The main problem is that schools today are overly interested in teaching people how to use technology. Don’t get me wrong—technology can be useful in many ways—but there is a difference, according to Andy Crouch, an author and an educator, between the technology of devices and the technology of tools. The difference that he proposes is that tools make you work and become more skilled while devices do the work for you. If schools mainly teach on how to use devices, then the students would be prone to relying too heavily on devices in a manner where they end up not being able to grow in their skill sets. Schools that put an emphasis on devices aren’t putting as many challenges on the students. The students will end up using those devices to make those things easier when, in reality, we grow our heart, soul, mind, and strength if we challenge ourselves. Focusing on devices will diminish how well students are able to handle their own difficulties, whether it be academic, athletic, or social. Focusing on technology has another problem: to what ends will learning STEM go? STEM may eventually be focused on to the point where humanities is severely diminished.

Humanities has two parts to it: literature and history. Literature is important is because it has been a part of culture since the Epic of Gilgamesh. If we let literature slide into an area where it isn’t as important as it was before, then our culture won’t be as complete. This is shown in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, where a world like this is described, and in it, people have esteemed literature as unimportant. The literature was being burned, and people were much less sophisticated because they had no basis of their culture. Plus, destroying literature made only one job (firemen that burned any place books were found), but it lost at least two jobs in the story: the librarian and the novelist. If we neglect literature, then this world would be less creative and less inspiring. Also, literature gives us an idea what the culture values and what concerns them. When we have an idea as to what cultures value, then we are able to connect more readily with other people groups. When connections between cultures occur, trading becomes easier due to less argument.

The other part of humanities is history. History, like literature, is a foundational part of culture. It helps us understand other and ourselves better. According to Providence’s high school Humanities teacher, Mr. Rottman, the reason we need to understand culture is so that we, as Christians, will be able to help people more in their time of need. If we don’t understand their history, then how can we understand the kinds of things the people are going through? We wouldn’t, and technology wouldn’t be able to help them either. Technology on its own is useless because it has no compassion or sympathy. History, therefore, builds up our skill in being able to show empathy for other people.

STEM without H is a horrible idea. I encourage all students and parents everywhere to take a closer look at their school. Does it focus solely on STEM and what it stands for or does it also add in the humanities aspect? If it mainly focuses on STEM, then what can you do to help emphasize the need for humanities? If it adds in the H, then what can you do to keep it that way?

Joshua Frankenfield is a freshman
at Providence, and a proud
member of the Providence
Engineering Academy

Field Trip: Santa Barbara Forge + Iron

Not far from our Upper Campus is an exciting center of creativity and design. With ties to Westmont College, Providence, and our own Mr Hurt, it's the most natural place in the world to take our engineering students for inspiration...

Santa Barbara Forge + Iron!

Led by Dan and Andy Patterson, the people at Forge + Iron design, hammer, cut, and sculpt all manner of metal creations. You can see their work around town, most recently in the lighting fixtures at MOXI on Lower State Street.

Dan shows the ten students a piece of heavy machinery, designed
to cut through the thickest pieces of steel without blinking--no
touching allowed!

Over the din of hammers and ventilation fans, the students saw some fascinating works in progress. We found a good case study, too, where Dan had begun his designs in the CAD program SketchUp. While the students so far this year have been using a solid-based cloud CAD program called Onshape, they will be switching to SketchUp for the second semester. Creating the three-dimensional model up front allowed Dan to visualize the product, express his ideas to others, and spot potential challenges. Moreover, he was able to export particular decorative geometry from the design, and upload it to their plasma cutter to get just the right shape from the beginning.

The students look on as Dan moves the plasma cutter through its
three degrees of freedom

Computer models and computer-controlled cutting are then combined with the artistry and experience of the master; the team hammers and weathers the precision-cut piece to give it more character.

Students pass by as Andy gives attention to an iron archway,
destined for an existing window frame in Santa Barbara

The brothers' passion for excellence in creativity came through loud and clear. Since our own students are wrapping up their Educational Design Project, where they meet with a client and work with them to develop a satisfactory 3D-printed product, the example of what this looks like in the professional world was well timed.

May we ever be inspired! Thanks to the brothers Patterson for their warm welcome, and to Mr. Rockney for coming along as an extra chaperone.

EnergyPartners Fund Grant Awarded

Over the past few years, our Engineering Academy has maintained a good relationship with the EnergyPartners Fund, a local nonprofit organization aimed at boosting STEM education in the Central Coast area. Several local energy companies pool their resources to provide much-needed help to schools and clubs and individuals.

Mr. Meadth, Megan, Tys, and Kylie proudly pose

Once again this year, our very own Academy students put their heads together to write a grant proposal for one of our upcoming projects. The request was for a set of quadcopter drone kits, which our students will purchase and build and modify later in this year, as part of their studies in aerodynamics and flight. One of the energy companies in particular, E & B Resources, picked up our project with interest, as they would like to use drones in the future to monitor their pipelines and properties. This is a growing trend in oil and gas industries, as companies strive to use technology to become more efficient.

Mr. Meadth, Kylie, Megan, and Tys listen to Amy Roth read out

their project description

 
Kylie, Megan, and Tys went along with Mr. and Mrs. Meadth to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, where Amy Roth from E & B awarded the students with the requested funds. She also extended an invitation to the students to bring their drones, when completed, up to the company operations in Cuyama to put them through some in-field operations!

The gang poses in front of an antique diving suit

Thank you to all students who helped write this grant, and to the three who were able to attend. The Providence Engineering Academy is very grateful to the EnergyPartners Fund, and specifically to E & B Resources. And you can be sure that we'll publish more about the drone project in second semester, so stay tuned!

Extracurricular research at the Maritime Museum

MS Engineering: The First Month

The popularity of the middle school engineering program at Providence has really taken off this year; for the first time, we will be admitting eighteen students in both first and second semester! It's our largest class size yet for this program, which is exciting. But what exactly, I hear you ask, are students doing in that class?

We kicked off the year with some pretty standard stuff. Newton's Laws kept us busy for a little while, talking about how objects in this universe move and interact. The highlight of this unit would have to be the inertia demonstration. Remove one tablecloth very quickly from underneath a dinner set, and hope that inertia does its job! Ryan was a very cooperative test subject.

The students also started the year with some simple challenges, focusing on teamwork, speed, and intuitive design. How many textbooks can you hold up, at least five inches off the table, using only two sheets of paper and a yard of tape? By the way, you only have two minutes to plan and three minutes to build! The class record is 26, held by Josh and Pedro a couple of years ago, but hats off this year to Audrie and Kassy, holding 12 books six inches high. At 3.6 pounds per textbook, that's 43 pounds!

Paul and Lily look on as Ella places her third book; unfortunately,

it was the straw that broke the camel's back

The most recent challenge was to build a bridge between two desks. After learning some basic principles of structural mechanics (triangle rigidity and maximizing the second moment of area of the cross-section), the students set about the task. We always talk in terms of constraints in this class, and the various constraints were as follows:

Materials:

Only allowed to use LEGO beams from a provided parts list

Time:

Three days of class

Personnel:

Teams of two

Length:

As long as possible (maximize)

Load:

Must support wooden train tracks (static load) and a motorized train running across it (dynamic load)

Other:

Must demonstrate the principles of good bending structures that we talked about

After breaking into teams, the students quickly set about collecting their pieces, and sketching their designs. Our enthusiastic students snapped together beams and frames, doing their best to imitate the rigid triangular structures they had been shown.

Gideon, Liza, and Kaitlyn working hard!

Tensions ran high (no pun intended) as the heavy little locomotive crawled across the tracks. The length of the bridges varied widely, from the shortest at 30 cm (1 ft) to the longest at 99 cm (over 3 ft). But most importantly: would the helpless engine tumble into the chasm?

The little engine thought it could, and so did Dennis and Jeffry,

with their sharply defined triangles clearly showing

Audrey and Kassy almost lost their load, but everything held

together in the end!

Miranda and Evan held their breath as the locomotive crawled

across their creation

In fact, although we desperately wanted to see some disaster, not a single one of the bridges failed! This is a new record in the engineering elective, and perhaps a tribute to their collective wisdom and skill (or maybe to their teacher?).

The next challenge? Use their knowledge of torque and rotation to build a crane that can lift as much load as possible.

Kassy and Evan carefully plan their motorized crane

Ella applies the power of a protractor

Dennis and Paul take a break from the drawing board to pose

for the camera

Tully and Liza consider Mr. Meadth's past designs

Stay tuned, and don't forget to ask your students how the work is coming!

Alain Clenet: Inventor and Entrepreneur

In May of this year, the Foundations of Engineering II group had the delightful privilege of hearing from Mr. Alain Clenet, a local inventor. Not wanting anyone to miss out on the lifetime of wisdom this man has to offer, we arranged for him to come back again and speak to the Advanced Engineering II group. The class is studying flight and aerodynamics, and so Mr. Clenet began with a few technical lessons on the aerodynamics of some of his past inventions.

Alain Clenet describes the aerodynamics of 4WD differentials

and Japanese Maglev trains

After discussing some of his inventions for reducing turbulence drag on large trucks, Mr. Clenet described to the students how they might possibly gain patents for their own ideas and inventions. Mr. Clenet holds over 100 patents, and is eager for young entrepreneurs to publish their ideas and safeguard them.

Eva asks Mr. Clenet a question about his projects

Mr. Clenet also cautioned the students against making money their primary goal, warning that money, while absolutely necessary, is no good thing to live for. The students gladly received his advice, along with his many stories!

Mr. Clenet enjoys a picture with the entire Advanced Engineering II

class, from left to right: Claire, Victor, Eva, Gabe, Caleb, Aaron,

Kylie, Megan, Mr. Meadth, Josh, Colby, Mikaela and Tys (front)

Thank you, Alain, for visiting our Academy once again, and thank you students for receiving our visitor so warmly. Keep those inventions coming!

Wild West Town—Completed!

If you've visited the Providence Lower Campus in the last couple of weeks, you might have noticed an exciting new development in the Grove. Lo and behold, the Providence Engineering Academy has completed its children's playground project—and just in time for the new year!

The completed project, in place at the Lower Campus Grove

For those who have been following along, you'll notice that this project has moved through different stages through the year. Our original plan from the first day of school was to have the six Advanced Engineering I students design and build a children's playground for the Grove. The students met with Mr. Knoles as the client, came up with a woodsy theme, wrote and received a grant from the local EnergyPartners Fund, learned about California safety standards, created a detailed CAD model, constructed a physical 1:16 model to put on display, and ran many structural calculations to inform their design. For more details of where we got to, check out this post from February.

After a couple of months, we realized that although the plans were solid, there were a lot more moving parts in the mix than could be resolved this year. Having already received our grant for materials and tools, and having a month of the school year still set aside for construction, we quickly changed tack. The students brainstormed along different lines: what could we design and build that would be small, fast, portable, safe, and a ton of fun?

Answer: the Wild West town!

In an amazing display of teamwork and ingenuity, the six students (Aaron, Tys, Sarah Jane, Kylie, Caleb, and senior Jake) quickly produced a set of plans to communicate the idea to our client and provide useful tools for estimating, purchasing, and construction.

Front view: restaurant, shop, house

The town would be built in two sections, each 12 feet long, about 5 feet high, and 4 feet deep. Six distinct rooms would be included: a restaurant, a general store, a residential home, a train station, a sheriff's office, and a jail.

Perspective: train station, sheriff, jail (CAD model unfinished)

With approval from the Lower School, the students set to work. Bethany Bodenhamer, one of our industrious Lower School parents, negotiated with Home Depot and coordinated the deliveries of tools and lumber. Marty Robertson graciously allowed us the use of his miter saw for the entire duration of the construction. Peter Bohlinger also loaned many high quality tools used throughout the construction.

And so the work began! The backyard of the Upper Campus was converted to a scene of enthusiastic creativity. The six students, with their varying levels of experience, quickly grew in their confidence in measuring, cutting, and attaching the lumber—and always with safety eyewear, of course!

The play structure develops over the course of several weeks

When school let out in June, the students had made a terrific start on the structural framing, and some of the siding. Who knew that trigonometry had practical application?!

From left to right: Tys, Jake, Aaron, Kylie, and Caleb

In this image, the CAD model has been added as an overlay

to help visualize the final product

Clockwise from top: Aaron, Kylie, Sarah Jane, Tys, and Caleb

show off their craftsmanship

The restaurant nears completion (left); the framing for the railway

station, sheriff, and jail is practically complete

The reverse angle view in the backyard

Once summer came, others pitched in to help. Visiting alumnus and founding member of the Providence Engineering Academy Gabe Clark worked alongside Jake and Tys; Mr. Hurt brought his wife (great with child) and parents; Mr. Meadth's son Asher even lent a hand!

Tys (in the window), Jake (middle) and Gabe helped secure the
roof and siding for the general store

Five Hurts across three generations! This family means business

Dad got them started, and Asher finished them off

A good deal of work was also done on adding finishing touches—it's the little things that count!

A double-swinging door for the restaurant, just to give that classic

kickin'-in-the-door outlaw feel

A sink and counter adds the homely touch

Solid steel bars divide the sheriff from his catch of the day

The ticket counter for the railway station sports wrought-iron

decorative work

In case there was any mistaking which one was the sheriff's office!

Finally, five strong friends of the school helped Mr. Meadth load the four separate pieces and transport them to the Lower Campus—one 500 lb piece at a time. After a bit of practice, the complete round trip was timed at 40 minutes! Of course, Ms. Svoboda was on hand to document the experience.

Ready—lift! Is that one of our new 7th Graders?

We certainly turned heads driving down State Street!

A place for everything and everything in its place!

A final word of thanks goes out to two parties. The EnergyPartners Fund generously provided what was necessary to go out and do this. They have been loyal supports of our program for several years now, and we are indebted to them. And naturally, well done to the six young engineers who envisioned this, designed it, and sweated it out. Mack Fixler at MOXI and his high-powered laser cutter have ensured that their place of honor will stand for time immemorial.

Thanks, EnergyPartners Fund!

Six strangely familiar villains, immortalized through the

magic of lamination and synchronized photons

Who knows what the coming year will bring? Don't forget to subscribe to this blog, and we'll let you know! And go explore the Wild West town next time you're there; you won't be disappointed.

Til next time!