March Class Newsletter
Mrs. Nicole Penn, CTE/Tech Ed. Teacher
General News
Students attended the NCTSA Conference and competed in several competitions. Many student teams were finalist and represented Kiser well. Kudos to all of the students who attended and all students who worked on projects to contribute to competitive events. For the first time we won 7 awards! The most in previous years we had won were 3. We won 2nd place in Water Infrastructure, Technical Design and System Control Technology (robotics). We won 3rd place in Energy Sources, Construction Challenge, Medical Technology (a really competitive one!) and Environmental Issues.
News Info by Grade Level (see below)
6th Grade News
Students finished PowerPoint presentations about the different types of technology to have a better understanding of how careers use technology everyday in the workplace. The 21st century workplace is automated and students have an understanding now of what is expected to be competitive. Even though years before more work was done hands on- even still they used technology. By completing this activity they will also have a better understanding of the class I teach on the 7th and 8th grade levels. In the coming months we will do job simulations using the different types of technology beginning with science careers. April 1st and 2nd we will have Ms. Tamara Poles perform a workshop virtually from the NC Museum of Science. In this workshop students will simulate the tasks of extracting DNA. Students will understand the process used and the technology used to complete this task. Its a unique opportunity for students for our students because we are one of the few in Guilford Cty to actually participate in this event that is made possible thru a grant from this museum. Much excitement will be experienced.
7th Grade News
Students are completing lessons on computer programming to design a video game using scratch. This activity is teaching them valuable skills such as design and creativity. After students complete this lesson sequence, students will begin working on furthering these skills by building a Jelly Bean dispenser. Again, students will be given criteria and constraints and they will need to build to meet the need of a customer who needs a dispenser that gives out small amounts of candy/jelly beans. From this activity students will be introduced to simple machines which will help them work successfully on their upcoming projects that utilize these concepts.
8th Grade News
Students have finished their introductory lessons on robotics and have a good understanding of how to design a robot program to make a robot move and perform as needed. Students next challenge is to apply this knowledge to a real-world simulated activity which is also a competitive event. Some students will do research on flight while others will complete robot challenges that exist in airport or factory scenario. Also, some students will be completing Sea Perch robots that are controlled using a controller instead of a downloaded program.More info to follow.