A grade 8 class in electronics completed their first bread boarding lab on Tuesday. As this was their fist experience with the bread board there were quite a few questions. I am moving around the classroom in a circle helping out when suddenly behind me I hear very loud yelling and screaming… my instinct is that someone is being murdered however when I look over two of the boys are not killing each other but jumping in the air, yelling wildly “WE ARE GENIUSES!!!! I LOVE THIS!!”.

They had successfully light the LED.

To quote my electronics teacher “If you can blink an LED you can rule the world”.

I have a feeling these boys will be ruling the world.

Below are some examples of the students bread boarding experiments after they completed the first lab.

We got the 3D printer up and running today! A dead driver card slowed us down but we figured it out!

Aluminum casting today in metal work! The 9-10 students are making screw drivers. The students file down the tip and then place the end in a reusable mold. Once the aluminum is molten the students help pour the aluminum into the mold. Then the students shape the handle on the metal lathe.

Pig filled with extra aluminum

Kiln

Screw driver handle fresh out of the mold

The BCTEA (Technology Education Association) conference is turning into a family reunion. Three sisters, two brothers and the father of them all…

Grade 9/10’s are making clocks…

My fifth day as a student teacher… I am in a grade 8 metal work class… It was the first time I was in this class and one of the students asked me if I was just helping out for the day. I told him that I am a shop teacher on a two week observation. He looks at me with skepticism and asks “So you are a metal work teacher?” I answer that, yes, I am a qualified metal work teacher. Still unsure, he begins to point at tools around the room asking what they are. “What’s this?” he asks, pointing at a file and I respond calmly that it is in fact, a file. After several minutes of similar questioning he looks at me again, approvingly with skepticism gone,”I’m impressed!”

I passed the test.

After a delightful tour of the school I end up in the electronics class. I look around at the familiar tools and think “Yeah… I can do this! This is awesome – right up my alley!”

The next minute a student is showing me his winky-blink breadboard and saying “The light is turning on but not blinking, what’s wrong?”

My mind freezes. I know nothing.

I compare the work to the schematic, everything is in place, there is nothing wrong.

The sweat starts pouring. Panic races through my mind, “Oh no oh no oh no oh no what the heck is wrong with this!!??”

Then through the fog of my mind I get a desperate idea to buy some time by sending the student away with a simple task, changing the capacitor.

Student comes back and BOOM that was the problem!

Nailed it.