Course Syllabus

INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN

 Instructor’s Name:          Mr. Bill Recher

E-mail:                               William.Recher@UCPS.K12.NC.US

Phone:                               (704) 296-3088

 

Lab/Office:	CATA Room 525		Credits:	1.0
Hours:	8:15 am – 4:00 pm		Days:	90 (one semester)
Academy:	Pre-Engineering		Time:	90 minute block class
			Course Level:	Advanced Placement
Tutoring Times:	By appointment – before/after school, or Cougar Time		Recommended Prerequisite:	None

  

Course Description:

This course introduces students to the engineering profession and a common approach to the solution of engineering problems and an engineering design process.  Utilizing the activity-problem-based teaching and learning pedagogy, students will progress from completing structured activities to solving open ended projects and problems that require them to develop planning, documentation, communication, presentation, and other professional skills.

Course Objectives:

Through both individual and collaborative team activities, projects, and problems, students will solve problems as they practice common engineering design and development protocols such as project management and peer reviews.  Students are expected to develop skills in technical representation and documentation of design solutions according to accepted technical standards.  Additionally students are expected to:

1. Understand and apply the engineering design process;
2. Apply sketching skills and techniques to create single view, multi-view, isometric;
3. Use current 3D design and modeling software to represent and communicate solutions;
4. Development of computational methods that are commonly used in engineering problem solving, including statistical analysis and mathematical modeling;
5. Explore ethical issues related to professional practice and product development are also presented;
6. Apply CAD user skills to create drawings in order to become familiar with current industry drafting standards.

 

Honors Statement: (Advanced Placement)

This course is an honors level course.  Students earning credit for an Honors level course receive an elevated number of Quality Points for their Grade Point Average.  Students should be aware that this Honors level course will include:

• More challenging coursework and assessments.  Students will be expected to demonstrate higher levels of understanding for grades.
• Projects and presentations will be more in depth.  
• Students will have to focus and study regularly to master the content. 
• The expectation that students can move through the coursework at an accelerated pace and students experiencing difficulty should quickly seek guidance from their teacher on how they can be more successful.

 

Grading Policy:

The semester will be divided into 3 six-week periods. Each six weeks will count 25% of the final grade.  The final exam will count 25% of the overall grade. The final exam cannot be exempted. The six week grades are awarded on a point system as follows:

 

 

• Major Exams:  100-200 points each
• Major Projects: 100-200 points each
• Classwork, quizzes and other assignments: 10 – 50 points each

 

 

Categories of Quizzes, Exams, and Projects will be equally weighted to make up each six week grade – therefore each quiz and test is very important.    Opportunities for extra credit may be possible during the semester – at the teacher’s discretion – to further explore a concept, not to make up for delinquent work or poor grades.  Extra credit is not intended to be used in lieu of doing classroom assignments, therefore extra credit will not be accepted if there are any missing assignments.

 

Final Exam:

An exam will be given at the end of the course as a review of what was covered during the entire course. The final End-of-Course Exam (EOC) is a state mandated test that is required of each student.  This is 25% of the final grade for the course. 

Supplies Needed:

1. USB Flash Drive (4GB minimum)
2. 5 mm mechanical pencil
3. Calculator
4. Each student is required to have a 1” - Three Ring Binder
5. Engineering Journal (Composition book with QUAD ruled paper)
6. Ear phones / buds – there are occasional video tutorials that will require you to listen to understand how to execute commands in the program software.

 

Resources:

The primary resource for communicating information will be through the class Canvas page, which can be found on the CATA website.  All assignments and copies of lectures will be made available on Canvas.  Additionally there will be a tab for Student Resources available to students. 

 

Assignments:

Reading:

1. As assigned in class from various sources.

Quizzes / Tests:

1. Vocabulary quizzes are used to review new vocabulary introduced with each unit.
2. Unit tests are used to review chapter, lecture and demonstration topics.
3. Review tests are an excellent tool to help reinforce your learning. Please take advantage of the test questions, and do not hesitate to ask about or discuss test questions.
4. Practical assessments are a part of the course where students are expected to be able to produce a project or drawing within a specified time frame.

Exercises / Problems:

1. Exercises / problems will be assigned from various resources and can be found in the class Canvas page.
2. All hand drawn images and applicable notes shall be kept in each student’s Engineering Journal. Each student is responsible to keep their Journal up to date and submit for Journal Checks when called for.
3. All work done on computers should be saved by each student on their USB Flash Drive using the specified file name as directed by the teacher.
4. Follow all the steps required to complete each exercise. This will be confirmed when your files are evaluated.

 

Make-up Work Rules / Procedures:

Per policy students will have (2) days to make up work for every (1) day of an excused absence.  It will be the student’s responsibility to determine what was missed by checking Canvas, their partners in class, or the teacher outside of instructional time.  Students are to submit any assignments, make up quizzes / tests within this time frame.  Failure to do so will result in a zero entered for the grade. 

 

Arrangements in advance for known absences are welcomed, including via e-mail.

 

Canvas:

The majority of assignments will be submitted on our new "learning platform," Canvas.  Assignments can be submitted a variety of ways including, uploading files, typing into text boxes, and sharing Google documents/presentations.  Students not having used Canvas before should alert the teacher and they will be shown how to submit assignments on Canvas.  Individual assignments will indicate which method of submission on Canvas is expected.  If students need a refresher or have questions, they can access the Canvas Student Guide for specific instructions.  It is the student's responsibility to ensure assignments are submitted on time and to contact the instructor if there is a problem.  The Canvas Learning Platform logs every student log-in on Canvas which provides teachers with a list of when students log-in to Canvas using their user id. 

               Canvas is used to grade assignments as well, however, the grades in Canvas, while accurate to that assignment, are NOT the teacher’s gradebook.  The teacher’s gradebook includes categories of assignments that may be weighted differently and may include grades for assignments that did not use the Canvas Learning Platform.  Therefore, students and parents should always check their child’s true average on the Parent Portal on Powerschool. 

 

Classroom Policies and Expectations:

1. All necessary materials will be brought to class every day.
2. Every student should be seated and ready to learn when the tardy bell rings.
3. All assignments and projects are to be turned in on time. Late work will automatically receive a (1) letter grade deduction for each day late.  (Use Cougar time wisely)
4. Cheating will not be tolerated. Do your own work. All suspected of cheating will receive a zero for each assignment and parents will be contacted.
5. Make up work due to an excused absence is the student’s responsibility. A student has 2 days per each day missed to make up missed work. After that the grade will be a zero unless prior agreement is made with the teacher.
6. No food or drink is allowed in the drafting lab.
7. No inappropriate behavior (i.e. profanity, bullying, horse-play)
8. Respect all UCPS property (i.e. computers, desks, chairs, drafting equipment)
9. Students are to receive permission and a handwritten pass from the teacher to leave the classroom.
10. Each student is responsible for keeping up with Handouts and class notes. Focus on the task at hand and do the work that is expected. If a student is absent it is their responsibility to find out what information is needed for their notebook.
11. Everyone is to be treated with respect. If the teacher or another student is speaking to the class they deserve your full attention. No threatening, negative talk, or put-downs is allowed.
12. All CATA Rules and Union County Public Schools Rules as stated in the student handbook are to be followed, specifically regarding cell phones, ear buds, wearing hats, dress code, etc.

 

Consequences for Violating Policies and Guidelines:

1. Verbal Warning
2. Student/Teacher Conference
3. Parent Contact (phone call home during class and/or parent/teacher meeting)
4. Office Referral

 

Computer Use Guidelines:

The computers are to be used for classroom instruction only.  Students are not to be on the internet unless the classroom assignment requires it.  The computer is not to be used to play games.  Do not change any settings on the computer.

 

The following activities are strictly prohibited on all computers and will result in disciplinary action:

• Tampering or mistreating computer hardware in any way (display settings, unplugging, switching mice or keyboards, etc.)
• Listening to music, playing games, or watching videos/movies that are not teacher directed
• Placing games/entertainment files in shared folders on the network
• Bypassing the internet filter to access blocked websites
• Participating in chat rooms or online “meeting” websites (i.e. My Space, facebook, Snapchat)
• Outside Email (only school email accounts are allowed)
• Tampering with system files of computers
• Accessing network files not associated with course content
• Accessing websites with inappropriate content (i.e. gang related, sexually explicit materials, sites containing profanity)

Consequences for Violating Computer Guidelines:

1^st Offense: Restricted computer access – there will be no changes to due dates.

2^nd Offense: Access blocked for remaining class period and parent contact (phone call home during class)

 

Repeated offenses will result in parent/teacher meeting and/or office referral.