I’m sitting here on a bleak November day looking at my Leaving Certificate Technology class as they work on their projects.
.....> One student is using the CNC machine to cut out his design for a remote control unit from acrylic sheet.
..... > Another student is using Techsoft 2D Design software to create designs which he will then cutout on the CNC vinyl cutter.
..... > Two students are modelling thier designs in a virtual environment using SolidWorks, while three others are doing similiar work using Google SketchUp.
.....> At the electronics bench two students are building a GENIE C20 microcontroller board for use in their ‘Home for the Disabled’ project.
..... > Another two are writing sample control programs to test various ideas they have which they will later use with the GENIE E18 motor board.
.....> One Student is busy gluing an acrylic assembly together and one student doesn’t appear to be doing anything !
I am just thinking back to what this room was like prior to T4 when similar students would have been building very simple circuits using stripboard and sketching by hand, etc. I think therefore that I can safely say to all involved in T4 you have done a fantastic job.
I had one of my students from last year back in to talk to my current Leaving Certificate students about the course he is now doing in NUIG (currently undenominated Engineering) and he explained that he has benefitted as much, if not more, from doing higher level Technology for his leaving certificate as he has from doing Physics and Maths.
Therefore to T4 on behalf of both the students and myself, Thanks.
Declan Askins, St. Geralds College, Castlebar, Co. Mayo |