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"WE'RE
one of the five urban high schools on the cutting-edge of
education reform, according to the United States Department of
Education and we have our work cut out for us," says
Technology Education Instructor Paul Kyners. He's talking
about William Turner Technical Arts Senior High School in
Miami, FL, where, he says, the students come from very diverse
socioeconomic backgrounds. Some are first-generation
immigrants from South America and Caribbean countries. Some
are first-generation American-born. Others are a mixture of
children of long-standing local families. Each looks to her or
his technical education as a way to enter the mainstream of
American earning power.
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That's a
tall order for any school, especially when the challenges of
language and culture must be overcome for much learning to
take place. But
Kynerd has become inspired -
close to the point of jumping up and down by a recent addition
to his modular curriculum that transcends the language of
peoples with the languages of aerodynamics and physics and
user-friendly CAD/CAM programming. He is immersing students in
an Aerodynamics Wing Curriculum: a combination of basic
physics, aerodynamics, pre-engineering, 3D visualization, CAD,
CAM, production, re-engineering, and success, all rolled into
a 15-hour, three-week classroom module.
One
portion of the program uses ScreenCam demos of actual models
to demonstrate how variations in parameters affect flight. The
project was launched by module designer/ programmer Richard
Wong of IMS Technologies and Techno-isel, manufacturers of the
11" x 9" DaVinci desktop mill that many schools currently use
for the CO2 car unit. The same mill is used to
machine the aircraft parts. The small, sophisticated planes
demonstrate differences in angle of attack, wing camber, wing
positioning, and more. Wong's narration explains the effects
of each change in parameters.
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The opening
scene shows examples of radio-controlled planes with dramatically
different characteristics, as Wong's narration prompts students to
consider which feature the two planes have in common and how and why
their differences affect their performance. And, before they know
it, they want to learn the science in order to produce the exciting
end result. Kynerd seizes the opportunity, once Wong has become a
"real person" to the students using the module, to touch on
programming as yet another possibility in the world of work.
Adding
activities, expanding experiences.
The module materials also contains a CD for the FoilSim program; a
NASA educational tool the agency says is designed "to solve for 2D,
inviscid, incompressible irratational flow about airfoils. Shapes
include flat plate, elliptical cross-section, and Joukowski family
of airfoils. Students can vary thickness, amber line, and angle of
attack. Intended for undergraduate study, it performs a conformal
mapping from flow around a circular cylinder with circulation."
A FoilSim can be
downloaded from NASA's Glenn Research Center at
www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/aerosim/download.html
. It can also be run as an online Java applet. As does the CD, the
download includes a plotter view panel that graphs lift versus each
of the parameters stated above, surface pressure, and speed at
surface. It also has a baseball simulator, showing the airflow
characteristics at varying speeds and altitudes of fastballs,
screwballs, and curveballs. An online manual with airfoil and
baseball lessons is a click away, providing students with hours of
enhancement projects.
From a pedagogic
viewpoint, the "Wings" curriculum offers some distant advantages.
Its self-contained structure allows faculty to continue with other
work Kynerd runs 16 varied modules simultaneously assured that the
"Wings" students can grasp each lesson, or "rewind" to cover a point
again. From the very beginning, all references in the sciences use
the correct terminology, preparing students so motivated to tansfer
into further science courses. Also, the results of the post-tests
that follow critical segments on scientific and technical principles
are teacher-monitored. Students who successfully complete the
instructional portion of the module but fail to assemble or balance
the plane such that it simply won't maintain flight attitude can
still have a quantifiable, working grade for the module. Since they
have learned the material, understood and applied the software, and
machined the parts to spec, the only negative reflection would be in
the inappropriate deviations for the "standard" wing design.
A two-ring
circus.
The setup of the actual design/machining self-teaching unit
generates immediate gratification for Kynerd's students. Half the
screen shows a demonstration of a curriculum step; the other side
allows students to duplicate the procedure in the user interface.
The module continues with setup procedures and safety precautions.
And the more the students
watch-and-do, watch-and-do, the more excited they become for the
work and its possibilities.
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The first phase
of airfoil and fuselage design is done cookbook style, with students
choosing from among a group of real-world powered aircraft airfoils,
based on their previous lessons in aerodynamics. Back-and-forth,
back-and-forth goes the lesson, from one side of the screen to the
other, until the student masters programming the data for the 3D
coordinates of a basic wing shape, altering and comparing changes in
wireframe mode, and crating shaded surfaces of their designs.
The practical
half of each module puts the tool to the material, testing the true
mettle of student designs. Manufacture can begin on either the
airfoils or the fuselage. The areodynamics package provides the
parameters for the wings and fuselage. One of the standard fuselage
designs is machined from balsa stock, mounted in a supplied retrofit
of a school's existing CO3 fixturing (also step-by-step
on the screen), with wing-insertion recesses customized to the
student's chosen angle of attack. One side is cut, the stock is
flipped, the tool path mirrored, and second-side cutting begins. The
airfoils require top and bottom toolpaths, since they are
asymmetrical. Again, after cutting the top of the foil, the stock is
rotated and refixtured to cut the bottom geometry. The module is set
up to use a 0.25" ball-nose end mill, again previewing each step
onscreen. The program backplots and verifies all toolpaths.
 No
element in the initial learning phase is left to the imagination.
Each step is narrated as well as visualized, using screen captures
as exemplars for the students' live action in the program on their
active side of the screen. As basics are mastered, the lessons shift
from duplicating prepackaged designs to assisting students to
implement their own geometry to create designs that are more
advanced. It's from here that their imaginations take off.
Primed with the principles in earlier units, knowledgeable in
creating and altering the designs and then create solid examples of
the wings of their minds' eye for testing.
Once the parts
are finished, they are sanded, measured and assembled with guidance
from Wong's videos. After the airplane is finished and painted it
must be rebalanced for proper flight trajectory again with steps
from accompanying videos.
The power to
soar.
Yes, the planes are powered
only by simple rubber-bands. But the students are powered/empowered
by positive experiences with hitherto unknown, unimaginable
knowledge which, as is its wont, stimulates them to increase the
scope of their educational possibilities.
They've enjoyed the success of understanding physical
principles and flight principles.
"When they realize its power, they're awed by it. They don't want to
quit," Kynerd observes.
As a result, he can leverage the students' newfound
familiarity with CAD/CAM to further entice them into the world of
manufacturing and good, steady employment, linking prototyping,
moldmaking, EDM, and more to their success in their first machining
project. "It is at this point they
begin to realize, with a little prodding from me, that almost any
manufactured item they use or touch originated in CAD/CAM, and that
they could become a part of the process."
And the students
have also come away with tangible proof that their ability to learn
and earn is limited only by their exposure to knowledge. "Flight is
so readily connected to career opportunities," Kynerd observes. "The
teaching unit can segue into real-life opportunities in the
burgeoning aerospace industry, actually in almost any area of
industry in which science and technology prevail.
And now they see how, if
they work and study hard, they can become a part of it."
Kynerd is
obviously inspired by the possibilities. Thanks to his confidence in
an innovative curriculum, an easily mastered CAD/CAM program and an
economical desktop mill, Kynerd's
students have learned to believe that they can move from being
"strangers in a strange land" to become participants in the thriving
economy all around them. Onlookers no longer, many will rise, as on
eagles' Wings, to partake of the technological generation of
America's future.
From a pedagogic
viewpoint, the "Wings" curriculum offers some distant advantages.
Its self-contained structure allows faculty to continue with other
work Kynerd runs 16 varied modules simultaneously assured that the
"Wings" students can grasp each lesson, or "rewind" to cover a point
again. From the very beginning, all references in the sciences use
the correct terminology, preparing students so motivated to tansfer
into further science courses. Also, the results of the post-tests
that follow critical segments on scientific and technical principles
are teacher-monitored. Students who successfully complete the
instructional portion of the module but fail to assemble or balance
the plane such that it simply won't maintain flight attitude can
still have a quantifiable, working grade for the module. Since they
have learned the material, understood and applied the software, and
machined the parts to spec, the only negative reflection would be in
the inappropriate deviations for the "standard" wing design.
|
A two-ring
circus.
The setup of the actual design/machining self-teaching unit
generates immediate gratification for Kynerd's students. Half the
screen shows a demonstration of a curriculum step; the other side
allows students to duplicate the procedure in the user interface.
The module continues with setup procedures and safety precautions.
And the more the students
watch-and-do, watch-and-do, the more excited they become for the
work and its possibilities.
The first phase
of airfoil and fuselage design is done cookbook style, with students
choosing from among a group of real-world powered aircraft airfoils,
based on their previous lessons in aerodynamics. Back-and-forth,
back-and-forth goes the lesson, from one side of the screen to the
other, until the student masters programming the data for the 3D
coordinates of a basic wing shape, altering and comparing changes in
wireframe mode, and crating shaded surfaces of their designs.
The practical
half of each module puts the tool to the material, testing the true
mettle of student designs. Manufacture can begin on either the
airfoils or the fuselage. The areodynamics package provides the
parameters for the wings and fuselage. One of the standard fuselage
designs is machined from balsa stock, mounted in a supplied retrofit
of a school's existing CO3 fixturing (also step-by-step
on the screen), with wing-insertion recesses customized to the
student's chosen angle of attack. One side is cut, the stock is
flipped, the tool path mirrored, and second-side cutting begins. The
airfoils require top and bottom toolpaths, since they are
asymmetrical. Again, after cutting the top of the foil, the stock is
rotated and refixtured to cut the bottom geometry. The module is set
up to use a 0.25" ball-nose end mill, again previewing each step
onscreen. The program backplots and verifies all toolpaths.
No
element in the initial learning phase is left to the imagination.
Each step is narrated as well as visualized, using screen captures
as exemplars for the students' live action in the program on their
active side of the screen. As basics are mastered, the lessons shift
from duplicating prepackaged designs to assisting students to
implement their own geometry to create designs that are more
advanced. It's from here that their imaginations take off.
Primed with the principles in earlier units, knowledgeable in
creating and altering the designs and then create solid examples of
the wings of their minds' eye for testing.
Once the parts
are finished, they are sanded, measured and assembled with guidance
from Wong's videos. After the airplane is finished and painted it
must be rebalanced for proper flight trajectory again with steps
from accompanying videos.
The power to
soar.
Yes, the planes are powered
only by simple rubber-bands. But the students are powered/empowered
by positive experiences with hitherto unknown, unimaginable
knowledge which, as is its wont, stimulates them to increase the
scope of their educational possibilities.
They've enjoyed the success of understanding physical
principles and flight principles.
"When they realize its power, they're awed by it. They don't want to
quit," Kynerd observes.
As a result, he can leverage the students' newfound
familiarity with CAD/CAM to further entice them into the world of
manufacturing and good, steady employment, linking prototyping,
moldmaking, EDM, and more to their success in their first machining
project. "It is at this point they
begin to realize, with a little prodding from me, that almost any
manufactured item they use or touch originated in CAD/CAM, and that
they could become a part of the process."
And the students
have also come away with tangible proof that their ability to learn
and earn is limited only by their exposure to knowledge. "Flight is
so readily connected to career opportunities," Kynerd observes. "The
teaching unit can segue into real-life opportunities in the
burgeoning aerospace industry, actually in almost any area of
industry in which science and technology prevail.
And now they see how, if
they work and study hard, they can become a part of it."
Kynerd is
obviously inspired by the possibilities. Thanks to his confidence in
an innovative curriculum, an easily mastered CAD/CAM program and an
economical desktop mill, Kynerd's
students have learned to believe that they can move from being
"strangers in a strange land" to become participants in the thriving
economy all around them. Onlookers no longer, many will rise, as on
eagles' Wings, to partake of the technological generation of
America's future.
|
