ICT
INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING
Currently in the Introduction to Engineering Year 10 elective subject the Arduino traffic management system project is in full swing. Tasked with designing, constructing and testing a functional prototype for a pedestrian crossing system for McKinnon Road, students are putting their recently developed electronics and programming skills into action. Students are gaining practical knowledge in the design and implementation of electronic circuits, as well as programming microcontrollers, which will allow them to create automated systems.
Introduction to Engineering is a great elective unit for students that succeeded in and enjoyed subjects such as Robotics, Mission to Mars, Science and Mathematics in Year 9, and that are considering further studies in senior ICT, Science and Mathematics such as Applied Computing, Data Analytics and Software Development (ICT), Physics (Science) and Methods / Specialist (Mathematics). This subject provides a rare opportunity to develop practical skills that will complement the rigorous academic curriculum in other subjects, and that will be necessary for the Engineers of the future.
Mr Jesse Grantham-Smith
Introduction to Engineering Teacher
During this semester, we have been working with an arduino each to construct all kinds of different circuits with the components at our disposal. We have learnt how to make circuits using these to create functional contraptions that span from using motors to rotate fans and buzzers to emit sounds. Furthermore, we have also learnt to interact with our physical designs by using our coding knowledge from class to make these components complete a dynamic range of tasks.
This allows me to help expand my horizons in the practical sector of engineering, as a contrast to conventional subjects, like physics. As a result of being more hands on, it has been quite engaging to learn like this where the task is not all theory. Leading into Year 11, I would love to continue completing such topics in succeeding subjects, such as Physics. Ultimately, this task was very engaging and practical to learn and apply myself into.
Austin Martiniello, Year 10
For our final learning task of this term, we were tasked with making a functional pedestrian crossing with traffic lights. During this project, I managed to learn how to connect wires to components within a circuit. I have also learnt that even a slight misplacement of a singular wire or other component can completely mess up the way the circuit works, this isn’t detrimental to the circuit and can be simply removed and adjusted with trial and error. Furthermore, I’ve learnt how to adjust coding and not fully rely on pre-written code.
Overall, in this section of Engineering, I’ve enjoyed messing around with circuits and code. It was fun and I think that I’ve learnt a lot regarding the ways in which circuits and codes work, along with how they interact, which has not just left me with new knowledge but also with a more solid understanding of my theoretical knowledge regarding circuits.
I plan on continuing with Physics in Year 11 and I think that everything I’ve learnt in just this short part of engineering has already helped with what I will cover in Year 11.
Lesandu Jayarathna, Year 10