• TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

  • Welcome to Mr. Offutt's Technology Education homepage.  At CAMS South 7th and 8th grade students will take part in Technology Education classes.

    7th Grade Technology Education

    At the 7th grade level students will rotate through the following three units: Manufacturing, Drafting, Engineering and Design.

    In the Manufacturing Unit students construct one of three wood projects and a plastic keychain.  Students may choose from a footstool, memopad, or a napkinholder.  This unit teaches students safety, tool usage, and a basic understanding of how products are made.

    In the Drafting Unit students complete several drawings.  Drafting is a way of preparing drawings of products that may be constructed or produced.  Students begin drawing on traditional drafting boards to learn the basics and then are exposed to computer aided drafting where they will create 2-D and 3-D drawings.  As a culminating project students will design a floor plan of home.

     The Engineering and Design unit is a culminating unit where students will focus on the process of solving a design problem using the engineering design process.  In this unit students must design, build, test and race a model boat built from foam.  Students learn the principals of design, prototyping, testing, electronics, and engineering techniques.  A class competition is held at the end of the unit where all boats are raced against each other.

    8th Grade Technology Education

    At the 8th grade level students rotate through the following two units: Production Technology and Design and Engineering.

    In Production Technology students learn how products are produced in a modern factory.  Students participate in a student-run assembly line activity where they must work together to cut and assemble parts in a short amount of time.  Each student will create a Candy Dispenser take-home project.  Each of the parts will be machined using jigs and fixtures to insure parts are made to tolerance.  Students will learn about safety with the machines in addition to learning the principles of mass production and how a factory is managed.

    In Design and Engineering students learn how engineers create products and structures.  Students research, design and build model bridges made from balsa wood.  Once completed, students hang weight from their bridge until it reaches its breaking point.  Lastly, students calculate their bridges efficiency.  We have had bridges with a 1000% efficiency; this means the balsa bridge held 1000 times the bridges weight!  Students also create a mouse-trap powered vehicle; which is built to propel itself as far as possible.  Students learn about topics such as: force, inertia, acceleration, newton’s laws, momentum, friction, and torque.