Techniques October 2012 - 40

Feature

Using Technology to Build Solar-Powered Drag Racers
By Jerry Fireman
tudents at Colfax High School in Colfax, California, apply academic learning, develop flexible thinking and acquire marketable skills in the school’s Design Tech program. Thirty students rotate through four classes—metal shop, wood shop, computers and electronics—spending four-and-a-half weeks in each discipline. In each of these classes they contribute to their final project—a solar-powered drag racer featuring a metal chassis, custom-made circuit board, student-designed sticker package and a molded wood body. The students learn to use advanced manufacturing technology like a computer numerical control (CNC) router that is used to build the wooden body as well as a CNC plasma cutter that is used to build the metal chassis of the drag racer. Near the end of the class, students and their cars face off in a school-wide race.

The Colfax High School Design Tech program incorporates both academic instruction and practical use of advanced technology to prepare students for the wide range of occupations that involve working with metal, wood, computers and electronics.

practical use of advanced technology to prepare students for the wide range of occupations that involve working with metal, wood, computers and electronics. The students can aim for some of the less traditional technical or vocational careers like jewelry making, repairing ski lifts, designing green buildings and building robots. “Our vision is to engage all students in applied learning,” says Jonathan Schwartz who teaches the Design Tech course. “Students have the opportunity to imagine, design and make something while applying academic principles learned in science, math, English or any subject.”

Wood Shop Technology
Colfax High School has used two of Techno Inc.’s LC CNC routers for several years in its wood shop program. Students use computer-aided design (CAD) software to define the geometry of their projects to extremely high levels of accuracy and detail. The software allows them to also zoom in and out on their projects and view them from any angle. After they are satisfied with the design, the students convert the geometry into a CNC program and download it to the router, which then produces the design by removing material from a block of wood or plastic. The resulting accuracy is far greater than the student could have achieved by using traditional hand or power tools. Building a prototype also forces the students to resolve issues that would be too easy to gloss over in a computer model, such as:
www.acteonline.org

A Unique Technical Education Program
Traditional vocational training courses like wood and metal shop focus on preparing students for careers like cabinetmakers, machinists and auto mechanics. Today’s working world offers a much more varied range of technical and vocational careers, but whether traditional or new, these careers do have one thing in common. They all require the ability to use advanced technology tools in order to succeed and advance. The Colfax High School Design Tech program incorporates both academic instruction and

Techniques

October 2012

Techniques October 2012

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