Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Way Things Work

We took a break from our Education Revisited assignment in Tech Research A block class and dove into a recurring assignment here called 'The Way Things Work.'

The mission:

Bring in something that's broken or no longer used, dissect it, discover how it works, repair it (if applicable) and then put it back together, and then tell your peers what you discovered.

On occasion we need some parts to repair things. Makes me wish we had a 3D printer ; )

Discovering how things are manufactured, what's under the hood...

Who knows where those skills could lead.

A broken digital camera, photo printer, and dvd player were our first missions.

Can we fix a digital camera? Erin dives in to find out.

James and Russell explore a DVD player that won't read discs that are slightly scratched.

A printer that won't feed paper? Andrew, David, and Matt begin testing.


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Innovative Study Projects


Here is a list of innovative projects students in the Research Lab have worked on to date. Each student chooses their own topic, sets their own time frame for the project and all material is archived for future students to use.

Each project must last a minimum of there weeks. Some do two projects per semester. Some do one project per semester. Some extend projects over multiple semesters and even years.

What skills can you learn by immersing yourself in something you love, something you want to pursue? What are the links to writing, research, history, math, science, and professional mentors that can be explored? What will you learn about collaboration, communication, and even learning itself?

3D Design: Unity Engine, Maya, Sculptris
Acoustics
Alternative Energy: Wind, Solar
Anesthesiology
Animation
Amphibious Vehicle Technology
Architecture: Modern Design, Energy Efficiency, Open Housing Project
Astronomy
Audio Editing / Engineering
Aviation: piloting, mechanics
Bass Guitar Engineering
Blogs
CAD design: Google SketchUp (free) and Pro
Claymation
Deep Sea Diving
Digital design: Photoshop, Fireworks, GIMP, Paint.Net. Beginning, intermediate, advanced
Digital Photography
Digital Story Telling
Domestic feline behavior
Education: Evolution, Online Ed, Technology, Theory
Equine Technology
Farming Technology
Fashion Design: Process, design, manufacturing
Fish and Game Wildlife Management
Forensics
Game Conversion
Game Design
Gaming History
Geo-Engineering
Golf Technology
Google Apps
Guitar Design: Pickup replacement
Hiking Technology
History of Computing
History of Sound Recording, Acoustics
Horse / Thoroughbred Management and Nutrition
Humanitarian Relief
Human Intelligence
Hybrid Vehicle Technology
iPhone Technology
iPod Technology
Language Studies: AP French, Italian, German, English
Machinima
Magnetics: Mag lev propulsion
Mixed Media: Mashups, viral video
Mountain Bike Manufacturing and Design
Movie Making
Movie Technology
Music Genome Project
Myth: Monsters and Legend
Native American Reservation
Networking: Security, Hardware: Routers, Switches, LAN/WAN Design
Nutrition
Observatory Refit
One-to-One Laptop Project: One laptop per student
Operating Systems: Windows (XP, Vista), Apple OSX, Linux, Edubuntu, Fedora
Playing the Piano
PC Hardware
Podcasting
Programming: Ajax, C, C++, Flash, Java, Visual Basic, Visual C
Robotics: Scrap, Vexx
Running Technology
Schizophrenia
Ski / Snowboard Technology: Manufacturing / Materials
Small Business: LLC, Non-Profits, Taxes, Business Economy in VT vs other States.
Snow Making Technology
Snow Mobile Performance an Modification
Social Media
Sound engineering: Acoustics, recording techniques, principles
Stem Cell Research
Stock Trading: Market Analysis
Stop Motion Animation
Swimming Technology
Survival Technology
Tennis: Racquet construction, restringing, performance analysis
Theatrical Lighting
Tolkien
Typing: 9 words per minute (in a second language) to 85 ; )
Web Development: Basic web page construction, CSS
Welding: MIG / TIG
Wikis: Wikipedia / Collective Knowledge Editing / Contributions