Reverse Engineering Learning Fair 2018

The Reverse Engineering Learning Fair was a huge success! Students showed up at 5:30 to set up their boards and eat the pizza that was provided by the teachers. Parents and students signed in at the front desk and then moved into the main room. 
The speakers of the night were Sokol Hoxha, Erisa Sote, and Fabjola Sote. Sokol gave a speech about what the project was about in the class. The Sote sisters spoke about student's experience with the project, thanking the teachers for all of their help. Then the learning fair began in earnest. The projects were about reverse engineering an object, by taking that object apart and then building that object on Inventor software. Parents walked around, asking the students about the project, and the students explained what their favorite part was, what was the most difficult, and what they did for each class. The learning fair ended promptly at 7:30, and the teachers were very proud of this year's freshmen and their projects. Have a great summer!

The feedback given was:

"Great!"
"You guys did well but some of the students are so nervous they don't know how to explain their work properly."
"It was fantastic! The students are so poised and articulate!"
"Really nice job setting up the projects this year."
"Great job! The space is still small but it was better than last time. Super hot in here though."
"All students did an excellent job! Proud parent here!"
"Everybody did a great job on their project. I think the project helps these students use their talent and ideas toward their development and advancement."

Reverse Engineering Learning Fair

Engineering and Technology Academy Invites You!

The ETA is holding their 4^th annual “Reverse Engineering” learning fair, and welcome the community to see. Those who attend will have the freedom to walk around and talk to the students, parents, and staff about the projects and the items that were selected, in a casual environment. Snacks and drinks will be provided.  

Date:
May 10th, 2018

Time: 6:30-7:30 pm.

Location: In the cafeteria of Doherty Memorial High School

Reverse Engineering Learning Fair Due Dates

March 16th- Introduction of the project/brainstorming

March 26th- Research for Biology and History

March 28th- Engineering Gantt chart due

April 2nd- Researched dates for the History Timeline completed

April 5th- History Timeline completed

April 12th- English Technical Writing completed

April 16-20- APRIL VACATION

April 25th- iProperties

April 27th- Math Calculations completed

May 1st- The Human Connection for Biology completed

May 4th- Inventor Files and Working Drawings printed for Engineering

May 8th- Poster Board completed for Learning Fair

May 10th- Learning Fair

The 18th Annual Doherty Food Drive

Doherty just finished it's 18th food drive for Jeremiah's Inn. This food drive is run and organized by Mr. Garcia, the freshman history teacher of the ETA. The food drive annually makes posters to advertise and boxes to hold the donations in. For four weeks, the students bring in non-perishable items like canned food, boxed goods, hygienic products, and similar products to donate. 
The students and teachers raised 6,295 items this year! On Feb. 15th, the food drive took a field trip to Jeremiah's Inn, and unloaded all of the donations. 
A huge thank you to the Doherty community, the students in the food drive, and anyone who donated. Another huge thank you to our chaperones, the retired Health teacher Mr. Garcia, the guidance counselor Mr. Halfmann, and the organizer of the food drive Mr. Garcia.

Document Based Writing

As the freshmen return from the holiday break, they will starting a new project in World History II. They will be learning how to write Document Based Questions, or DBQ's. These are essays that are written in history classes and that are written after reading documents from a specific time period. The question is based within that same time period, and in a standardized test setting, the essay is timed. Mr Garcia will allow the students to work on it in class and after.

Documents can be anything: a letter, a picture, a speech, a political cartoon, a poem, an excerpt from a book, etc.

An acronym for writing based off the documents is SOAP.

• S- Who is the speaker? What is their point of view?
• O- What is the occasion? What is happening? 
• A- Who is the audience? In the time period, who would've read/heard this?
• P- What is the purpose? Why is this being written?

Learning Fair: Bringing Back the Blackstone

Last week, the ETA held its annual learning fair on Wednesday, December 7th.
It opened with Mr. Garcia introducing the night, and explaining the learning fairs to the parents, guardians, and guests on the students. Ina Zhidro and Ama Agyeman-Williams, the student speakers, talked about the project. Zhidro walked through the specifics of the project and how it related to all of the five core subjects of the Engineering and Technology Academy. Agyeman-Williams spoke of the dangers of procrastination and about the more challenging aspects of the project. 

Mr. Garcia opening the night

Ama Agyeman-Williams

Ina Zhidro

After that, the learning fair officially began. Guests walked around, seeing the models and the all the hard work the students had put in. Students explained the fair to the guests and showcased the projects that they had spent so long on. It was the busiest fair we've had in years!

At the end of the fair, two raffle winners (one guest and one student) were awarded $25 gift card to Barnes and Nobles. We'd like to thank the students and teachers for all of their hard work and dedication. If you have any ideas on how we did at the fair, please comment below. We'd love to hear your thoughts!

From left to right: Ms. Cochran, Ms. Vanni, Ms. Perez, Mr. Garcia and Mr. Simmarano

The Blackstone Canal

Engineering and Technology Academy Invites You!

The ETA is holding their 9^th annual “Bringing Back the Blackstone” project fair, and welcome the community to see. Those who attend will have the freedom to walk around and talk to the students, parents, and staff about the projects and the future of the Canal District, in a casual environment. Snacks and drinks will be provided.  

Date:
December 7th, 2017

Time: 6:30-7:30 pm.

Location: In the cafeteria of Doherty Memorial High School

Know Your School Night

Know Your School Night will be on Thursday, October 12th, at 6:30 pm. Parents of freshmen students in the Engineering and Technology Academy will:

• Go to their child's first period class shown on the schedule provided
• Will then be taken to the library, with all of the other freshmen ETA parents, for a more detailed discussion about what being in the ETA will mean. 

The teachers will discuss grading systems, learning fairs and other projects throughout the year, and then they will open the floor to questions. We hope to see you there!

Recommended Apps

Mr. Simmarano compiled a list of apps that will be useful for the ETA freshmen. These sites many also be useful if you're not a freshman, so check them out!

• Office 365: This Microsoft program is given to all Worcester Public Schools students. It will allow students to use Word, Excel, and other programs like it. (Some apps offered will be explained in detail below.) 
• Outlook: This is the student's school email. They can contact teachers and guidance officers through this email. A student can sign in using their student id number  at the Worcester Public Schools email domain (i.e.: student.######@worc.k12.ma.us), and if they've never signed in before, their birthday will be the password. For example: if you're birthday is January 2nd 2003, "01022003" would be your password. 
• One Drive: This is a 365 program, and is basically a digital cloud. Files can be created, shared, and edited on this software. 
• One Note: One Note is another 365 app. This program allows a student to take notes on a smartphone, tablet, or computer. You can also share and receive notes from other students. 
• Remind: Remind is an app available in the iTunes Store or on Apple Play. The app literally reminds and updates you about things happening within your classes. It also can be used to communicate with your teachers and to farm study groups amongst students. See the website for students here.
• Quizlet: Quizlet is a website that allows you to use take online quizzes to prepare for the in school ones. The quizzes are created by teachers and students and are in subjects from math to history to biology. There are even quizzes for AP classes on this site. If you type in a subject, you will find the perfect quiz to study with. The website can be found here. 
• Khan Academy: Khan Academy is an online program that helps student when they are struggling with a subject. The site offers help is dozens of courses, from World History to Differential Equations. The site gives the students practice in a subject, or area, and extra assistance if it is needed for a student to comprehend the material. It is also a valuable resource for PSAT and SAT prep. The website can be found here. 
• Complete Biology: This is an app that Mr. Simmarano found for his class specifically. Complete Biology is an android app that allows users to read through biology notes and diagrams as they are quizzed on it. This is an excellent resource while studying for a biology test. Look at the app here. 

T-Shirt Contest Winners

The two winners of the ETA t-shirt contest are Sophia Puch and Adish Khatiwada. Congrats to every one who entered and thanks for participating! 

Welcome, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito!

The Engineering and Technology Academy was honored today to host the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Karyn Polito.  Lieutenant Governor Polito was welcomed by Principal Sally Maloney, Head of the ETA John Staley, before being given a tour of the ETA's two workshops, as well as two classrooms. Guests were invited to see the freshmen students at work, the robotics team, and the sophomore students working on programming and building robots. Then, in the library, a series of speeches were given about the importance of STEM programs for K-12 students. These speeches were given by Karen Polito, Dr. Rex Bolinger (Senior Vice President of PLTW), Katherine Skrivan (Mass STEM Hub), and Bruce Bursten (WPI). 

Lt. Governor Polito speaks to the robotics club

Lt. Governor Polito 

Katherine Skrivan

Dr. Rex Bolinger

Bruce Bursten

The ETA would again like to thank our many guests and we hope you enjoyed the visit as much as we did!

T-Shirt Contest CLOSED

Thank you to everyone who submitted a design! The results will be announced in a few weeks.

Update!

The T-Shirt contest is being extended by another week for sophomores and seniors! Submissions are due on Tuesday, February 7th, 2017. Please submit more designs! Continue to creatively think of designs!

ETA T-Shirt Contest

The ETA will be holding a t-shirt design contest! The most inventive and creative design will be on the ETA's new t-shirts and sweatshirts, which will be for sale sometime in 2017. 

The Rules for Designing:

• All school dress code rules must be obeyed in creating your design
• Do not use a copyrighted image
• All logos must have a white background behind them, for dark print shirts
• Design can have up to three colors
• Design can be a t-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, or a sweatshirt
• Design can be on the front, back, sleeve, hood, or pocket of a shirt/sweatshirt
• The Project Lead The Way logo can to be on the t-shirt design somewhere (is provided below). This logo is navy blue and white. 
• Use a t-shirt designing site (i.e.: CustomInk or UberPrints) to create your design (DO NOT PURCHASE YOUR IDEA)
• You can create multiple designs! All will be considered separately
• Be as creative as possible! Think outside the box with your design

The Rules for Submitting Your Design:

• Send it to this site, through etadmhs@gmail.com
• Send a picture of your design, and all of its parts
• Send it from your student email 
• In the "Subject" line write: "Your Name, Grade, Homeroom Teacher, Design #"
• Ex: "Aaron Aaronson, Freshman, Ms. Cochran, Design 1" or "Bob Blair, Junior, Mr. Hankey, Design 25"
• The inbox closes on Tuesday, February 7th, 2017, at 11:59 pm
• Designs submitted after this time will not be accepted
• The person with the best design in each grade will receive a free t-shirt
• The person whose design is chosen will also receive a free sweatshirt

Good luck to all students!

Project Lead the Way Logo:

How to Download Inventor

If you're new to the Engineering and Technology Academy, you have probably realized the importance of Inventor.
Inventor, to quote the Autodesk site, is a "...mechanical design and 3D CAD software that offers professional-grade 3D mechanical design, documentation, and product simulation tools." Freshmen will use this program for Ms. Cochran's Intro to Engineering Course, and It will be usefull for them to download it at home. 

To Download

1. Go to the Autodesk website
2. Click on the "Menu" in the top-right corner
3. Select "Students and Educators"
4. On the new page, click "Get free software"
5. Select "Inventor Professional"
6. Create an account or sign in
7. In the tabs below, select: Inventor 17 for version, laptop or PC based on what you have, 32-bit for PC or 64-bit for laptop
8. Then the download should be complete!