Week #3 - Many Ways To Make Something

   This was a pretty busy week crammed into just four days.  I spent my afternoons working in TinkerCAD, doing the toughest drawing I have yet to attempt.  We called it the Flexi-person and he was filled with tight tolerances and cool joints.  I struggled a bit getting his ball and socket joint to line up just right, but once I had it I was pretty impressed with my blooming CAD skills.  I have included a few pictures of my drawing below.

    Our essential question for this week is a pretty deep one.  We were asked what the major manufacturing processes are and which one we thought was the craziest.  Just to list them there is casting, machining, moulding, forming, joining, and additive manufacturing.  While several of them seem a little crazy, I think I would have to say that casting is the is the one that fascinates me the most.  It seems so ancient and simple, but also crazy dangerous.  And then I learn that it is ubiquitous and very versatile - I really want to try my hand at it now.

Week #2 - Getting Tinkery With It

   This week I kept going in TinkerCAD and made three cool drawings.  The keychain force me to learn how to use irregular shapes in combination to make something more complex, in this case a skull keychain.  I also staggered the heights of the objects to have a little fun with the Z-axis (the up and down).  The pictures of it are below...

The essential question for this week is "What is an apprenticeship program and how can I find a good one?"  I did not know much about apprenticeships before this week's class, but I was happy to hear about them.  Mr. Smith showed us a website run by the state of California that connects you with a wide array of jobs where you would follow a journeyman around learning the trade.  After a few years you would become the journeyman!  The cool thing is you get paid the whole time your are in the program and then make really good money once you graduate.  I think I will look into being an electrician!

Week #1 - On The Run and Having Fun

   It has been a very strange start to all of this!  I have been doing school for most of my life, but I have never had a start to the new year where I have not physically been with the rest of my classmates.  The distance learn thing is pretty strange and hard to get used to, but I think it will come together once everything gets settled in.

   In CAD, Mr. Smith explained that we would be doing a lot of design work using the programs TinkerCAD and OnShape.  I took a quick look at them online and I think it will be fun.  Mr. Smith also promised some cool interviews with local contractors, which I am excited about because I am kind of interested in being an electrician some day.

 It was an interesting start to the year.  We jumped right into this program called TinkerCAD, and it’s freaked my out at first.  I had a little trouble moving around in the program for a bit, but then I leaned on my video game skills and made my first objects, then moved around them using my three button mouse.  The first drawing I did was of a simple wrench. It was hard to do the open end of it, and it didn’t turn out too good, but I can see how this program would be cool for 3D printing.

  I have inserted a few photos of my first drawing below... 

   The essential question for the week is what are the possible paths after high school.  We discussed seven different paths and I am sure we could come up with a few more.  There is a wide array of things I could do, everything from going straight to work to going to a few different types of colleges.  I think the one that sounds best to me is the apprenticeship route.  I like the idea of getting paid while I train, and it seems like it is the best way to become an electrician..