9th Grade MDET is about developing valuable background knowledge to make students successful at completing entry level drawings. Priority Standards include:

• Shop/Workplace Safety

• Career Opportunities

• Basic Equipment

• Lettering and Sketching

• Geometric Construction

• Basic Orthographic Projection

• Basic Pictorial Drawings

10th grade students focus on improving the art of mechanical drawings and the concepts related to how they communicate with professionals in the field. Priority Standards include...

• Shop/Workplace Safety

• Intermediate Projections

• Dimensioning

• Product Data Management

• Section Views

• Auxiliary Views

• Developments and Sheet Metal Drawings

• Threads and Fasteners

11th Grade MDET Students are focused on how their drawings translate to the field of manufacturing and design.  Standards include...

• Shop safety

• Working Drawings

• Solids Modeling

• Tolerancing

• Manufacturing processes

  • Additive Manufacturing

  • Subtractive Manufacturing

• Materials

• Implementation of Product Data Management and Revision Controls

• Design Practices for tooling

• LEAN Manufacturing

Senior students should earn themselves a place on the schools Work Based Learning Program. This will enable them to apply all of the things previously taught  to real world situations while earning a paycheck from the field. Standards for Seniors are...

• Shop/Workplace Safety

• Cams and Gears

• Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing

• Project-based Engineering Design Projects

• 6" Digital or Dial Caliper

  • • • It is important to make sure this is a metal caliper. The plastic tools will warp and break easily. The metal calipers are worth the 10 extra dollars. It was previously believed in the engineering field that Dial calipers are more accurate than the digital calipers. Today the same is believed but  the advances in technology have improve digital calipers to a reliable tolerance.

• 6" Steel Scale

  • • • A precision scale or ruler is helpful in the field for both precise measurements as well as determining sizes of things that you have not designed yet.

• USB Drive

  • • • We recomend a drive 32gb or larger. Our files are really big and students are responsible for their proper storage. Saving files to the computers is dangerous because the computers are often updated without notice. A USB drive gives the student somewhere to save all of their work off of the states computer system. One that can clip onto the students ID Lanyard will likely be harder to lose.

• Personal Mouse and Keyboard

  • • • The Shop will provide a keyboard and mouse to students. Many students chose to bring in their own keyboard and mouse for ergonomic reasons.  Students are responsible for maintaining the MDET equipment they are assigned and returning it back to the condition found at the end of each cycle.

• A Mousepad

  • • • Mousepads are in short supply in the MDET room. Modern mice dont require the pad but students may decide they would like one. Mr. Jordan purchased mousepads for his desks that have decimal to fraction conversion tables on them.

• Filament

  • • • There are 3D printers in the shop that occasionally sit idle. Students can ask for permission to print personal projects during the machines downtime.  Most of our machines work on either PLA or ABS. However, students should consult Mr. Jordan or Mrs. Lavoie before purchasing their own filament as the project scope may change which printer is used and we need to make sure warranty conditions are met.

The MDET Department has a working Policies and Procedures Google Slide Presentation. The information in the slides reflects the current official policies and procedures within the MDET Department. You can find a link to it here, below and in all of our Google Classrooms. The slideshow is organized with links to allow you to quickly navigate to policies that you are looking for. It also provides examples of what students can expect and why we do these policies and procedures.

MDET stands for Mechanical Design, Engineering and Technology. Formerly known as the CADD shop (Computer Aided Drafting and Design) most of our curriculum remains the same but now we focus on engineering concepts as well as the computer design techniques. By the time our students are juniors and seniors they will be actively designing and building their projects using a wide variety of manufacturing methods both subtractive and additive.

There are 1000's of jobs available all over CT and New England that our students could work toward filling. Based on the Occupational Outlook Handbook Enginerring is growing at a very high rate and as a result more engineers and designers will be needed in the near future. Especially with our renewed space race, and the fact that our area of the state is known as Aerospace Alley, our students are going to be setup for success in a growing field in our area upon graduation?

There are a number of WBL opportunities that are available to MDET Students. Some companies in our area are not allowed to hire our students due to their age restrictions on government contracts but many companies have positions where they can hire a Cheney MDET student for a design position.

Our biggest hurdle with WBL has consistently been that students do not have reliable transportation in the MDET Department. Check out our job board on this website or in the MDET room for possible positions that Mr. Jordan ahs found for high school students.

The MDET Department is setup to look like a computer lab, but dont let it fool you. A lot of our projects are design and build. I've told students time and time again that its great tat you think you can design something but how that design translates to both the manufacturing process and the end user should play a big role in your design. As a result, many of the projects in MDET are design first build second. A 50/50 split of where you should be directing your time.  That being said, your Junior and Senior year curriculums are really when we focus on various methods of manufacturing and the class becomes a lot more hands on and away from the computers.