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Engineering @ The Hamp

Wade Hampton High School offers students the opportunity to take five different courses in engineering between their freshman year and graduation. These include:

A typical course sequence would follow the order of the list above, with most students choosing to take POE or CSP, but probably not both. While a student can join the engineering program at any time it is recommended that students who wish to become 4-course Major Completers in Pre-Engineering should start early, as rising 9th or 10th grade students.

IED

Rising 9th and 10th grade students should enroll in Introduction to Engineering Design as this is considered the true first course for all engineering students. Students in IED are introduced to the design process seen here, which is used in all PLTW engineering classes. They are also taught the practices for maintaining an Engineering Notebook. Students will also receive extensive CAD modeling experience using Autodesk Inventor Professional and be allowed to take the Autodesk Inventor Certified User exam as a part of the course. Work on projects in IED is highly collaborative since professional engineers often work as members of a team and rarely alone.

POE / CSP

As their second engineering course students will be recommended for either Principles of Engineering or Computer Science Principles (or both) by their IED teacher. While there are no true prerequisites for either course it is recommended that students wait until their 10th grade year to take POE and have either completed or be currently enrolled in Geometry due to the level of applied Algebra and Trigonometry used in POE.

Students enrolled in POE will be taught about machine design using VEX Robotics equipment and will be given a foundation in machine programming using RobotC for VEX Robotics. Students will again be required to maintain an Engineering Notebook during the semester and will apply the design process learned in IED as they work on projects in class. This course also covers statics (including truss member analysis), material testing (stress and strain), machine control (programming), and fluid power (hydraulics and pneumatics).

This class, in conjunction with IED, is intended to prepare students for Computer Integrated Manufacturing Honors during either their 11th or 12th grade year at Wade Hampton.

Students enrolled in CSP will receive a foundation in computational thinking skills and algorithm development, an introduction to the Internet and cybersecurity, data analysis and visualization, and intelligent behavior. Students will use Python as a primary development tool throughout the course, but will also delve into app design using MIT App Inventor, and website design with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, and PHP. Work in CSP is highly collaborative and students will be encouraged to practice partner programming on a regular basis. Students will again be required to maintain an Engineering Notebook during the semester and will apply the design process learned in IED as they work on projects in class.

This class, in conjunction with IED, is intended to prepare students for Computer Integrated Manufacturing Honors during either their 11th or 12th grade year at Wade Hampton.

CIM Honors

Students who successfully complete IED and either POE or CSP will be recommended for Computer Integrated Manufacturing, which is an honors level course. Where the foundation courses described above provide a more broad experience dealing with topics that stretch across all four major disciplines of engineering, CIM is much more specific. In a world that increasingly relies more heavily on automation for manufactured goods this course exposes students to the current state of manufacturing, as well as the processes, tools and philosophies that make possible the level of production we have come to know. Students in CIM will design, build, and program AGVs, transfer systems, and part feeders, learn to write G-code and use CAM software to work with a CNC milling machine, program robotic arms and design an integrated factory system model that utilizes digital handshakes.

EDD Honors

Engineering Design and Development is the capstone engineering class in the PLTW Engineering program at Wade Hampton High School and is an honors level course. In order to be recommended for EDD students need to have completed IED, POE or CSP, and CIM. This class will challenge students to define their own engineering design problem to work on for the duration of the course. Utilizing the design process seen here students working in teams of 2 or 3 will, among other things:

Perform patent research into products that may already address the problem they have chosen.
Conduct market research into whether there is a consumer base for their design problem.
Brainstorm and document possible design solutions in a professional Engineering Notebook that could eventually be submitted to the U.S. Patent Office.
Use CAD software, a programming IDE, or some other platform to develop a testable solution.
Explore prototyping methods and develop a testable prototype.
Construct, test, analyze, and redesign their prototype.

The course will culminate with students presenting their design process to a panel of engineers from the Greenville area as their Final Exam.

Engineering Classes

For more, please visit the individual page for each class to find examples of student projects and to see first hand some of the software students in our PLTW Engineering program have the opportunity to work with.

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