Engineering and Technology - Grade 8

Eighth grade students will take this class every day for half the school year. They will be learning about different engineering and technology fields, specializations within each field, the skills and education necessary for each field, and possible career paths stemming from each field. Additionally, they will also improve their measurement skills, review the engineering design process, then apply this knowledge to individual and team oriented projects. The semester will culminate in a Final Project in which students will choose the field in which they want to conduct a research and hands-on project. The engineering projects completed during the semester will follow the Engineering Design Process with a team oriented emphasis, mirroring what engineers do every day.

Projects and assignments will be assigned in some of the following fields:

• ENGINEERING: Aerospace, Architectural, Biomedical, Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Environmental, Fire Protection, Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, Mining, Nuclear, Petroleum and Robotics.
• TECHNOLOGY: Computer Science/Engineering, Cybersecurity, Data Science, Interactive Media & Game Development and Software Engineering.

GRADING: Since failure is an integral and expect part of the Engineering Design Process, a big part of student grades will be based upon Participation and Effort. Student grades will include will include assessed performance on:

• Individual/Team Projects and Presentations
• Assessments
• Class Assignments
• Participation and Effort (includes contribution to team planning, organization, communication and work, participation in class discussion, and individual effort on all assignments)

Students may improve grades: If a student gets a low grade on any assigned work, s/he may correct wrong answers, resubmit the work and earn up to half the points back.