Full Year High School Intermediate Engineering Curriculum

This is a Canvas course that contains a full year-long curriculum for teaching Intermediate Engineering.

The best things about this course:

Unique lessons/modules!

• A "Ballistics and Bridges Battle" culiminates the students' learning about bridges and ballistics. While the battle itself is not for a grade and thus does not have a Canvas assignment/page, the rules for engagement are included on the linked weekly agenda slideshow (can find using "CTRL+F" and the search phrase in quotation marks above). Students love it, and it's worked out pretty well!
• Also, a "Rube Goldberg Device" module is included, as an alternative demonstration of student's comprehension of simple and compound machines and mechanical advantage. Full time, that module would take at least 1-2 weeks for students to complete.
• An alternative programming culminating project is included as well. If students use vr.vex.com to learn/demonstrate programming skills, an assignment is included which calls for students to make their virtual robot dance to 30 seconds of a song! Multiple examples, of both real and virtual dancing robots, are included, as is a rubric.
• To learn Centroids, students complete a lesson culminating in them using CAD software to design a complex shape which should have a .05" half-sphere divot at its centroid. If successfully calculated, the shape should spin completely balanced on a pencil when tried out after printing.
• Finally, teaching virtual bridge design has been reformatted such that students can self-guided create increasingly efficient bridges using WestPoint Bridge Designer over a 1-2 week in-class timeframe (great for subs)! (And there's a couple other teaching modifications included as well!)

Rubrics for everything!

• Thorough rubrics have been created to evaluate the vast majority of the published assignments here, taking the subjectivity - and time-consuming deliberation - out of your grading.
• Additionally, for the physical or virtual programming units which traditionally can take A Lot of checking in by the teacher, a Google Sheet which could be copied is shown that speeds up that evaluating process.

Examples! Most assignments have screenshots or linked files showing teacher- or student-made examples of what the student should be creating. Some even include a filled-in rubric evaluating the example.

Pacing guide! A linked Google Sheet shows a plan for teaching the included content over a full school year of time.

Lesson modifications! Some PLTW content can be a bit overwhelming either in its entirety or the way it is presented. Many of my modules adjust how the content is approached so that it is more manageable for younger high school students.

Currently the modules are ordered such:

1. Essential reference module at top
2. Most recently taught content modules next, in reverse learning order (module at top was taught as last module for the year).
3. Unused content modules following, ready for use, later use or deletion.
4. Emergency sub plan idea (lesson found online from different source).

As a reminder, this is a Canvas course export file (.imscc). Ignore TPT's label about using it with Google Drive - that's just how I'll share the file with you. To my knowledge, anyone can use the free version of Canvas and could thus upload this file to that site. Fair warning, it is a big file - 31MB (the PLTW version is 46MB - more on that below).

What you purchase here is access to a Google Doc telling you how to contact me for the Canvas file share link. After I've confirmed you've indeed made the purchase on TPT I will grant access to the Canvas file only to the Google address from which you made the request.

For PLTW Engineering teachers, particularly of POE: I can also share access to a version of the course that includes PLTW links and material. Directions for that will be on the Google Doc. Again, this file is large (46MB). I do not claim ownership of their content; I claim ownership of my content which sometimes integrates with PLTW content. Only PLTW Engineering Pathway-certified teachers will receive access to this additional Canvas course.

I hope you find this curriculum, or at least parts of it, useful and look forward to hearing how you use any of it for your class!