HTHS Engineering Academy News

From Jason Dooley and Tom Moulton, HTHS Engineering Academy Instructors


On April 6, 2018, the Engineering Academy sent 5 teams (12 total students) to compete at the State Science and Engineering Fair at UAH. Students who participated have already placed in the regional fair at UAB. We have never had this many teams compete at the state level. Students have been working hard on their projects all year, following the engineering design process to develop a working prototype to solve their chosen problem. We are very proud of all of our students, as they represented our school extremely well.

1st Place in the Energy– Hayden Parks, Drew Kinzer, and Nathan Feagans with their emergency solar panel umbrella system. Their design is a folding solar umbrella that can be deployed after emergency situations such as hurricanes and tornadoes. The umbrella folds up into a compact box for easy storage and deployment. This one umbrella can generate 100 watts of power, which would be able to charge up to 109 cellphones after one day of sun.
Awards: (Total Winnings $250)
1st Place in the Energy Category
Association of Energy Engineers Special Awards in the field of Physical Energy
2018 Alabama Science and Engineering Fair Positive Community Impact Trophy
United States Air Force Certificate of Achievement

3rd Place in the Biomedical Engineering Category – Long Nguyen, Ethan Swatek, and Cannon Riccio with their 3D printed affordable leg braces. Their design provides custom fitted leg braces that can be 3D printed. This will provide a custom fit and a cheaper alternative to the expensive leg braces currently sold by the medical industry.
Awards:
3rd Place in the Biomedical Engineering Category
United States Air Force Certificate of Achievement

4nd Place in the Embedded Systems/Systems Software category – Vraj Patel and Emily Coggins with their prototype that utilizes microwave sensors to add blind spot detection onto existing cars. Their design has a new dashboard that has LED indicators and an LCD readout screen alerting drivers of cars that are in the blind spot area.
Awards: (Total Winnings $125)
4th Place in the Embedded Systems/Systems Software category
The United States Army Certificate of Achievement for an Outstanding Science Fair Project
Boeing Certificate of Recognition and Achievement in the area of Embedded Systems
2018 Alabama Science and Engineering Fair Positive Community Impact Trophy
2018 Toyota Science and Engineering Fair Excellence in Science Research Award
Senior Best of Show Award from Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association

4th Place in the Engineering Category – Jacob Hayes and Joseph Seagle with their automatic drink lid dispenser. Have you ever had to pull apart drink lids at a fast food restaurant and wonder who else has been touching your lid? Their design allows drink lids to be dropped into the customer’s hand by simply waving your hand under the dispenser.
Awards: (Total Winnings $100)
Association of Energy Engineers Special Award in the field of Engineering Mechanics

4th Place in the Engineering Category: Ian Knapp, Michael Rodriguez, and David Murrell with their design that can retrofit an existing longboard with brakes. Their design incorporated a handheld grip that allows the rider to stop their longboard using an under mounted braking system.
Awards:
4th Place in the Engineering Category
Boeing Certificate of Recognition and Achievement in the area of Embedded Systems

Quotable Quote

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” —Steve Jobs (1955-2011) Co Founder Apple Inc.

Summer 2018 Flex Days Information

Trussville City Schools is committed to ensuring success for all students by applying high standards for professional learning for everyone who affects student learning.  Trussville City Schools understands the need to differentiate professional development for teachers.  For the 2018-19 school year, August 3, 2018 and May 28, 2019, will be deemed as flex days; however, we strongly recommend that you take advantage of the multiple summer PD opportunities before returning on August 6th.  Each school principal will provide a Google link to his/her teachers for teachers to sign up for Summer PD by May 12th.  To earn the credit for the two flex days, you must complete 12 hours of professional development outside of the school day.  Flex days are designated for professional development.  However, you are given flexibility regarding the professional development.  Each year you will work with your principal to develop a professional development plan that meets your individual needs as well as aligning to system and school goals.  Trussville City Schools will offer professional development opportunities throughout the summer.  Facilitators for professional development will vary depending upon the topic.

Click here to take advantage of a helpful video tutorial to gain specific information about the TCS Flex Day process. 

TCS Hosts Code.org Fundamentals Training

Trussville City Schools hosted Code.org Fundamentals training March 22 for Trussville and surrounding area teachers.  Participants included teachers from Trussville, Shelby County, Cherokee County, Birmingham City, and the ALSDE.  Ashley Waring, Hoover City Schools Technology Leader, facilitated the workshop that focused on computer science standards and resources to support the development of our students.  Computer Science is more than coding, it is a way of problem solving that will help students in many areas of their lives.

We are thankful to April Chamberlain, Technology Coordinator, for bringing this valuable training to our district. 

Science Professional Learning

From:
Phyllis B. Faust, Ed.D.
TCS K-12 Science Coordinator

Secondary science teachers participated in a professional learning experience facilitated by Eric Lambert and Emily Menard with ASIM on March 19^th and 20^th . Teachers participated in an Ice Melting CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) activity and an in-depth ADI (Argument Driven Inquiry) lab.  In order for students to be proficient in science, students need to learn more than terms and facts. ADI incorporates science and engineering practices (SEPs), crosscutting concepts (CCs), and disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). ADI also helps to develop science specific literacy skills so students can read, write, and speak in the context of science.  Having teachers experience this type of inquiry will strengthen the opportunities that are provided to students on a daily basis.

HTHS Science Teachers Participating in an ADI Lab

 HTMS Science Teachers Participating in an Ice Melting CER Activity

Magnolia Teachers Go the "Extra Mile"

Please take a moment to read Melissa Donaldson's email below.  Throughout every single day in our school district, so many people do so many things that go unnoticed.  I am thankful that Melissa shared this great story for everyone to see. 

Good morning,

I just wanted to give some praise and thanks to the awesome staff at Magnolia Elementary.  On Monday when early dismissal was called at 11:30 am, Magnolia decided to not do specials from 11:30 am to dismissal and sent all their specialists to the cafeteria to assist.  They also adjusted their lunch schedule to get the students fed more quickly.  The specialists cleaned the entire cafeteria so my staff could clean the kitchen and be able to leave campus when the teachers did.  I cannot express enough how much this helped and meant to my staff.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Have a super day,
Melissa

Melissa Donaldson, MS, RD, SNS

Child Nutrition Coordinator

Trussville City Schools

205-228-3034

I will add that when the cafeteria staff finished up in the cafeteria and kitchen, they went out to support teachers in the car line!  What an amazing display of caring and true character.  It was a great example of treating others the way we want to be treated - with kindness! 

Alabama Civics Test

From Dr. Phyllis Faust, TCS Testing Coordinator

Many thanks to Erin McGuyer, Leigh Stovall, Josh Haynes, and Jeff Schrupp for attending the Alabama Civics Test Development Training providing by Scantron in Tuscaloosa today (March 8).  It was an extremely successful day! Terry Grissom with Scantron facilitated the training by teaching how to create an assessment on the Assessment Series website. After this training, teams were given time to collaborate and create a test or leave for the day. Our team of teachers wanted to stay and work. Because of their diligence, I can proudly say that Trussville City Schools is ready to administer the required Civics test in 2018-2019.

Scantron provided a test bank of 175 multiple choice questions of which 100 questions had to be selected for this test. The conversation was very rich between these teachers who you can tell are very passionate about their content! We read through and discussed all 175 questions. I enjoyed listening to the reasoning behind why they thought one test question should be part of the test and another test question should not.  They even found one test question that gave a wrong answer! Our students are definitely blessed to have these educators as their teachers!  Discussion took place about providing this assessment to their students at some point this year to see how well they can do. 

It was a great day for Trussville City Schools!