High Tech U & Other Visits

Mark your calendars now.  Samsung and the local SEMI (Semiconductor industry consortium) are hosting the High Tech U on February 8-10.  Click on the link to get more information from Semi's web site and to download the application, if you are interested.  RRHS is limited to 4 students, so you need to be sure that you are interested in exploring a career in electronics or technology.  You will spend 3 days at a local high-tech company and learn what types of jobs are available as well as about life in this fast-growing and very rewarding industry.  If interested, talk to me, explore the web link, and fill out an application.  You will miss 3 days of school, so you will need to make sure that you coordinate with your teachers before-hand to stay on top of the work that you will miss. 

We will also be going to the Edison Lecture Series at UT again on February 21.  Buses will leave RRHS around 9:30, and we will spend 2 hours at UT exploring the exhibits and hearing a lecture from a professor at UT school of engineering.  The topic this year is robotics and should interest quite a number of you.  They also have prizes (some cool, some not but they're still free) to give away.  Last year, I won a "Computer Engineer Barbie", which you may have noticed being displayed outside my room.  Buses will return to campus around 1:00, and you will be back at school for 7th & 8th period.

-- Except for a few students.  The UT Electrical & Computer Engineering department is offering for a "small group" (number not determined at this time) to attend a visit to either AT&T Labs or National Instruments facility here in Austin.  Students would miss the full B day of school on Feb 21 and get a chance to see electrical and computer engineers in action in their work place.  This is limited to students who are interested in pursuing careers in the electrical or computer fields.  Look for more information about this after the semester break.

I hope that you all have a relaxing break.  I look forward to having an excellent spring semester with you!

Final Exam Exemptions

We are now at the end of the semester, and it is hard to believe.  All classes will review for semester final exams on Friday & Monday.  Exams start next Tuesday, which is a full day of school.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are all half days, where students are dismissed at 1:15.  No lunches are served on the short days.  Here is a link to the schedule for exams. 

The DE exam will be during 1st period on Wednesday from 9:05 until 11:15. 

Note that no one will be able to exempt the spring exam as PLTW requires us to give an end of course exam to all students.  If you want to exempt anything in DE, this would be the one. 

Students who wish to exempt may pick up the forms in the office today or tomorrow after school.  Completed, signed forms are due back in the office Monday afternoon by 4:30.  Don't be late!

Week of November 14

 There has been a lot of discussion and changes around the grading system used at RRHS.  Since DE is a project-based course, I will continue using a 1-4 grading system and grading rubrics for projects and parts of projects.  This fits much better for the types of assignments that we do than the more traditional system.  The "product" that students produce lends itself better to grading on rubrics than a standard %correct.  Our curriculum (Project Lead the Way) provides rubrics for many of the assignments students are given.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this or any concerns on your grades.


We have gone through simplifying Boolean expressions via several means: Boolean algebra, truth tables, and DeMorgan's Theorems.  We will not implement those theoretical expressions by building circuits on a breadboard that perform the logic expression.  Critical skills are being able to implement a plan (I've compared it to driving from one point to another compared to how that trip appears on a map) and troubleshoot.  These circuits are comparatively simple.  Yet, students will be challenged to determine why theirs does not work as designed.  Following a systematic problem-solving process and master of new troubleshooting tools (mainly the logic probe) will make this process more successful. 

Quiz, New Unit, and Open House

We have finished up the foundational unit for our DE class.  Next, we will study the physics of electricity itself.  In order to use electronics, we need to have a good understanding of the flow of electricity and how it can be harnessed and controlled.  We will start with a general study of electron flow and then look at Ohms laws for circuit calculations.

But first, we will have a quick quiz on component identification.  Be prepared for that on Tuesday.  You may use your journal notes and the resistor color wheel that you made in class last week.

Finally, don't forget about the ribbon cutting/open house Monday night.  All students, parents, and other interested parties are invited to attend a ribbon cutting of our awesome new building at 5:30.  At 6:00 there will be a short PTSA meeting, and then parents are invited to walk through your child's schedule beginning at 6:30.  We will have 10 minutes per class period with a short passing period in between.  I hope to see you there and look forward to meeting you. 

Open (School) House & Lab Fees

Please remember to have the $35 lab fee to my by this Friday (Sep 2).  If you need to work out arrangements, just please speak with me so that I will know.  I definitely understand that you have gotten a lot of fees right here at the first of the year and will be happy to work with you.

Mark your calendars for RRHS Open House on Monday September 12.  The evening will start with a PTSA meeting.  Afterward, you will go through the student's entire schedule.  I hope to see you in person and meet you then.  Watch the school page or check back here for more information.

Finally, I use Moodle quite a bit.  I like that I can post assignments and even lessons for students to access from home.  In that way, you have access not only to what you need to complete a homework assignment, but you can review the material in which it is taught as well.   Unfortunately, RRISD is experienceing some difficulty with the servers that support MOODLE at this time.  It is subject to going down and may not be available at all times.  Please bear with us as our tech team works to improve the uptime and bandwidth.  This is not the norm, and I believe that they will find a solution for us soon.    

Howdy!

Welcome to back to the RRHS engineering program, Digital Electronics and my Digital Electronics blog. I plan to use this site to keep students and parents up to date on what is happening in our class. The Google Calendar on your right will list out assignments and other events related to our class. Details and other information regarding the assignments will be on the Moodle site . You will log in to Moodle using your school computer ID and password.

Once in Moodle, select "All Courses" on the left side and surf to RRHS then Electives and finally find my name.  Select the Digital Electronics course from the list.  The enrollment key is "Wednesday".

 Use these links to download the course syllabus and computer-use contract. 

I look forward to a great year!