Welcome back to a new school year and the Digital Electronics class. I am excited about the engineering program and a number of the things that we will be doing this year inside the classroom and out. Make sure that you check this site regularly to keep up with, all of those things. I will notify you of what we will be doing in class, when there are videos or other activities that need to be completed outside of class, and field trips or special events.
Check out the related pages on the top right side of this page. I have one for scholarships for which you may apply, internships and work opportunities, and college recruiting visits. You may even feel free to browse some of the older posts on those pages as many of the items are either ongoing or recurring. You may find that the links are useful for finding available scholarships and internships even if the stated deadline has passed.
The DE class is different than other classes that you are used to. You will build electronic circuits and, in most cases, have to trouble shoot to find out why they don't work as designed. The designs that we give you are good, but the circuit construction has many potential pitfalls. It takes time to go through the aspects of the circuits to isolate and fix those problems. This problem-solving is a major focus of DE and therefore is worthy of the time invested. However, it is difficult to accomplish this and get all of the background theory in one 90 minute class period.
That is why I adopted a relatively new teaching concept that involves reversing the traditional homework - class lecture cycle. In DE, students will get the basic theory, operational instructions, and example problems BEFORE class at home, usually by watching a video that I have created to explain the concepts. That way, when students come to class, they can spend more of the full 90 minutes building the circuits, testing them, and correcting problems so that they function correctly. The videos are posted on Youtube and in the class Moodle, and I encourage students to check both frequently for updates. This short video describes a little more about the class and how it will operate and is worthwhile for both students and parents to review as we start this year.
I also encourage students and parents alike to sign up for the DE reminders at Remind 101.com The instructions to sign up can be found here, but this is a Twitter-like (short) text delivery system which I can use to send out reminders about assignments, deadlines and other key class information. You can sign up with your mobile phone and/or your email account, depending on which you would prefer, and it does not give me your information. The only thing that I see is your name and which list you are signed up on (in this case, DE). Please make sure to sign up so that you can keep up.
Finally, fill out my information contact form and let me know how to best reach you and also some information about your student that will help me guide them better as we explore engineering and prepare for the future.
