UCSD Extension Summer 2012
The Fab Lab pre-college Maker Learning programs for youth in middle and high school are presented in partnership with UCSD Extension College Exploration.
These classes are based on the ‘Maker’ philosophy that the Fab Lab San Diego program has developed in response to the need to inspire students while engaging them in learning next generation technology. The Fab Lab curriculum includes hands-on, experience-driven activities that are standards based, as well as fun and relevant.
UCSD College Preparation provides an opportunity for students to explore an academic interest in-depth, investigate a subject they are curious about, as well as gain excellent preparation for the increasingly competitive college admission process. Each offering is designed to engage students in an intensive exploration of a specific topic through lectures, discussions, and individual and group work. All courses listed below are WASC accredited through UCSD Extension.
Students were engaged on hands-on projects in topics such as Solar Electronics where they were introduced to the concepts and ideas behind solar energy and how we can harness it, basics of electricity, electronics, and learned about solar panel systems, the Photovoltaic (PV) effect and how sunlight is converted into electricity. Their project was building a solar ovens in order to understand solar thermal energy applications, consider the angle and concentration of light, and the resulting heat effects.
At the Design and Build Your Own Clean Energy Drag Race Vehicle! class students learned about the past, present and future forms of fuel technology. This course was designed for middle and high school students interested in learning how to make their own small scale hydrogen car. They gained knowledge about green energy advancements, hydrogen as an “energy carrier” and its use in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. During car construction, students utilized Computer Aided Design (CAD) for modeling the custom chassis, as well as using basic physics, chemistry, math, and mechanical engineering principles to make improvements on the vehicle.
‘Create Wearable Electronics’ is a project-based course focused on the use of electronics on textile surfaces. In addition to being a good introduction to electronics, this class is hands-on: students will create their own wearable projects, using the Arduino microcontroller. By the end of this course, students had an intermediate level understanding of electronic and programming concepts, including, but not limited to: switches, sensors, networks, embedded systems and the “Arduino” microcontroller.
[nggallery id=73]