CHS Blog

The digital age has revolutionized the way we work and access information in many positive ways. It has also revolutionized entertainment and how we spend our free time. With the click of a mouse, mousepad, or screen, a world of information and entertainment is available to us. All parents know the challenges of managing their child's appropriate use of devices, but in this blog, I would like to address the benefits of hands-on STEM electives in a world where we spend a lot (perhaps way too much) time interacting with two-dimensional screens.

Hands-on learning is a major part of all our upper school science classes at CHS, which all incorporate a lab component. However, recognizing the importance of STEM in our technological age, CHS offers Engineering Design with 3D Printing (ED3D) for high school students. Meeting twice per week, students are introduced to the engineering design process, which begins with defining a problem to solve, generating ideas and researching possible solutions, creating and building a prototype of the best solution, evaluating the prototype, and finally completing the final product.  

The class begins with an introduction to Computer-Aided Design (CAD) using Tinkercad, a solid modeling program for designing three-dimensional models. Tinkercad allows students to add three-dimensional forms to their ideas. Once student ideas are captured in Tinkercad, they can be exported for printing on CHS’s 3D printers. Once printed, student ideas can be evaluated for performance against design specifications. Often, the objects students intended to create have incorrect dimensions, feature placements, or other significant flaws. Thus, 3D printing helps our students to better understand how to transform things they see on their two-dimensional screens into the three-dimensional objects they intend to create.  

Each year, our ED3D students compete in a product fair for cash prizes, judged by our Grade 5 students. In preparation for the fair, students develop product marketing information in addition to designing and fabricating their products. Following the fair, students design and print projects of increasing complexity. Later in the class, students learn the challenges of takeoff and landing using a flight simulator. In the spring, students build, decorate, and race CO2 drag racers, which can reach speeds of 50 miles per hour. As a final design project, students, working as a team, design and fabricate rocket nose cones, which are attached to water bottle rockets for testing. Students learn about rocket altimetry and the principles of aerodynamic drag. A final project investigates the aerodynamics of flight where students build powered paper airplanes. 

But why should the high school students have all the hands-on engineering design learning and fun? That is a good question. Starting this year, CHS has created a new STEM class for all Grade 8 students. Introduction to Engineering meets once weekly and begins with an introduction to Tinkercad and 3D printing, where students fabricate projects of their own design. It continues with a brief introduction to the engineering disciplines, including mechanical, electrical, computer, software, optical, chemical, environmental, aerospace, and biomedical engineering. As with our high school class, students are introduced to the engineering design process and will participate in a product design fair in the spring. Additional projects will include building electrical devices using Snap Circuits, programming a robotic car, and building and testing CO2 drag racers with experiments to understand Newton’s Second Law of Motion (F = ma).  

Before my teaching career, I led the engineering group of a major semiconductor equipment manufacturer. As an engineer, I could not deny that creation requires a Creator. The Holy Spirit used science and engineering to lead me to God and faith in Jesus. It has been my pleasure to guide many CHS students into science, technology, and engineering careers. My love for science stems from an understanding that science reveals the greatness and majesty of our God, and I hope to pass that on to all our students. Our science classes and STEM electives at CHS are a good step in that direction.

Daniel Cote is the Science Department Chair at CHS. He teaches science, philosophy, and apologetics. He has a passion for encouraging students to consider science as a career and has been doing so at CHS since 2009. He is also a pastor and the founder of Multimedia Apologetics, an apologetics website ministry explaining and defending Christianity whose primary goal is evangelism. He greatly appreciates the opportunity to teach apologetics to CHS seniors. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maine, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bridgeport, a Master of Ministry in Apologetics from Southern Evangelical Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry in Theology and Apologetics from Liberty University. Dan is the author of Jesus Is God and Savior: How Prophecy, Science, and History Affirm the Truth of Christianity.