fandomhigh | Entries tagged with engineering

Goose had his dinner tonight and he was perhaps not as focused on his class that he normally would have been but luckily this week’s lecture was going to be rather similar to the lecture he did last semester when he covered this topic so he had his notes and lesson plan from that to go off.

“So this is week’s lecture is going to be the beginning of looking at mechanical engineering as a whole and to start that we’re going to look at the general history and notable achievements and then we’ll begin getting into the practical aspect of the course,” he explained.

He then began to cover the general details of the history of the time line and achievements of mechanical engineering.

“So for our first project, we are going to make an analogue wall clock, this is a project that we did do last semester when we covered mechanical engineering but I think this is a good example of being introduced to machinery and a way to learn how everything all comes together, so I do have a tutorial that you can follow and then we’ll spend the rest of the class working on this project,”

notagoose

“Good morning,” Goose nodded when class was ready to start.

“I thought for this week we will look more in depth at trigonometry and calculus based on last week’s test results,” he explained, it was mostly for Jo’s benefit since Sakaki seemed to have a good working knowledge of math but he wasn’t going to mention that, “last week I went through how each discipline applied to mechanical engineering, this week we’re going to focus not he core principles that these disciplines involve and then I do have textbooks that you can take back with you and that way you can refer to the text throughout the course as we start to discuss mechanical engineering concepts,”

Goose realised that text books probably would have been handy from the first lesson but then this was Goose we were talking about, he was lucky to know what day of the week it was sometimes.

“So the key components for trigonometry are the Law of Sines and the law of Cosines,” and he began to go into depth with these laws and started to go through examples of both, “and then we have the Fundamental theorem of calculus for calculus ,” and he began to go through examples relating to caucus to provide a general overview of how these topics worked,”

Once he had gone through the examples, he handed out the text books and also some worksheets with different problems on them so that they could be completed in the rest of the class.

notagoose

“Good morning, welcome back,” Goose nodded to his class as he began that day’s lecture, “so before we start delving further into the mechanical engineering, I thought we’d take a look at some of the math that we will be using in this course since math does play a considerable aspect of mechanical engineering,”

“Mechanical engineering primarily uses algebra , calculus and trigonometry ,” he explained as he started to go through the different examples and how they related specifically to mechanical engineering, “so I do have some test papers to see what level you are at first since we’ll spend the couple of lessons so that we can prepare for the rest of the course but don’t worry if you struggle with the test, this is only an intro course so this is just to get an idea of what level of math you may already have experienced and I know what we'll need to work on,"

notagoose

Goose found that having his class first thing in the morning went well because it meant he could do his early morning run around the island and then go over to set up for class. Even though this week he wasn’t planning on anything that required a lot of setting up do he mostly focused on finalising his next few lesson plans while he waited.

“Good morning,” he nodded once everyone had turned up, “I know we’re a small class this semester and I do know Jo from class last semester but I thought we could still do introductions regardless it is the first week and they’re pretty standard around here,” he grinned, “so why mess with tradition? I’d like to know your name, class and your experience with either mechanical engineering or engineering in general so I’ll start,” he said, “I’m Shane Gooseman, most people call me Goose. I’m from West Australia and its 2107 for me, I’m part of the Galaxy Rangers Series 5 Task Force and part of my responsibilities involving fixing machines or help in the building of them, “ he nodded, “who would like to go next?”

notagoose

“Welcome to your last engineering class this semester,” Goose said when he started that day’s lesson, he was a little surprised that he had actually made to the point where he could give a final exam since past experiences with Fandom taught him that by about half way through the week it was basically impossible to attend classes.

Still he had at least prepared an exam just to be on the safe side so at least that was something.

“For your final exam, I thought we’d do something similar back to the start of the semester but this time I’d like you to write an essay on a specific achievement of engineering from your time period and what discipline it relates to and why it’s of particular importance to you,”

notagoose

Engineering is over here today for the field trip :)

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose said once everyone was there and had settled down, “so this will be our final week of actual classes, next week we’ll be going on a field trip to the Longshot Research Facility in my home world, it’s where a lot of our main science and engineering projects are done,” hopefully this visit wouldn’t coincide with space mobsters trying to break into the facility again but he didn’t voice any of this to his students.

Goose also realised that this would mean that the week after would be exam week and he remembered what exam week had been like when he was a student at this time, the odds of him actually being able to give an exam were very slim.

“I thought for this week we will use this as a review lesson and cover everything that we’ve talked about these past several weeks and if there’s any topics in particular you’d like for me to go over in more detail,” he explained and then started to go through the different topics that they had covered over the semester.

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose was looking a lot better than he had the previous week, having slept for four days straight and that was also due to the fact that he’d had decent food to eat after Ignis stopped by yesterday, which had been rather unexpected.

“This week we’re going to look at the specific elements and sub disciplines of aerospace engineering and aerodynamics,” he explained and then he went into a detailed explanation of what was specifically involved when studying these particular units of engineering.

 “For this week’s practical we will be experimenting with frisbees and how the use of force can determine how far they can travel and we’ll record the different results,” he explained, “we’ll be testing the frisbees both inside and outside to see if there are any differences,”

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose nodded once his class was seated and ready to begin that lesson, he was currently on day three of not being able to fall asleep and was starting to look rather tired at this point and was rather restless but he had actually managed to complete a lesson plan and was trying to stay focused on the lesson.

“Today we’re going to looking at aerospace engineering and aerodynamics and we’ll be looking at this unit for the last few weeks of the semester,” he explained and then began to provide an overview of aerospace engineering and aerodynamics

“This week we’re going to try something a little different for our practical and we’re going to experiment using paper planes to test how far you can propel them, we’ll look at how your designs can impact the distance of your plane,”

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose said, he was back in his basic black military uniform today, deciding that was just easier for class than figuring out different outfits to wear all the time, “we’ll be continuing on with our environmental engineering module this week,”

The focus of the lecture component went into detail about the specific sub disclipines of environmental engineering and how they related to environmental engineering over all.

He also then covered wind energy and how that related to environmental engineering since both last week’s and this week’s practical activity both made use of wind energy.

“I thought for this week’s project we might try our hands at making a Wind Powered Car,” Goose explained, “and similar to last week we’ll then go outside to give it a test run and see how they hold up,”

notagoose

This week Goose had been able to actually finish his original lesson so it was actually a proper lesson today.

“Welcome back,” he nodded to the class, “this week we’re going to start our environmental engineering module for the next couple of weeks,”

He started with the general overview of what environmental engineering was and made particular key points of the impact that it had in terms of the environment and the importance that it played.

“For this week’s practical I thought we’d try building weather vanes and then we can take them outside to give them a test run,”

notagoose

After spending the last several days at home Goose once again barely made it back with half an hour to spare and he hadn’t been able to finish preparing for this week’s lesson so it was time for another movie day.

“I did have something else planned but that will have to be next week’s class so this week is going to be another movie day,” Goose explained, “the movie is about a botanist who gets stranded on Mars but he uses engineering skills to survive his situation,”

Again it was one of those rare occasions where Goose had actually watched a movie and again it came courtesy of Captain Foxx’s movie night recommendations.

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose nodded to his class when everyone was seated, “this week we will be continuing on with our civil engineering unit from the last class and this time we will be looking at specific sub genres of civil engineering,”

He started covering the different genres of civil engineering, he made note that there were five genres of civil engineering and went into detail with how they related to civil engineering overall.

“For our practical this week, in a way it ties in with the construction plans project that we were working on before the break, this time we will be building dioramas and seeing if we can recreate those construction plans,”

notagoose

“Welcome back, our module for the next couple of lessons will be civil engineering,” Goose began that lecture when everyone was seated, “for this class, we will be going over an overview of civil engineering and looking at what’s involved, and next lesson we will look at ”

He started explaining what civil engineering was and then started
covering the history of civil engineering and highlighting key points through its history.

“For our practical today we will have a go at designing construction plans this can include be for any type of project - building, roads, dams, be as creative as you would like to be,”

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose said when everyone was seated and he began that days lesson, “today we’re going to continue on with the mechanical engineering module that we started last week and this time we’re going to be looking at the different types of mechanical engineering there are,” he explained, “there are seven different types of mechanical engineering sub genres and we’ll look further into the specifics,”

He then launched into a detailed account of what each sub genre detailed and how it related to mechanically engineering overall.

“For today’s practical I thought we would look into a pulley and the principles that apply to mechanical engineering and then I’d like you to have a go at seeing how you go with creating one yourself,”

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose nodded to his class, “for today’s lesson we’re going to start looking into specific engineering modules and today we are going to be looking at mechanical engineering for the next couple of weeks, this week we will look at the general history and overview of mechanical engineering and next week we will look at specific sub genres and disciplines,”

He began to go into a general overview of thehistoryof mechanical engineering, making sure to highlight specific achievements and what it involved.

“For something different, I thought we would also start the practical components of this course and for this project we will look at the mechanics of an old analogue wall clock, which I realise is probably outdated for most of you, myself included but the principles of mechanical engineering still apply here,” he said, “so you have different options for designs and the tools needed to build and see how you go following the tutorial.”

notagoose

Goose had spent the morning being lectured at by Commander Walsh since he had only had his interceptor for not even two weeks and he’d already crashed it.

He had been granted a replacement interceptor and managed to get to Fandom about an hour before his class was due to start. So his original lesson plan wasn’t going to cut it today since he hadn’t finished it in time so he decided to do something else for that class instead.

“So I had something else planned but I had an emergancy back home and only just got back,” Goose explained, “so we’re having a movie day today,”

It also happened to be one of the few movie’s that Goose had seen because it was one of Captain Foxx’s favourite old Earth movies and it had been his pick the last time they’d had a team movie night so that had been what inspired today’s impromptu class.

Was it weird to have a movie day in engineering class? He wasn’t sure but he was rolling with it, “this movie is a good example what can be achieved in engineering under pressure and how vital these skills are, it is also based on a true story from the early days of the old NASA space program,”

notagoose

“Welcome back,” Goose said as he started the lecture for the second week and was wearing shoes, he grimaced a bit “I apologise for last week, I can assure you that it wasn’t normal,” they would have been able to tell that by the sudden lack of pauses in his sentences

“Today we’ll begin an overview of engineering and looking at how it’s advanced over time, for the purpose of this class we will be focusing on the history up to present time,” he paused and glanced at Alara, “and this is of course the engineering history of Earth,”

“There are many disciplines of engineering and we will be looking at some of these modules throughout this course but today’s lesson is designed to provide the historical context and noted achievements that have helped shape engineering today,”

He began to go through some of the earliest accomplishments in engineering, making note of early achievements such as those of the invention of the wheel through to the ancient era and how these designs were the foundations for how engineering would later develop and form to how it was studied and applied in modern times .

He also made note of the different kinds of engineering and what was involved with each discipline. The last topic he covered was a look at what was considered to be the greatest achievements in engineering in the twentieth century

“For today’s discussion, I would like to ask what each of you think is in an important achievement in engineering and why,” he nodded at the class to signal they could start the discussion.

notagoose

Goose showed up to his first engineering class, still without wearing shoes and still unaware of any noticeable changes, “Uh, er …………….hello.” he began, nodding to his students and apparently not noticing his sudden fondness of dramatic pauses in his sentences, “my name is ………………Shane Gooseman.” he revealed, “Most people call me ………………..Goose.” this was going to take a while. “I used to be a …………..student here. Class of ………………2014.”

“I’m from the year ……………………..2106 and I’m based in West Australia.” he went on, “I’m here on ………………..temporary reassignment. I am normally ……………………. assigned to the Series 5 Galaxy Rangers team back home. My speciality is ……………machinery and fixing machines. Hence ……………this class.” he waved around the room to indicate the class.

“This is ……………… Introduction To Engineering and I’ll be your teacher this semester.” that part was kind of obvious, “When I ………………..was a student is was common for the first week to be introductions. So I’d like …………….to know your name, what year it for you at home and what experience you have with engineering.”

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Mohinder was waiting at the front of the classroom, papers at his side. "I'm sure you know that today is our last class together. You can take the next five minutes to check any notes at which you may want to look."

Taking his time to hand out the questions Mohinder made his way back to his desk. "You have until the end of the period to complete your answers, and can go when you think you're done."

Mohinder kept one eye on the students, one on the article he was reading.

[OCD has arrived]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Class met in the Danger Shop today, following a ~~handwavy~~ email. There were balls, ramps, plastic tanks at the back of room, one hooked up projecter and a shortage of windows for anyone to break during the course of the lesson.

Mohinder started out by passing out a few papers. "I know this is your last class before the final, if you have questions about finals revision you can find me after class, for now we'll be looking at parabolas, trajectories and objects in motion."

A short digression into bodies in motion under gravity, air resistance, arcs and centres of mass later - illustrated with the help of a handy basketball - which he didn't attempt to net, having tried that before class, and Mohinder wound down, commenting on the history of its discovery and the emphatic screw-you that was Discourses, one of the early formal texts.

"That's enough theory," said Mohinder. "Now to put what you've learned today into practice."

[OCD is up-up-and-away]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Mohinder was at the front of a classroom that had an uncanny resemblance to a computer lab; if one which had sprouted typewriters on steroids, interconnections of cogs and valve banks amongst the more usual array of desk and laptops.

"If you want to hide information more securely than just by concealing its location, then you need to change the information itself. Passing on 'The elk flies at midnight' can mean something else entirely to the right listener," said Mohinder. Or warn them to duck when out that night. Carrying an umbrella.

"Cryptographers have devised, and broken, a number of code systems," he said, passing out a few examples. "From the simple - the replacing of one letter with another, transposing groups of letters and those ciphers based on the sender and recipient having the same edition of the same book." Mohinder elaborated, encoding and decoding, with increasing complex ciphers.

"The complexity of some cipher keys has become so great that breaking them may be impossible," Mohinder closed, "Barring quantum computing or breaking the chain with the user. Now, it's time to try your techniques at coded communication."

[OCD has been decoded!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Today's class was held in the Danger Shop, set up to mimic the usual classroom enviroment - desks, seating, the reamins of an exhausted building site and one slightly ruffled scientist standing at the front of the room.

"The three principles of architecture," said Mohinder. "Are that it should last, it should be functional and it should be beautiful. The last being a criteria much harder to be sure of fulfilling." He started to pass notes out to the students.

"When it comes to bridges, there are four basic types - beam, arch, cantilever and suspension bridges. Not all of which work equally well," he said, going on to on to discuss the design flaws and merits of each types. "And there's just a short practical exercise before you're free to go."

Once they'd built their way over the stretch of water that had just appeared, blocking the exit.

[OCD is up!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Today the equations littering the board behind Mohinder were interspersed with skewed ellipses centred on and orbiting circles.

"The first attempts at modelling the mechanics of the larger scale world around us - planets, stars, galaxies - considered us to be the centre of everything - the thought in the mind of god," Mohinder said, sketching out an approximate model. "Our place in the universe has gotten ever smaller; this planet one of several orbiting a non-descript star, first in circles, then ellipses..." Mohinder continued to described the search for an ever more accurate understanding of the mechanics of the stars.

Finishing, he picked up a mesh of metal and gears. "This is only a simple approximation of this solar system." Complete with an tomato wobbling it's way around a slow orbit. "Not that your models have to be limited to this local star."

[OCD is up!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Thanks to a ~~handwavey~~ email and ~~equally handwavey~~ note stuck on the classroom door, class met outside today and a securely wrapped - he'd become used to the weather, not fond of it - Mohinder stood by the south gate with boxes at his feet.

"Meterology," he said, "is the study concerned with measurement and prediction of the weather." Mohinder passed out a few handouts, including some brightly multicoloured references. "~The atmosphere of this planet is a complex, almost chaotic system, which contributes to the difficulties of modelling it, let alone predicting the future. Something which is being done more accurately than ever."

Mohinder continued into more detail about the atmospheric dynamics, barometric pressures and their simulations before coming to, "But first I want you to measure your environment on a small scale," he nodded to the materials, "with what you have here."

[OCD is up!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

"Electricity," Mohinder started, "Certainly has been one of the building blocks from which most of current technology has been built."

Beginning to pass round a couple of handouts to the class, Mohinder continued. "Electric charge is property of subatomic particles; current is the movement of charge through conductors or semi-conductors, but not the movement of electrons, which move much more slowly than the electric field they generate. A result greater than the sum of their parts, so to speak."

A short lecture on the discovery and harnessing of electromagnetism later and Mohinder finished up. "Because of the electromagnetic link we can generate electricity from moving magnets. Instructions and components are all on the desks. Be careful."

[OCD is up. Have at!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

"Good morning," said Mohinder, from in front of a board littered with streams of equations. "Today we'll look at time travel, something that although not theoretically impossible, isn't possible. At least not in the here and now."

"Travelling into the future - if you achieve a speed close to that of light - " he said, starting to pass out a couple of handouts. "Is possible, due to time dilation. The passage of time, even the sequence of events - first this then that - is not constant, but depending on the reference of you, the observer." Mohinder continued pointing out relevent equations as he went into more detail.

"The alternative - travel to the past, is full of the possiblity of paradox even for those people who are homicidally inclined to their grandfathers." Moving on from paradoxes, Mohinder spoke briefly about wormholes, cosmic strings and light-speed travel, before finishing, "Now here's a reasonably plausible film about time-travel, Starter."

OCD is up!

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

"Practically, engineering is in the business of providing solutions to problems. To make the world - however defined - a better place, or at least attempt to do so. But before considering the practicalities of a solution you need to know exactly what's wrong in the first place." Mohinder launched a short diversion on the definition of human needs.

Starting to pass out notes Mohinder continued. "Once you have a defined need - the time comes to create ideas and evaluate the possible solutions. It's unlikely to hit the best possible solution to start with, and so begins a cycle of experimentation and improvement until a final answer is found."

"Now I'd like you to conider how to practically apply the design process."

[OCD has landed]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Today the classroom was half in shadow, blue and green fluorescent ceiling tubes spilling a tinted light over Mohinder as he started to speak. "The electromagnetic light spectrum has permeated our science and our lives completely. From the visible region that illuminates our sense of sight up to transmissions of waves of broadcast radio and television or to the shorter heating infra-red or penetrating X-rays."

"Holograms are a static capture of light reflected one from a physical object." He started describing and showing examples.

"The simplest way to create a hologram is with a laser." Mohinder adjusted the machine by his side and a beam of red light flicked on, reflected of a pair of mirrors to hit a light plate. "Together with lenses and mirrors, and of course an object to record." He went into more detail before finishing. "Safety equipment is on the side. You'll need it before creating your own images."

[OCD is up!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

Handouts were set out along the workbenches that filled today's classroom. "Wood, lumber or timber," Mohinder started, hand resting on a length of two-by-four as he spoke. "Certainly one of the earliest construction materials, if less popular now. Softwoods are found from coniferous trees, and can misleadingly be stronger, more dense than some deciduous hardwoods."

Mohinder went through the pointed out the examples of different cuts of timber, demonstrating a few simple tools - hammer, saw, plane and chisel among before handing out instructions, saying, "Once you're familiar with the tools and materials, I want you start working on one of these designs."

[OCD is here!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

This morning the students would be greeted by the sound of slowly played scales, as Mohinder picked out notes in a repeating rhythm that accelerated into an abrupt stop. "Humans have a audiable range of anywhere between twenty and twenty thousand Hertz. Usually," he added. "Now frequency is inverse to wavelength," Mohinder said, moving to the board behind him to start sketching out formulae.

"Sound is a compression wave through matter, and - if it's sinosoidal - we can define it by amplitude, spatial frequency and phase." Mohinder continued for a while describing velocity, modulation and standing waves.

"The musical instruments in front of you agitate and produce a range of pitch and frequencies while producing some very different sounds, and mathematics can be used to describe not just the sound they make but also the composition," said Mohinder, passing out handouts. "Try out some of your own compositions and rhythms."

[OCD is up!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

The desks in the classroom were edged around the walls today; the centre stacked with with weights, pulleys, hooks and clamps. A number of materials - plastics, fabrics, woods, metals ~~and other moddable items~~ were arrayed next to the equipment.

Mohinder stood in front of a board lined with equations, passing handouts as class assembled.

"There is only so much force you can apply to an object before it breaks," Mohinder started. "Materials have only so much strength in compression," he demonstrated, "and tension." He pointed out the relevent equations behind him, highlighting stresses and strains and structural faults and how they might appear in macro and micro situations.

"But theory can only go so far as an illustration. It's time for you to test the properties of the materials in front of you. How strong are they? Can you predict when it will break? Does it matter how the force is applied? If you have any questions then I'm here, or I'm sure Elle ~~if she's here~~ will be glad to help you."

[OCD is a go!]

offthelisthero.livejournal.com

The Danger Shop was set up to mimic a regular high school classroom as the students arrived. Standing by a desk at the front of the room a syrup-free Mohinder counted off the arrivals as they got in.

Class assembled, Mohinder took up a casual perch on his desk, and started, "Welcome class. I'm Dr Suresh, and you're in Engineering Math. If you didn't intend to be, then you've a few minutes to find yourself somewhere else." He started passing out the syllabus and a couple of handouts. "Now, we'll start with some introductions before the actual maths. It's Friday so you should know this by now - let's have your name, hometown, and favourite or lucky number or numbers."

When the introductions were over Mohinder walked over the board behind him and stuck two brightly coloured magnets to it. "The shortest route between two places is easy. A straight line." He illustrated. "Adding a third point," he stuck another one up and connected it, adding more as he continued, "makes it only a little more difficult. But the more you add, the faster it becomes even more complicated. Brute force calculations - trying out every possibility - becomes impractical with even 20 cities." He digressed into the problems of computation for a few minutes.

"I'm not asking you to solve that," Mohinder finished. "Although if you're looking for a million dollars there's a prize currently available for its solution. We'll be starting with something more small scale. You all have pedometers on your desks." He hit a button on the remote he was holding and the room dissolved into a wider area with several coloured points. "And a shortest route to find."

[The OCD, it has arrived!]

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

Mike waited for everyone to arrive in the classroom before he started passing out pens and paper. "It's our last class, folks, and it's time to see how well you guys have been paying attention. Your exam today consists of several essays and you have until the end of the period to finish the test. Good luck, guys. You've been a great class, and I hope you appreciate the work engineers do in whatever time period you're from."

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

Once again, class met in the Danger Shop. Mike waited for everyone to arrive before launching into an explanation of the simulation. "This week marks the 36th anniversary of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon," he began. "Now, I'm sure that you kids from the future or alternate universes probably travel to the moon every day, but in this time period, it's pretty rare. As of 2008, only 12 humans have walked on the surface of the moon and the last of those was Eugene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17. It is a feat that no one has accomplished since."

Mike passed around the usual handouts before proceeding. "Today, we're going to walk in the steps of the Apollo astronauts. We'll visit a simulation of the Taurus-Littrow Valley and explore the Lunar Module. Oh, and there's also a Lunar rover available if anyone wants to take it for a spin."

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

Mike sipped hot cocoa out of his thermos as he waited outside of the Danger Shop for the students to join him. "Extra credit for anyone who can figure out how to brew a cup of coffee when your taps give you cocoa instead of water," he announced once they were all there.

"Today, we're going to be discussing flight. I'm sure you kids from the future have flown stuff that is way more elaborate than anything that I can show you, so we're going old school and flying a simulation of the Wright Flyer, the first powered aircraft built by the Wright Brothers," said Mike, leading the students into the Danger Shop.

"What made the Wright Brothers successful was their understanding of the three axes of control needed to fly an aircraft," Mike added. "The flight dynamics handout I'm giving you will explain it a bit better, but be sure you climb into the Flyer and play with the controls to see how they affect the pitch, yaw and roll."

"Finally, I do want to say something about the feud between the Smithsonian Institution and Orville Wright. Even though the Wright Flyer is acknowledged as the first heavier-than-air craft to achieve controlled flight, the Smithsonian gave credit to another man who was connected to the institution as the first to build a successful aircraft. This wasn't true, as that aircraft's first successful flight was years after the Wright brothers made their first flight. Orville responded by refusing to give the historic 1903 flyer to the Smithsonian until they retracted their inaccurate claims and the aircraft was displayed at the London Science Museum before finally returning to the U.S. after Orville's death. History is written by those who are in power, and sometimes they get it wrong for the sake of their own agenda. It's something to keep in mind as we look at the historical development of all these engineering achievements," said Mike.

"Okay, I've talked long enough. Go check out the Wright Flyer and have fun."

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

"We're going to keep it simple today," said Mike. "Later on this week, most of us will be celebrating Thanksgiving, which started out as a harvest festival. People used to give thanks at harvest time because they were never certain that they'd have enough to eat. Now, I'm sure you future kids can just press a button and magically have food appear, but once upon a time, farmers had to work hard to produce food. That's why agricultural mechanization makes the list."

"Now, the end of the semester is coming up pretty quickly, so if you have any questions about anything we've covered up until now, I'll be happy to take them," continued Mike.

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

There was a television at the front of the classroom with a note.

"Watch TV for today's class. Handouts on the desk. For next class, please write a one-page essay describing how television improves your life."

Mike didn't appear to be around, but there was a candy bar melting on the desk.

ktarian-wildman.livejournal.com

Naomi had been ~~handwavily~~ informed that she was going to be needed to teach for that day's class.

"Profesor Cannon couldn't make it to class today," she said at the start of the lesson, "so I figured for today's class we're just going to watch a documentary, that is related to this course,"

[ooc: ~~wait for~~ the OCD is up!]

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

Once more, class was held in the Danger Shop, with different areas set up as a kitchen, laundry room and living room of a house. "I know you guys from the future can take care of household chores with the push of a button," began Mike. "Actually, you wouldn't consider things like microwaves, vacuums, washing machines and dryers to be feats of engineering. Believe me, you're wrong. Let's see how much you appreciate modern household appliances after a day of good old-fashioned housework."

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

This week, the class met in the Danger Shop, which was set up to look like a large room containing a supercomputer.

"Hope you guys had a great time this weekend, especially if you had friends or family visiting. I know that the visits I got were rather eye-opening," said Mike. "Now, I know y'all have worked with modern personal computers and probably stuff that's a lot more advanced than I could ever dream of. But to understand how good you guys have it now, you've got to understand that back in the day, computers looked something like this. Take a look around at NASA's Columbia supercomputer and just imagine that one day, they'll be able to squeeze all of this into something the size of a fingernail."

He quickly passed out an extra handout once they were done exploring. "Once last order of business before we wrap up for the day. Read through this essay that Bill Gates wrote and tell me what you think about the progress we've made in computing."

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

When the students arrived in the classroom, they would find that Mike had a TV and DVD player set up, along with a table with coffee and bagels for everyone.

"Hope you all enjoyed the break week," said Mike, passing out the usual handout. "Unfortunately, it's Monday morning and back to work for everyone. This week we're covering health technology. For those of you from the future, this is important because without the improved health care that your ancestors had, they wouldn't have lived long enough to have you. And to drive that point home, we're going to watch a movie. Help yourself to some coffee, because I want to see you all awake and paying attention."

[Syllabus]

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

"I'm sure you guys who come from the future have better ways of communicating, but we've got to pay homage to the original, the telephone," said Mike. He picked up a couple of paper cups strung together by a piece of piece of string. "Here we go. Check out the early prototype," he said, passing the "telephone" around.

"Now, tell me what you think could hypothetically be done to improve communication technologies in the future," Mike added, getting set to take notes.

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

"We're continuing our discussion from last week on how automobiles and highways improved travel," said Mike, who was feeling a little twitchy without his morning coffee. "Last week, we got to travel the Oregon Trail and see how it took months to travel across country by wagon, and you were damn lucky if you actually reached your destination. The car definitely was an improvement, and when Route 66 was finally completed in 1937, you had a national highway that stretched from Chicago to..."

He stopped in mid-sentence. "You know what? Instead of just talking about it, why don't we just take it?"

[How to get detention] [Syllabus]

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

Mike was looking like he'd been out way too late last night. There had been an all-female AC/DC tribute band playing a club on the mainland, and he'd really enjoyed it. There were dark circles under his eyes and he hadn't shaved. "Hey guys," he said, handing out a pair of handouts. "Slight change of plans today. Instead of covering cars this week and highways next week, I decided to ~~be lazy~~ combine them both and use two weeks to fully explore both topics. Be sure you read over the information I'm giving you because we'll be discussing it next week. In the meantime, we've got an activity to demonstrate how automobiles and highways improved the ability to travel."

He stopped to chug some coffee before continuing. "Today, if you want to travel from St. Louis, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon, it'll take you about 30 hours nonstop according to Google Maps. Of course, you probably want to stop and take breaks. In the mid-19th century, though, you would have travel by wagon and the trip would have taken months. We're going to play a game called the Oregon Trail and see just how long it takes. Oh, and there's pie for whoever has the shortest travel time."

[How to get detention] [Syllabus]

Current Mood: tired

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

There had been a ~~handwavey~~ notice sent out ahead of time that today's class would be held in the Danger Shop. When the students arrived, they would have found Mike waiting with a big empty barrel and a lot of sandbags.

"From the beginning of time, securing safe and convenient access to water has been necessary for human life," said Mike, moving right into his lecture. "It's very simple. Without drinking water, you die. Without clean water, you also die. Water is also essential for the survival of crops and livestock so you can eat. Therefore, civilization tended to stay close to areas with access to fresh water. As populations got bigger, it meant that everyone was piled up on top of each other because you couldn't move away and still have access to water. I'll pass around this hand-out about the history of water supply and distribution, but we also have some exercises to demonstrate the challenges that face engineers when it came to water."

[~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up! Also, please see this note about Mike and detentions.]

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

Today, the class was back inside a regular classroom, even though this one was a bit dark with the lights out and the shades pulled down. "Welcome! It's good to see that you're all back for another week," said Mike, grinning. "This week, we're going to be talking about the next achievement on our list, electricity. Oh, and just in case you guys need some more light, I've got something for you right here." He started passing out candles, one for each student.

"Believe it or not, folks, there was once a time where you needed a candle or some kind of oil lamp if you were out and about after sunset. That all changed when Thomas Edison perfected the incandescent light bulb. Problem is that you can't use a light bulb without the electricity to power it, so his next move was to develop an electricity distribution system to bring electrical powers to consumers. Edison favored a direct current system, but eventually the country adopted the alternating current system proposed by Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse. Thanks to their work, I can flip a switch over here on the wall and we don't need those candles anymore," said Mike, turning the overhead lights on.

"I'm sure the power systems that some of you have in the future are a lot more advanced than what we have here, but the point here is that without electricity, we wouldn't have lights or computers or any sort of modern appliance that you can imagine."

[[~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up!]]

mike-cannon.livejournal.com

The forecast for Monday called for sunshine with a high of 83° (or 28° C) and a light breeze, so Mike ~~handwavily~~ e-mailed his students the night before and informed them that their first class would be held outside on the school lawns. When the students arrived, they would find that Mike had set up a picnic table in an open area, far from any shade.

"Good morning, students! My name is Mike Cannon and I'll be your instructor for Greatest Achievements in Engineering. Today, I thought it would be fun to start out with a picnic lunch," said Mike with a grin. "Grab yourself a copy of the syllabus and help yourself to something to eat and drink, and then we'll get started with introductions before talking about today's subject."

There was the typical spread of picnic foods: potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, and a cold cuts tray with the fixings for sandwiches. Mike had also thought ahead and provided pitchers of lemonade and soda as well as bottled water. But there was a catch -- the food and drinks had not been chilled, and they had been left out overnight. By now, the perishable foods were starting to smell a little funny, and the warm drinks would not provide much refreshment in the hot sun.

Even Mike looked like he was sweltering in his dark suit, but he pressed on. "So, if you haven't figured it out yet, today we're looking at the importance of air conditioning and refrigeration, neither of which we have at this moment," he said. "I would ask if you can imagine what it's like to live without them, but I'm pretty sure you're getting the idea. The first air-conditioning system wasn't installed until 1902, and the first self-contained refrigerator was displayed at the World's Fair in 1904. A century later, there's no way we could function in the summer without them. Because these cooling systems have become so essential to modern life, they're a prime example of engineering making a serious contribution to our standard of living."

"Oh, and now that we've covered all that, the real picnic should be here shortly," Mike added, checking his watch. Sure enough, an ~~NPC~~ delivery guy arrived with fresh food and cold drinks. "Enjoy! And Naomi, could you stay after class for a moment? Thanks."

[OOC: ~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up!]

visor-laforge.livejournal.com

Geordi was at his desk when the students came in for the final engineering class of the semester.

Once everyone was seated and quiet, he stood up and said, "today you will be completing your class final, you will find your test paper on your desk. You have the lesson to complete the test however if you finish early then you may leave after you've completed your test. Good luck,"

( Test questions )

[ooc: ~~wait for~~ the OCD is up!]

visor-laforge.livejournal.com

Geordi was waiting in front of his desk as the students came into the room. Once they were seated and the noise had quieted down he spoke.

"Good morning," Geordi greeted the class, "since this is our last class before the final today's lesson will be a revision lesson so you'll be able to study for your exam next week. I'd like to take the chance to say thank you for being a terrific class this semester and hopefully I'll be seeing some of you during the summer,"

[ooc: ~~wait for~~ the OCD is up!]

Fandom High RPG

About the Game

---       Master Game Index
---       IC Community Tags
---       Thinking of Joining?
---       Application Information
---       Existing Character Directory

In-Character Comms

School and Grounds
---       Fandom High School
---       Staff Lounge
---       TA Lounge
---       Student Dorms

Around the Island
---       Fandom Town
---       Fandom Clinic

Communications
---       Radio News Recaps
---       Student Newspaper
---       IC Social Media Posts

Off-Island Travel
---       FH Trips

Once Upon a Time...
---       FH Wishverse AU

Out-of-Character Comms

---       Main OOC Comm
---       Plot Development
---       OOC-but-IC Fun

⚙

Disclaimer

Fandom High is a not-for-profit text-based game/group writing exercise, featuring fictional characters and settings from a variety of creators, used without permission but for entertainment purposes only.

Navigation

Entries tagged with engineering

Fandom High RPG