Our Curriculum
TechXite: Discover Engineering provides activities across a wide range of technologies in order to offer opportunities for middle school students to explore aspects of engineering that are most exciting to them.
BioMedTech
Biomedical engineering and technology could prove to be the most exciting field in science and engineering in the 21st century. Sensors and medical devices are making it possible to monitor aspects of our physiology that have never been possible before.
Wireless Communication
The wireless communication theme will provide opportunities for students to explore various wireless technologies they encounter every day. These technologies will include radio frequency transmission which is now utilized for a lot more than FM radios.
Solar Energy
Engineers are working on new and exciting methods of utilizing the free energy we receive from the sun. Students will explore solar thermal energy and solar electric systems through building a solar car and a solar oven.
Solar Car: Racing with the Sun Module
Solar Oven: Cooking with the Sun Module
Transportation
Through modules in this theme, students will explore transportation by air, land, and sea. Transportation has played a crucial role in the development of civilization. The first ships made the discovery of America possible. The transcontinental railroad opened up the western half of the United States for settlement. Cars and highways made suburbs possible, and planes have made it possible to cross an ocean in just a few hours. Students will explore specific modes of transportation and learn how engineers design them for maximum efficiency.
Future Curriculum
Architecture
Buildings and bridges provide the infrastructure that has created today’s cities. Engineers are currently working on structures for the future that will be taller, lighter, and cheaper to build. Structural engineers need to determine ways of doing more with less material in order to save money. This theme will provide students with the opportunity to build bridges and design buildings. The rendering module will also look at how architects make their ideas come to life even before they are built.
Digital Imaging
Digital cameras have at this time replaced film cameras as the medium of choice for the majority of photographers. How does a camera store digital images? This theme will explore how a charge coupled device (CCD) in a digital camera records the colors in an image to memory. It will then allow students to explore ways in which monitors display images and allow them to build their own color mixing circuit. Students will learn to use a digital camera to take pictures.
GIS/GPS
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are used in conjunction with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to record and study all kinds of spatial information. Students will explore ways in which information can be stored, displayed, and analyzed geographically. They will make their own maps. Then, they will learn to use a GPS to record information for a GIS system.
