SSN - Nexplore Makers Club (Sole Source)

This exciting engineering program inspires students to pursue futures in science and technology. While working with Maker Kits, students build mechanical, artistic, and engineering skills and learn to act as inventors in their own right. Course Objectives: Design and create their own inventions based both on instructions, their own creativity and experimentation, and an iterative design process; Use tools (pliers, screwdrivers, etc.) and mixed materials safely and effectively to create robots and machines; Experiment with the designs of what they make to test specific attributes (speed, distance, etc.) and then modify their creations to meet various constraints (time, height limits, etc.); Collect data and take measurements (angles, weight, distance) and apply them to improve a design and solve engineering problems; Identify how force can impact a design and apply that knowledge to modify models to meet specific criteria (speed, stability, accuracy, etc.).; Infer and explain physics and mechanical concepts in how machines function like hydraulics, buoyancy, friction, momentum, and magnetism; Visualize how energy can be converted from one form to another (i.e. potential to kinetic, mechanical to electrical) to produce usable power; Collaborate and compete in challenges with classmates to test their machines and learn scientific concepts.