Course: Grade 9 Exploring Technologies
Date: Fall 2020 – In-Person Learning
Teachers: Phil Hosmar, Matt Rock, Mark Sumner
Nothing seems normal during this year of COVID-19 restrictions, but in Grade 9 Exploring Technologies, we thought we would lean into our current situation and build something that is helpful and meaningful. Students have partnered with an organization in their community and built a hands-free sanitation station that will support the business/organization as they strive to navigate these uncertain and unusual times. The sanitation station is a hands-free, foot operated hand sanitizing station. It might be a small gesture, but students get to use the little that they have learned to help in a time when many are struggling and hope is hard to find.
It’s always encouraging to see students care about their work. For this project, they needed to take initiative to go beyond themselves and their comfort zone to reach out and find a partner in their community. This project gave them the opportunity to do something tangible and useful and relevant and many of the students took these to heart and strove to do their best work. As a teacher, you know when a project has “hit the mark” when students need no reminders to stay on task and when they seek out ways to improve their own work.
Phil Hosmar, Matt Rock, & Mark Sumner, Teachers
The grade nines at LCH all participated in a three part tech course. The course included a visual design, intro to design, and construction tech sections. In intro to design, we designed a desktop organizer, and rendered it in SketchUp, learned about the design process, created concept sketches, rough sketches, and technical drawings. In construction tech we learned shop safety, and how to use various machines. In visual design, we learned about photography, and poster design basics, designed logos, and learned how to use several design softwares. The summative assignment was creating a poster about the use of the dispenser and the hand sanitation project. For a summative assignment we had a hand sanitation project where we built hands-free hand sanitizer dispensers. Many will be given to businesses in the community.
In the course, we were encouraged to be precise, critique our work to get the best results, and not settle for “good enough”. Throughout the Exploring Technologies course, I learned many skills.
– Eily Levson, Student