BSHS 2008 Newsletter - Brisbane State High School

Brisbane State HighNewsletterPage 12 of 15BEAST Department NewsBuilt Environment, Aeronautical Science and Technology FacultyIndustry Link in Year 12 Graphics assessmentIn 2011, BSHS is once again very fortunate to benefit from the expertise and financial support ofworld-renowned architects Thomson Adsett. Late last month several key members of the BEAST teamattended a most informative training session held by Thomson Adsett senior training manager TomFowler here in Brisbane. In addition, Year 12 graphics teachers met with Chad Brown, Associate, todiscuss the selection criteria used to determine the winner of the coveted Thomson Adsett traineeship,available annually to Year 12 BSHS graphics students.The traineeship provides one studentwith the life-changing opportunity towork over summer side-by-side withworld class architects in the BrisbaneThomson Adsett office. The traineeshipselection process begins in earnest inlate March, when Thomson Adsettarchitects will be coming to the schoolto give feedback to students on theirpreliminary architectural designs. Thisyear students are designing andmodelling a five-star hotel using Revit2011 software.BSHS BEAST students benefitenormously every year from this directlink to the cutting edge of the designS.Eames working on 5 star resort Assignment in Revit software industry. Without Thomson Adsett’ssupport, the acquisition of currentindustry-standard AutoDesk modelling software would be unaffordable. BEAST staff and students arelooking forward to the announcement of the winner in November 2011. Watch this space. Special thanksto Ms Belinda Dow for the coordination and ongoing support of this initiative.Aspire Engineering Year 9Aspire Engineering Year 9 begins this year making the CO 2 Formula One cars come to life after monthsof research and design. These balsa wood cars have been machined by a Roland CNC milling machine,using codes generated from students Catia files. After light sanding and a few coats of filler, it is time totake the balsa wood car home to paint before they are raced.A CO 2 canister powers these vehicles, propelling them twenty metres in under one second. We will beracing these CO 2 Formula One cars during our 90 th year anniversary celebrations later in the year.Students have also been learning about technology and how different people relate to it. AspireEngineers discussed the difference between ‘non-users’ of technology and those who ‘use’. Studentswere given a Lego MindStorm® kit to discover the difference between being a ‘user’ and an ‘implementer’of technology. Here they were to follow instructions to gain an understanding of the robot and thenapply this knowledge to a new situation, in specific tasks.As it is expected that Aspire Engineers have the drive to become ‘builders’ or ‘designers’ of technologyit is vital that they have an understanding of the way most technology communicates binary numbers.Therefore our Aspire Engineers are learning how to count all over again, using a series of 1’s and 0’s.Students are developing an understanding of how to convert binary to decimal, decimal to binary andhow to add and subtract binary numbers. Who knows, with this level of knowledge and creativity wemay have the next Steve Jobs in our midst!Issue Date: 21 Mar 2011www.statehigh.com.au/news