To enhance the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math (STEAM) curriculum, Wilson Hall is offering new classes, Mechatronics and Introduction to Engineering Technology I & II, which are being taught in the new innovation laboratory. Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of engineering that includes a combination of mechanical engineering, robotics, electronics, computer engineering, telecommunications engineering, systems engineering and control engineering. As part of the class, students design and build a VEX robot.
Introduction to Engineering Technology is a course which develops analytical thinking and independent problem-solving skills through project-based learning using the Ardunio, an open-source computer hardware/software platform for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control the physical world around them. Arduino was born at the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute as an easy tool for fast prototyping, aimed at students without a background in electronics and programming, and is widely used in the educational curricula at both high school and college level.
These new classes were added to the existing technology curriculum: Advanced Placement JAVA Programming, Advanced Programming, Computer Science & Applications, Computer Structures & Design, and Introduction to Programming. These classes are taught in a newly renovated computer science lab for upper school students.
In addition, all students in four-year-old preschool through sixth grade take a computer science course in a computer science lab dedicated to our younger students.