The Roughneck Tech Club welcomed engineering students from LeTourneau University this week. LETU students, Caleb and Geno, shared the basic types of engineering including civil, mechanical, computer, aerospace, biomedical, and robotics. The WOMS students had the opportunity to explore how robots see, think and move. Autonomous robots face a great deal of challenges, and Geno shared how his robotics team built an autonomous robot at LETU.

Click on the pic to see the robotics video!

The tech club was extremely curious about the robot and had a multitude of questions on all aspects of engineering! Caleb and Geno stayed to answer all the students’ questions. The Roughneck Tech Club is looking forward to learning more from LeTourneau University students this year.

The Roughneck Tech Club investigated 3D printing this week.  Students learned the technical aspects of operating our M3D printer including adding filament, downloading programs and troubleshooting problems.The process is one of trial and error. The trial run included printing a Texas shape.  The temperature set for the filament was too high which caused our object to be distorted. Learning from what does not work is as important as being successful.  The goal will always be to let the students learn to become independent problem solvers.  The next step will be for our students to design their own program and print a 3D object. Go Roughneck Tech Club!

Please access the survey at the link below.

BrightBytes Technology Student Survey 2015-2016

The Roughneck Readers (WOMS Book Club) learned exciting news from Mr. Rick Higginbotham, our high school radio broadcasting teacher. The Roughneck Radio will broadcast live at the homecoming game this evening. The broadcast will feature important announcements and happenings at White Oak ISD. The Roughneck Readers will feature a top five book list, quotes from their favorite books and book recommendations. You can access the radio broadcast at the link below. Go Roughneck Radio!

tiny.cc/roughneckradio

Roughneck Readers’ Announcements

Why is digital citizenship important? Our students live in an ever changing technological world. We cannot possibly predict and plan for all the emerging social media pitfalls and opportunities they will face; however, we can teach our students how to responsibly navigate that world. Common Sense Media provides a digital citizenship program for students, Digital Passport.  In this interactive program, students learn how to protect their privacy and share safely online.  As students complete each lesson, they earn a badge. After all badges are earned, students receive a digital citizenship driver’s license showing they have mastered the course.  White Oak Middle School Media Center wants to insure students have the tools and resources to be leaders in the digital age.

Today kicks off the Global Read Aloud for 2015! WOMS Book Club is reading Fish by L. S. Matthews. Our students have been given the opportunity to write the first set of questions for all the classes around the world! Our students will be sharing ideas about the book with students from:

Copperas Cove, Texas

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Boras, Sweden

Manitoba, Canada

Ripon, Wisconsin

The students did an amazing job, and are looking forward to seeing all the responses.