Coding Champs!
The following article appeared in the Santa Barbara News-Press on the 7th of January, written by Christian Whittle. When Freshman Ruby Kilpper and sophomore Sydney Whited of the Providence School high school set out to develop an app for the Congressional App Challenge, they had a lot of ideas and not much time to choose […]
Collaboration with the Physical Education Department
(The fourth in our student blog series comes from Nolan in 11th Grade, and gives the final update on a project that was begun last year.) Last year, the focus of the Advanced Engineering I group (juniors and seniors) of the Providence Engineering Academy was statics, or the branch of physics associated with objects at […]
Inspiration from Michele Weslander-Quaid
(The next in our student blog series comes from Madison in 12th Grade.) Earlier this semester, our Providence Engineering Academy had the honor of hearing from Michele Weslander-Quaid. She shared a brief description of her life growing up with many challenges and gave us the charge that we are never too young to lead or […]
Space: The Final Frontier
(This is the second in a series of blog articles written by the Providence Engineering Academy students. In the light of our recent trip to Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Ben in 12th Grade describes some of the history and future of space exploration.) The concept of space travel has captured the public eye since […]
Summer Camp 2019
This summer, the Providence Engineering Academy once again hosted the very special Robot City summer camp. With assistance from four capable high school engineering students (Alena, Davis, Pedro, and Zach), Mr. Eves and Mr. Meadth put on an unforgettable experience! (Please note that all photos in this article have been selected to avoid showing camper […]
Searching for Solutions: Search and Rescue Robot Challenge
(Our latest blog article comes courtesy of Joshua in the 10th Grade. Thanks, Josh!) In the event of an emergency, robots may be called upon to enter into areas which have been devastated by natural disaster. The thirteen students from the Foundations of Engineering II class split up into four groups to build such robots, […]
Search and Rescue Robot Photos: Josh Guinto
One of the strengths of our Engineering Academy is the opportunity to assign older students to act as teaching assistants for the younger group. This year, we are privileged to have Josh and Claire, both seniors, working behind the scenes day in and day out. Josh and Claire take care of so many important things, […]
When Things Go Wrong, Could You Lend Me a Hand?
There’s a great deal of discussion right now in educational circles about the positive benefits of failure. You don’t have to look far to find TED talks, psychological reviews, and blog articles on why it’s okay–and even beneficial–to fail. Failure, we read, makes us stronger, fights against complacency, and recommits us to our goals. The […]
Tension + Integrity = Tensegrity
The Providence Engineering Academy seeks every year to put skills to use for the benefit of the community. From designing playground equipment to running science lessons, “we have an obligation to turn our skills outward to the world around us; we learn not for our own sakes” (quoted from the Engineering Academy application). This year, […]
Robots Head to Head
In the Providence Engineering Academy, we take care of a lot of serious business. We use trigonometry to calculate vector components. We learn how Rene Descartes’ philosophy paved the way for a flawed view of “the ghost in the machine”. We learn how to identify fixed, hinged, and simple supports in typical static structures. And […]