In Year 11 Systems Engineering, the students study fundamental electrotechnological principles including applied electrical theory, standard representation of electronic components and devices, elementary applied physics in electrical circuits and mathematical processes that can be applied to define and explain the electrical characteristics of circuits. This unit offers opportunities for students to develop, apply and refine their knowledge in the creation of an operational system.
Below two students, Sam Green and Alec Grebe, share their reflections on what they have learnt in the class this year working together on building a farmbot.
Sam Green (Year 11 Red):
Although 2020 has been a rough year for all of us, Year 11 Systems Engineering this year has been a great experience. Mr Stephenson and Mr Ashley Savage (IT) gave us a great project to attempt and I believe Alec and I embraced this challenge with both pride and workmanship through both face-to-face learning and remote learning. Although we are yet to finish this class, we have made significant inroads into getting the farmbot completed by the year’s end. Farmbot is an open-source machine/project, meaning all models and software is free to use, that uses weather and moisture levels to garden its own patch of dirt. This means that the movement of this machine is fully automatic, like a 3D printer (CNC), it seeds its own seeds, waters its own plants, weeds the garden and checks online records and local data to make the perfect scenario for the amount of water to be given. It has been a pleasure working with Alec on this project and I sincerely hope that everyone gets to see this project put to good use somewhere around MLMC itself.
Alec Grebe (Year 11 Green):
It has been a pleasure to continue working with Sam, Mr Stephenson and Mr Savage on this amazing project. Sam and I were approached by Mr Stephenson and Mr Savage with a proposal of building a farmbot, which we had not heard of before. However, Sam and I took on the challenge of building this specific CNC machine with great enthusiasm and determination. Within the timeframe of documenting all the parts in our folio we were plunged into lockdown. Even though we were stuck inside and couldn't work on the physical form of the farmbot at school, we finished most of the folio. This allowed us to work on the farmbot with full focus on the physical aspects once we got back to onsite learning. However, we again returned to lockdown. Sam now works on the farmbot in his garage while I work on the documentation of our folios. This allows us to make good progress on the project, and it keeps us busy and sane at the same time. We will hopefully finish this amazing project by the end of the year.
