THS Guest Speaker Series- Nick

This year, the Technology Honor Society officers have been searching for guest speakers of different professions to speak at our meetings. At the last THS meeting, I brought in our first guest speaker, who is a family friend of mine. Nick is currently a junior at Stony Brook University and is majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Since many THS members are in the middle of the college application and searching process, I thought it would be beneficial to bring in a current college student to talk about college life, classes, and the opportunities he has been given. Nick discussed many of the new skills he has learned in his classes and how he has been able to apply them to hands-on projects in labs.

In the next few months, we plan to get people of other engineering professions, like Civil Engineering or Computer Science, as well as Architects and other unique, technology-related fields.

~Ashley 

Halloween Happening

This past Friday, Commack High School held its annual Halloween Happening. At this event, families from the community come to the high school to trick-or-treat through the hallways and daringly walk through the student-run haunted house. Once the families reach the end of their journeys, they are welcomed into the cafeteria where different clubs have various setups and food to share with the children. This year, Commack's Technology Honor Society and Future Engineers Club decided to make a few new additions to their table in order to attract the children.

In order to excite the children, we decided to bring back our height sensor, which has been a major hit the past few years. With the use of various sensors, the height sensor is a device that measures a person's height when they stand underneath it. We made up a game where kids were rewarded a piece of candy if their guessed height was within two inches of the measured value.

Another project we chose to make again was the Makey Makey. The Makey Makey is a device that allows for any conductive material to become a touch sensor. By hooking it up to the computer with alligator clips and downloading the necessary software, it can act as a keyboard. Then, by taking another alligator clip and hooking it up to a ground pin on the Makey Makey, the conductive material can register as a key press.  Evidently, when kids put a hand on the ground ball and touched any of the hooked up pumpkins we had, the device made a noise that came out of a speaker. We decided to carve a pumpkin and insert the speaker inside, so it would sound like the pumpkin was making the noise. In addition to the speaker, we also placed sound sensors into the pumpkin so LEDs would light up whenever the pumpkin made a noise.

The most popular attraction to the children was our newest addition: Little Bits. The technology department recently purchased Little Bits, since we've had our eyes on them since we viewed them at the Maker Faire. Little Bits are tiny magnetic modules that can be connected to a battery. When placed together correctly, certain modules light-up, spin, or even make noises. Some children also liked adding buttons or sliders switches where they can control the intensity of the sound or light modules themselves. Kids of all ages found it appealing to make the devices move on their own.

~Ashley

National Grid Field Trip

Hey everyone! As some may know, engineering, as a whole, consists of various amounts of opportunities. Since there are so many fields of engineering,  it is very difficult and stressful to determine which field is best for you. Shadowing and meeting with experienced workers in various fields may further open one's eyes to the career as a whole.

Different programs for high schoolers with limited knowledge of what career path they may want to take are provided are not provided by too many schools across the state. Fortunately, Commack High School, has had the honor of attending events to meet experienced engineers who express their achievements in the positions they've had. Today, the field of engineering contains a large population of males opposed to females. These educational programs are a great opportunity to inspire more women to have an interest in engineering.

A couple of months ago, 18 attentive, high school girls traveled to National Grid for an all "Women in Engineering" career day. When arriving to National Grid, the Commack students were greeted by a couple of friendly staff members who signed everyone in and gave them name tags. After getting settled in, all the students migrated into a large room where breakfast was served. After breakfast, a powerpoint was exhibited about the National Grid company and a few company workers introduced themselves. Later on each school and student was divided into several groups so each group incorporated students from different schools. Each group took part in a different activity for about 45 minutes. Each activity consisted of leaders who work at National Grid, explaining topics such as energy, job applications, building materials, and included many female engineers whom work at National Grid. Hearing about the women who work at National Grid was the most informational activity for the female students interested in becoming engineers. Each woman introduced herself and explained which field of engineering she specializes in and the road she had to go down to ultimately reach her current point. 

The trip to National Grid was an amazing experience for the students and teachers! It was an activity filled day full of fun, socializing, and learning!

Below are some pictures from the trip:

~Kayla Houshmand

National Technical Honor Society Inductions

On Tuesday, March 11th, 25 new members were inducted into Commack's chapter of the National Technical Honor Society. These dedicated students completed all of the rigorous steps and met all of the specific requirements in hopes of being selected to join the honor society. Though meeting these requirements is no guarantee for membership, students need to have taken at least one technology course in high school and received a final grade of 90 or higher in that class. In addition, students are also required to have an overall GPA of at least an 85 along with technological literacy. While evaluating the submissions with the other officers, we looked for those who displayed a strong interest in technology as well as a willingness to provide creative and responsible technological service to both the school and the community. Many students showed their dedication on the section of the application related to their experience with technology. All of the projects our new members have already completed through high school are outstanding. Once members are chosen to be in the honor society, they are required to continually accumulate points by showing up to monthly meetings as well as participating in all of our events. 

Our induction ceremony started off with the special entrance of our new and current members, which was followed with speeches made by our advisor and each officer. For this year's guest speaker, our advisor, Mr. Castrogivanni, set up a skype call with a Commack alumni. Peter, a CHS graduate, was a member of THS and took all of Mr. C’s robotics classes. He majored in Engineering Physics at Cornell University where he was heavily involved in the Cornell Baja Racing team, whose goal is to essentially design, build, and race an off-road car.  He then attended grad school at the prestigious Stanford University where he earned his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering. Here he focused on robotics and automatic control systems. He currently works for the Google Maps Camera Hardware Team, which creates mechanical structures, electronics, and software to support the collection of imagery for products including Google Street View, Google Earth, and Google Art Project. Peter served as an inspiration to all the inductees. 

After Peter's speech, the inductees were called up one by one to receive an envelope with a certificate and other items certifying their membership. The ceremony was then concluded with two tables filled with refreshments. Congrats to all of our new members! We are looking forward to much more success for them.

Below are some pictures from the induction ceremony:

~Ashley 



          Here is a video of all the exciting events that occurred in Commack's Technology Department this past year! We are all looking forward to many more exciting events this new year.