TECHNOLOGY

Technology classes at Hilltown are including the Oranges, Reds, Purples and Prisms (the equivalent of 4th through 8th grades). Tech. classes take place in the schools' computer lab that home 12 Apple G5 desktop computers, for up to 12 students per class.

The 4th and 5th grade curriculum focuses on typing skills, basic word processing, creating and presenting basic PowerPoint presentations, and basic web page design.

The 6th grade reviews these topics and moves into internet search strategies, desktop publishing, using Adobe Indesign, and then graphics editing using Photoshop.

The 7th and 8th grades use laptops in the Prisms classroom to use the applications that they have learned in previous grades to create work for the classes that may require word processing, graphic editing, internet research, etc.

In technology class the 7th and 8th grade classes are divided into 3 groups. This year, the 3 classes rotate through 3 courses; Robots and Robotics Programming, AM Radio Technology (including building a crystal AM radio), and Computer Technology, where student study the functionality of computer components, culminating in dismantling, and reassembling a desktop PC.

After understanding the fundamentals of AM radio technology and the electronic components that enable a radio to function, the students build their own.

The students are building a robotic car that they will then program to perform increasingly complicated tasks.

These students have spent weeks studying the parts that make computers work, from binary logic to transistors to hard disks, now they are completely dismantling and will fully reassemble these computers.