One of the electives at Arrowhead is engineering and mechanics. This is a class of hands-on and project-based activities. This class is offered to 10th, 11th, and 12th graders and is a year long class. 

A class that you can take after engineering and mechanics is systems and controls or engineering design and development. 

During the past couple of weeks of the semester, students have been working on LED Lamps. The lamps were due about 2-3 weeks after they started the project. 

Before the project, students had to take a couple days of physics lessons to learn the concepts. Then the students had to learn how to weld, 3-D model, CNC, route, and other needed manufacturing processes in order to complete the project. 

The students had to take many steps leading up to completing this project, some being measuring and cutting the wood with lasers, painting metal and staining wood, and assembling the lamp piece by piece. 

Sophomore Sara Pfeiffer said that the most difficult part of this project was the 3-D design. “We use inventor software in the class and there was a lot that needed to be done,” she said. 

Sophomore Diego Hernandez, said that the most difficult part for him was, “the siding because I was the first person in all of his classes to start it.” 

Hernandez thought that the easiest part was welding for he had done it in the beginning of the year, while Pfeiffer thought that welding was one of the hardest things to do for it was her first time. 

Pfeiffer said that the easiest thing to do was assembling the parts together at the end. 

Hernandez said, “this was a fun project to make and had a lot of fun doing it.” 

Multiple students said they have put their lamps in their rooms ethier on a bedside dresser or some place else accessible to look at.