TECHNOLOGY@TCA
Class of 2021 serves Class of 2034 BY L I SA WONG, DI R E CT OR OF T E CH NOL O GY
L
E A R N I NG T O BE F L E X I BL E A N D CR E AT I V E
has been
the name of the game this year. Many of us have learned firsthand that we are not in control, but God, in His infinite love for us,
and rebuilding multiple times. It truly is special that these seniors were able to experience these real-life industry challenges at such a young age. I am thankful that the Lord provided us to have “customers” right on campus!
shows us glimpses of His grace every day. Each year, the Honors Engineering
We had a great partnership with Kimberley Hechtner and the preK team.
Design class works on a capstone project which is usually designing and
Mrs. Hechtner was so excited because when she taught in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
building products for children with disabilities from the DFW area. Because of
prior to teaching at Trinity Christian Academy, engineering students from the
limitations due to COVID restrictions, I was challenged to find a creative way for
University of Tulsa designed and built a mobile kitchen station for her preK class
students to complete projects this year. Students spent the first two trimesters
there. Kimberley loved the partnership they had in Tulsa and was excited to work
learning about the engineering design cycle, manufacturing, functional testing,
with TCA engineering students on a similar project. PreK teachers do quite a bit
failure analysis, collaboration on technical teams and much more. The final
of cooking to go along with lessons and books they read. They make apple sauce,
design project allows the students to experience what it is like to work on
green eggs and ham, cookies, playdough and much more. Lessons incorporate
a real industry project. This year’s project allowed students to learn some
measuring, mixing, cutting, cooking and baking.
of the challenges engineers face in industry, including supply chain delays,
March 8 was project launch day. Students were excited to learn that the task was
out-of-stock items, defective items, miscalculations, working with others who
to design and build a mobile kitchen station to rotate to all the TCA preK classrooms.
may think differently than they do, working under a tight budget, meeting
Students were assigned to one of four teams, and all held specific roles: project
deadlines, understanding customer needs, using power tools and redesigning
engineer, financial manager, quality control engineer or chief technical engineer.
52 TRINITY TODAY
