First Full Day of Class

Today we experienced the marvel of engineering first-hand.  Actually, we experienced the frustration of diminished expectations first hand.  I had planned on getting every student in the class up and running with their student computer accounts (which was successful) and then having them do an Internet research project looking for some fun and amazing examples of engineering in the world.  However, the laptop computers were acting up today - I am supposing that they did not feel ready to get back to work.  None of the computers had updated Internet Explorer, so they were not functioning properly.  To add to the frustration, one computer actually had its mousepad burn out - not just stop working - it actually overheated, melted the plastic of the computer, and gave off a smell of (as the student operating the computer described) "burnt popcorn with way too much butter." Jokingly, of course, many of us told him that you cannot have "too much" butter on popcorn.

Since we didn't get much accomplished on the planned work, we will be continuing with that activity on Thursday.