Are you interested in going into a career in technical education? Are you a student that needs a computer science credit? Do you want to learn how to 3D print? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should take a look at Engineering Design and Applications. 

Engineering Design and Applications (EDA) is the newest computer science credit class offered here at Linganore. The class is an introductory class which focuses on laying the groundwork and learning various tools one would need to start thinking like an engineer. 

EDA was brought into the curriculum in response to the unfavorable reputation of the Foundations of Technology course. Foundations of Technology appeared to be pushing its students into a non-college-bound field. EDA now fulfills a different credit but still gives students the ability to see other career paths.

Matthew Kronk is currently the only teacher of EDA at Linganore; this is his 7th year teaching at Linganore and his first year teaching EDA. He was originally an English teacher but shifted over after he decided “[he] was tired of grading papers.”  He is very excited to teach EDA in its inaugural year here at Linganore. 

EDA teaches students a lot of very important tools such as computer-aided design (CAD). CAD is a design software that can be used on a student’s Chromebook. The class uses this to build many projects, from a skateboard and skate park to a phone stand specific to an individual phone. 

This is a very computer-based class, so according to Kronk, someone “who plays a lot of video games [is] going to have a bit of an advantage here.”

When asked about his favorite project in the class so far, Senior Seth Needle said, “we got to create our own prototypes of prosthetic legs.”  

Kronk elaborated on this project and stated a future goal of pairing students up with the Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics in Frederick to do an even deeper design.  

Needle does recommend the class but “only if you like creating things on a computer. (You do a lot of fun work on computer programs.) But if you don’t, then [he does not] recommend it.”

Engineering Design and Applications is a great introductory class to any career in technical education or an engineering field. Kronk says it is not a hard class for which one needs to know a lot of math.

Kronk wants students to take away a number of skills from his class such as how to work with a team and the mindset needed to attack a problem.

“What we’re doing is attacking problems and figuring out how to solve them….It’s thinking like an engineer, thinking how I can make something to solve this problem. It’s very practical,” said Kronk.