Spain 2º Bachillerato Technology and Engineering II
Chapters: 7
1. Research and development projects
Project management and Agile methods · Technical documentation · Self-confidence and managing emotions · Entrepreneurship, resilience and creativity
- The Design Process: From Problem to Product – The design process is a loop of steps designers use to solve a real problem for real people: investigate the need, define it in a brief and a measurable specification, generate many ideas, build a prototype, then test and evaluate it against the specification. Whatever fails sends you back round the loop. This repeating is called iteration, and it is how almost every product, app, building and artwork is improved.
- Technical Drawing: Communicating Design Ideas – Technical drawing is a shared visual language for showing the exact shape and size of an object. Designers start with freehand sketches, then use pictorial views (isometric, oblique) to show the object in 3D, and orthographic projection (front, top and side views) with standard lines, dimensions in millimetres and a scale so that anyone can make it. Today most drawings are made with CAD software.
- Self-Management: Taking Charge of Your Feelings, Goals and Time – Self-management is the skill of guiding your own feelings, thoughts and actions so you can reach your goals. It starts with self-awareness: noticing what you feel and how strong it is. Then you pause before reacting (Stop, Think, Act) and use calming tools such as slow breathing. Your beliefs and thoughts shape your feelings and actions, so changing an unhelpful thought ('I'm useless') into a helpful one ('I can't do it yet') changes what you do. Good self-managers set SMART goals, plan their time by importance, build healthy habits and bounce back from setbacks (resilience). These skills help in school, friendships and future careers.
- From Ideas to Startups: Entrepreneurship – An entrepreneur turns an idea into a business by bringing together land, labour and capital and taking the risk. New ideas replace old ways, which economists call creative destruction. Startups grow with help from investors, banks, incubators, government schemes such as Startup India and Make in India, and small firms called MSMEs. A business plan maps the idea, costs and customers. The profit and loss statement shows Sales − Costs, and the balance sheet shows Assets = Liabilities + Capital.
- Entrepreneurship Development – Entrepreneurship is starting a new business by spotting a need, putting resources together and taking the risk. India needs entrepreneurs for jobs, new ideas and balanced growth. The process runs from knowing yourself to launching and growing. Start-up India (2016) supports new firms, funding comes from savings, angels, venture capital, banks and crowdfunding, and intellectual property rights protect new ideas, brands and creative work.
2. Materials and manufacturing
Internal structure and materials testing · Material treatments and industrial manufacturing
- Materials Science: Why Materials Behave the Way They Do – Materials science links what a material is made of inside (atoms, bonds, crystals, grains) to how it behaves (strong, bendy, brittle, light). The four families are metals, polymers, ceramics and composites. We measure properties with tests: tensile test (stress = force ÷ area, strain = extension ÷ length, Young's modulus = stress ÷ strain), hardness tests and impact tests. Heat treatment and alloying change the inside and so the properties. New materials include composites, nanomaterials, smart materials and biomaterials. Chemistry also explains art materials: pigments, binders, ceramics, glass and metals.
3. Mechanical systems
Simple structures · Heat engines · Pneumatics and hydraulics
- Second Law of Thermodynamics, Heat Engines and Refrigerators – The first law says energy is conserved; the second law says which way heat and energy can go. Heat flows by itself only from hot to cold (Clausius). No engine can turn all the heat it takes into work; some must be thrown into a colder body (Kelvin–Planck). A heat engine takes Q₁ from a hot source, does work W and rejects Q₂: efficiency η = W/Q₁ = 1 − Q₂/Q₁. A refrigerator uses work W to move Q₂ from cold to hot: COP α = Q₂/W. The best possible engine, the Carnot engine, has η = 1 − T₂/T₁.
4. Electrical and electronic systems
AC circuits · Combinational digital electronics · Sequential digital electronics
- Alternating Current – An alternating current (AC) changes size and direction again and again: I = I₀ sin ωt. Its rms value is I₀/√2, the steady DC that gives the same heating. A resistor keeps V and I in step; an inductor makes I lag by 90° (Xʟ = ωL); a capacitor makes I lead by 90° (Xᴄ = 1/ωC). In a series LCR circuit Z = √(R² + (Xʟ − Xᴄ)²), resonance happens when Xʟ = Xᴄ, and average power is P = Vrms Irms cos φ.
- Force on a Current-Carrying Conductor, Motor and Induction – A wire carrying current inside a magnetic field feels a push. The push is biggest when the wire is at 90° to the field and zero when it is parallel. Fleming's left-hand rule gives its direction. A motor uses this push to spin a coil; a generator does the reverse and makes current by moving a coil or magnet.
- Digital Electronics: Combinational and Sequential Circuits – Digital electronics uses only two voltage levels, called 0 and 1. A combinational circuit gives an output that depends only on the inputs right now. You design it in four steps: write the truth table, write an expression, simplify it (a Karnaugh map helps), and draw the gates. A sequential circuit also has memory, so its output depends on the inputs and on what happened before. A flip-flop is the basic memory cell: it copies its input D only when the clock pulses. Flip-flops joined together make counters and registers. A simulator lets you test every input before you build the real circuit.
5. Emerging computer systems
AI, big data and cybersecurity
- Artificial Intelligence: How Machines Learn to Think – Artificial intelligence (AI) is the skill of a computer system to do tasks that normally need human thinking: seeing, understanding speech, deciding and learning. An AI system is an agent that senses, thinks and acts. Old AI followed rules written by people. Modern AI mostly uses machine learning: it finds its own rule from many labelled examples (data). Neural networks are layers of simple units whose link strengths (weights) change during training. AI is used in maps, translation, health, farming and games. It can be wrong or unfair when its data is one-sided (bias), so people must check it, protect privacy and stay responsible.
6. Automatic systems
Block diagram algebra and stability
- Control Systems and Feedback – A control system makes a machine or process behave the way we want. Every system has input → process (controller) → output. In an open-loop system the controller does not check the result (a toaster on a timer). In a closed-loop system a sensor measures the output and feeds it back; the controller compares it with the set point and corrects the error (a thermostat, cruise control). Real systems are built from sensors, a controller (electronic circuit, microcontroller or PLC) and actuators (motors, heaters, valves, pneumatic cylinders). Many are now networked (IoT, SCADA) so they can be watched and controlled from far away.
7. Sustainable technology
Social and environmental impact of technology
- Environment and Sustainable Development – The environment gives us resources, soaks up our waste, supports life and gives beauty. When we take resources faster than nature renews them, or throw waste faster than it can absorb, we cross its carrying capacity and face an environmental crisis. India faces land degradation, air and water pollution, forest and biodiversity loss. Burning fossil fuels traps heat and causes global warming; CFCs thin the ozone layer. Sustainable development meets today's needs without harming the ability of future generations to meet theirs, using clean energy, less waste and traditional knowledge.