Students in each academy at BCA take a Career and Technical Education (CTE) course every year, in addition to their other core courses. For the class of 2030, the AEDT CTE sequence is anticipated to be:   

9th Grade

A cycle of three 1-trimester courses:

Computer Assisted Design
This course introduces students to topics including web page-based HTML codes, 2- and 3-dimensional computer aided design (2D & 3D CAD) and oral and written presentation. Students will learn by lecture, work-book exercises and independent and team projects and hands on tools. This course will give the inexperienced student the ability to understand the process of web design, learning Autodesk Inventor software, 3D Studio Max software, and the visualization tools of CAD in 2D and 3D. 

Makerspace
The Makerspace course will introduce students to engineering principles, mechanical drawing, materials, tools, equipment, and machining techniques. Students fabricate various items utilizing the metalworking equipment in the BCA Makerspace shop, such as a band saw, drill press, sander, arbor press, and buffing wheel. Students will utilize both tapped holes and self-clinching fasteners for assembly. Specific skills include using a drill and tap chart, marking out work, center punching, spot drilling, drilling, tapping, countersinking, and deburring. Students will further study business considerations for in-house production vs farming out production. 

Electronics
Introduction to Electronics, is designed to introduce the student to the fundamentals of electronics and circuit prototyping. This course is helpful for learners who want to understand the basic components of electronics: diodes, capacitors, resistors, transistors, op-amps, TIP120 and IC-555 timers. The student will apply concepts 21 through labs and trimester projects and activities in conjunction with the design and testing of electronic circuits. The student will learn electronic theory and prototyping skills via a series of hands-on labs covering the bread-boarding and PCB fabrication of assorted circuits: IC-555 timer, TIP120 motor controller, parallel/series LED tester and charging circuit. The student will also explore the use of test instruments to verify and analyze electronic circuits they have prototyped. 

10th Grade

A cycle of three 1-trimester courses:

Makerspace Program
This course introduces the students to Arduino C Programming language theory, commands, and architecture. The students learn the fundamentals of C programming in conjunction with Arduino hardware: Microcontroller, and sensors (i.e., temperature, tilt, Ping, PIR, pH, turbidity, Position sensors). to program the hardware and perform a series of tasks. The course is designed to instruct the students on how to prototype a circuit which can be controlled via an Arduino or Raspberry pi microcontroller. The students prototype an assortment of hands-on circuits which reinforce what they learned during lectures and software simulations. All assignments will be posted for the entire trimester in the Schoology Makerspace w/C programming folder. The student will also be taught how to use an assortment of simulation software (i.e., EasyEDA, Circuit Maker, and Queen University simulator). 

Intro to Object Programming
The Introduction to Object Oriented Programming course will introduce students to the Python programming language. The course focuses on developing algorithms and simulations of physical systems to develop a skill set applicable to many other programming languages. Introductory programming concepts, such as variables, operators, branches, loops, lists(arrays), functions, classes, user input, and output formatting will be covered. For analysis and simulation, students will write code to perform plotting, line-fitting, numerical integration, and simulation utilizing vector components

Materials and Tolerances
This course is designed for students to learn materials and use in engineering and technology. Materials make modern life possible from the polymers in the chair you are sitting on, the metal ball-point pen you’re using, and the concrete that made the building you live or work into the materials that make up streets and highways and the car you drive. All these items are products of materials science and technology (MST). Briefly defined, materials science is the study of solid matter, inorganic and organic. Students will be learning about the environment of MST reflects, material stress analysis properties and technical enterprise where scientists, engineers, and technologists work together to uncover knowledge and solve problems. Focus is on student-driven projects with clear, analytical goals, accepted techniques for research. 

11th Grade

A cycle of two 1-semester courses:

Engineering Applications Programming
This course will encompass methods for engineering analysis using MatLab and Fusion 360. MatLab will be used for modeling engineering problems for both analysis, simulation, and data presentation. These simulation methods will be further extended using the computationally intensive features of Fusion 360 for FEA (Finite Element Analysis) for stress, thermal, and vibrational simulations. The engineering applications will include mechanical, dynamic, thermal, electrochemical systems.

Electrical Engineering
This course will cover the basic concepts in electrical engineering. The course will start with the basic relationships between the electrical variables Voltage, Current, Impedance and Power. The passive components will be covered including their basic relationships and dependence on physical parameters. The active components, diodes and transistors, will be examined in terms of the PN junction and how that relates to the operational parameters. Using data sheets to extract information will be covered. Operational amplifiers will be defined and used to build inverting and non-inverting amplifiers including testing them in a lab setting. Embedded control using microcontrollers will be introduced including writing code to perform simple tasks.The course will include many lab exercises to illustrate the operation of the circuits. 

12th Grade

Two full-year courses:

Advanced Electrical Engineering
This course will build on the intermediate electrical engineering course. This course will expand the use of operational amplifiers for interfacing sensors as well as designing active filters. Microcontrollers will be used for embedded control for switching high power and driving motors. In addition, microcontroller bus systems will be covered. Electronic Design Automation will be covered and students will enter schematics, assign part values, lay out circuit boards and generate Gerber files. The course will include many lab exercises to illustrate the operation of the circuits. 

Engineering Capstone
Engineering Capstone builds upon the skills learned in I.E.D., P.O.E., Electronics, C.I.M., and traditional academic coursework and supports a project in a student’s preferred area of engineering. Engineering Capstone includes the fabrication of student inventions, creation of architectural designs or participation in engineering competitions. Students research the need for a new or improved product of their own choosing; find similar products, make improvements, and develop a design brief. Creation of Engineering Drawings and 3D CAD files and animations lead students toward the final culmination with a working prototype and product presentation which describes, displays and helps sell the product i.e. to investors.