Students arrived early and were ready to head out into the shops and labs where teachers had great activities lined up for the students. The first session in the Transportation Cluster saw students sanding their soap box derby cars in preparation for painting in the Auto Collision lab. In the Service Cluster, students began in Horticulture creating flower arrangements, bud vases, and outdoor flower pots.
Current Horticulture students demonstrated their skills in many areas and answered questions from the students. In the Construction Cluster, the students began in the Engineering Design lab, where they completed lots of design work in CAD as they created parts for their wind chime project. The Transportation Cluster switched half way through the morning and the students learned all about the workings of modern day automobiles in Automotive Service Technology.
Following a delicious lunch, students headed off to a new venue for Session II. The Transportation Cluster headed back to Auto Collision and had paint spritzing everywhere as their cars took on personality and multiple coats of paint. The Construction group headed to Carpentry where they used their blueprints from Engineering to create great toolboxes to carry the parts of their wind chime project. They also completed a rafter project.
The Service Cluster moved on to Cosmetology where they gave and received great natural facials with yogurt, mashed strawberries, and bananas while using delightful massage techniques. Everyone left for the day eager to see what the next day would bring.
Day Two of the Summer Career Experience had the students arriving early and ready to tackle the projects they had started. The Transportation group headed to the race track to determine the winners of the Derby and make modifications to their cars to give them the speed advantage.
Following the Derby, they assembled Solar Cars and prepared for the sun-powered race. The Construction group learned the basics of welding from Mr. Fire (Doug Ayers) and worked on the musical chimes. The Service group hit the kitchen running and prepared a full four-course Mexican inspired meal.
The students created soup, salad, main course, side dishes and a delicious dessert, and the best part was sitting down together to enjoy their meal.
The day was capped off with an award ceremony with parents and special guests.
The consensus of staff, students, and parents was that the Summer Career Experience was a great success and students had a little more career awareness under their belts as they prepared to enter high school in the fall.