What will you be? A disc jockey, computer drafting engineer, graphic design artist or an electrician? Kimball Area High School students are given the chance to explore these options through the new technology class taught by Nancy Bonnifield. Each career has its own station, where students learn about the career for seven days. “It is a really fun class to teach,” Bonnifield said. “In seven days of life the students figure out if they like electricity [or a different career].” Sarah Arnhold is a student in eighth-grade technology. During Friday, Dec. 12 class, she was working on computer graphic designs with her partner Joseph Harter. Together, they were designing a logo for a T-shirt. “We are learning how to use a canvas to make a T-shirt. We reverse [the design] into a mirror image,” Arnhold said. Her favorite station was the CNC lathe, which carves items, makes chess pieces and burns a design into wood. She disliked learning about electricity and the Computer Aided Drafting (CAD). Wired up Jonathon Green and Justin Brinkman partnered at the electricity station. Together, the young electricians followed the computer instructions to light a red, orange and white bulb using a cooper slate. The pair learned quite a bit about electricity and described how to install an electric fence. “For an electric fence, you have to have a post in the ground with an electric box,” Brinkman said. “Then you can hook up your fence.” Brinkman said his favorite stations were flying and making plastics, where he molded a screwdriver and plastic shapes. Green added that they made slime and Silly Putty goop at the plastic station. He said he enjoyed the same stations as Brinkman. “I liked flight. You get to fly a plane and find out where you are going,” Green said. No autopilot At the flight simulation station, students fly the plane through take-off, in the air and when landing. Holly Garding was at the plane’s controls while her partner, Travis Rose, observed. Garding disliked note taking and going through the lessons, but the pair said together that the best part was “flying the plane.” Garding explained the complexity involved in landing. “It is harder than taking off, as you get closer to the place, you have to put on the brakes and land.” To teach is to learn To be an effective teacher, Bonnifield went in over the summer to learn each station’s activities. She spent a day at each station and attended training in New Jersey conducted Lab Volt, the company that makes the programs and equipment for the class. After her personal dabbling in each career, Bonnifield found that she really enjoyed radio broadcasting. “You don’t know how much work goes into it (radio) on the other side. As you are talking, you have to cue up a CD. It sounded real.” The Lab Volt equipment was purchased at a discounted price from the company. According to Haldeman-Homme, the Minnesota dealer suppling Lab Volt equipment, KAHS is one of two schools in the state that offers this program and the information technology (IT) program to their students. (The IT program teaches students web page design, computer architecture and networking.) But about 1/3 of Minnesota public schools offers the technology career program. Bonnifield enjoys teaching the course and said the equipment allows teachers the opportunity to educate a group of 20 students about 12 careers. Without the technology, this would not be possible. She said that the class also broadens students’ horizons. “What I have learned is the interesting people are the people who know a little bit about a lot of things,” she said. “The class teaches this and will also make them more competitive in college and the work force.”
