Wanting to start an automotive class- give advice

I really like your idea about automotive engineering. I have taught auto shop for 25 years and still enjoy it . One area that has received tons of money at our school is the Project Lead the Way curriculum. You must deliver it as they direct, but maybe auto projects in an elective cl*** or after school would work. There are robotic, solar car / boat and high mileage compettions here in Minnesota. Do you have Skills USA at school? There are other cool website such as Car Design, that use Photo Shop to design cars.
I teach 12 cl***es of auto mechanics and auto body, @30 students each, per year. The school budget is $200 total! We also collect shop fees from those that can afford it- we are at 60% free & reduced lunch students. The school district use to collect $2 from each student- so I had to pay them more than what I got from them!
Good luck and keep me updated on what happens. Bill Johnson

 

polecat,

our situations are very similar.. (yet very different)

I am a high school shop teacher, so I don't technically teach an "automotive curriculum"
however,
I fought this battle too (and continue to do so) where I teach.

my school has maintained a very traditional course offering, where we have a machine shop / woodshop / cadd lab etc etc..

BUT A few years ago our school leadership looked at what our grads were doing, and how much $$$ was funneled to students who weren't going "anywhere"

and as a result, we were faced with A situation where there was a push to take "woodshop" and "metalshop" out of our school.

I did research, looked at local schools, visited a few who had "project LEAD A STRAY" (which I would HIGHLY advise against going with but you need to know all about)

and we (myself and a respected science teacher) developed a "pre engineering course" and we changed the focus of our other courses (and dropped a few) to engineering.

We have had bumps in the road, but were scheduled (in spring of 2010) to have a facility renovation which will hopefully (if no one screws the plan up) be everything I have hoped for my entire career (12 years teaching)


however, I think it was not solely the choice to go toward engineering centered curriculum (with all our courses) but rather that I took an aggressive stance on public relations these past few years, and as I prepare for the upcoming school year, I've got a few more surprises coming.

this video was shown over our local tv station to our entire district. it was shot by 2 of my students (I also teach 3d animation) who shot it for our school "variety show"

they went on to win a student Emmy (in spite of the "talent")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSwhf8GtlY

additionally, if your considering any sort of robotics component look at F.I.R.S.T. there are ironically several "first" advisers on the hamb (squirrel for one)

through our involvement with first I have developed a relationship with our local SME chapter. these are the folks who will GET board attention (NOT your local Auto center owner)

here's a little short about our team:

http://www.colonialsd.org/colonial/lib/colonial/citv/pwrobot.swf


so what am I saying? curriculum is one thing, PR is another..

develop a PR plan.. (its taken me awhile to figure out how)

people in your community need to KNOW your doing a great job..

and its your job to tell them.. if you cant do this.. all your best efforts are for Nothing.

 

I think vocational ed would be great at a high school level. I believe that it should start in the 10th grade and last 1/2 the day. If you graduate with a satisfactory grade you should be able to be a certified auto tech, plumber or whatever. I believe kids would try harder in high school if they knew that they could get a good job after graduation. I know I would have. I just graduated high school with a 3.0 gpa and couldn't get a job at walmart. As far as kids screwing off in the cl***es I believe they should be removed at the teachers discretion. I just started diesel tech at the community college and enjoy it. If they taught programs like this in high school I know I would have actually tried

 

Pretty much everyone on here agrees that Voc Ed is a necessity. Unfortunately we are more or less "1%'ers" in todays world. People used to really care about how things worked, how to fix them, and where they came from. Consumer goods and technology have become so affordable and yet so complicated that the average person finds it easier to "just buy a new one"...

I grew up on a Pecan ranch. My dad was a tinkerer, and when something broke we fixed it ourselves. I was literally immersed in that philosophy from birth, as many of us here were. Not so with "most" people today. Sparking an interest in cars and engineering is fairly easy in students, its the parents and the "academics" who run the show in education that pose the problem.

Polecat, you and I and the other HAMBers know how much programs like yours benefit students, but convincing most administrators just isn't gonna happen. I strongly urge you to lay out your proposals on the basis of reinforcing and contextualizing (ed. speak LOL) the core curriculum to reach lower-percentile students. "They" (the administrators) really DON'T care about anything else anymore. You show them how your program will raise standardized test scores and they will stop nodding and smiling and START listening...

 

ShopTeacher, I commend you for what you are doing. I collected high school shop fees for 25 years then the school district wouldn't allow it anymore after a law suit was filed claiming that's what school taxes are for. Needless to say, my budget wasn't increased to offset the loss. Sawzall: Great job. Engineering colleges do the same thing. Your 100% correct re: PR.

 

I just started researching this topic and dont know when this thread originated but there is some good info here.
A few of us; Sawzall, Shop teacher and myself are kicking around the idea of getting a "group" formed here of like minded (HAMB minded) shop teachers together to share ideas (ideas that could be put to use in the cl***room). From what little research I've done so far there seems to be a decent sized group of educators (both past and present, "shop" and academic) here - is there any interest in such a group? I feel this would be a great way to network both cl***room ideas as well how to promote and grow our programs. I think the current trend of "buy American" is an ideal time for those of us in vocational education to really push our programs.

What do you think?

 

I took auto-shop and drafting in high-school. I then went on to be a machine-tool designer. (25 yrs...until they outsourced overseas via the computer) The point is, that the auto cl***es actually helped me understand the basic nuts-and-bolts of machines far more than my drafting cl***es ever did. Good luck, and lots of atta-boys to you.

 

I took all the shop cl***es i could except for auto shop. [my model A was my primary transportation,and 'auto shop']. I was not a 'great' student, but I loved to work with my hands along with my head. I retired last year at 70 years old from nuclear plant electrical maintenance. My son was like me and is doing mechanical maint. there. He makes enough to support a family, which is saying a lot these days. yes the shop cl***es were all closing down and luckly he had cars here at home to learn on., What about the trucking industry they depend on good mechs, they can,t just 'throw away' trucks, the RR and airlines, those jobs are all related to auto mech. The 'brains' running the schools today look down on blue collar workers, thinking i guess to 'import' them!

 

Exwestracer hit the nail squarely on the head. Also, school boards cannot afford (and will not) duplicate the auto tech programs offered at the area vocational centers. Highschool principal's are evaluated (only) on how well the students do academically. At my highschool we had an automotive program and there was also an automotive program at the local area vocational center five miles away. Both were funded by the same school board. When money became tight and No Child Left Behind came in, guess which prgram was axed. The autoshop was turned into a PE workout room.