“We need U.S. citizens who can get security clearances,” Bogdan said after cutting the ribbon on the lab Aug. 30. “We have a lot of engineering degrees in this country going to foreign students. That’s not a bad thing, except that (the military) can’t recruit them.”
This summer, Oakwood converted its industrial arts wood shop into a state-of-the-art engineering lab, and its students jumped at the chance, filling 74 of the 75 spots available in the first three introduction to engineering design classes.
Teacher Tony Rainsberger said the students will work with 3-D “inventor” software to learn the design side of engineering. The lab has 25 large-screen computers running that software, and the school purchased a rapid prototyping machine that interfaces with the software, and actually creates the 3-D objects that the students design.
“It’s a chance to take an applied math/science course that is very project-based,” said Rainsberger, who has an engineering degree and has taught chemistry and physics. “They’re not going to spend a lot of time taking notes. They’re going to spend a lot of time designing on the computer, working in small groups, working in the shop.”
Oakwood schools treasurer Kevin Philo said the program is being paid for without any money from the district’s general fund. District officials said grants from the Oakwood Education Foundation, the high school PTO and the Dayton STEM Hub helped pay for teacher training, software and some of the equipment, and money from the district’s permanent improvement levy fund paid for room renovations and computers.
Oakwood High School Principal Paul Waller said the school will add a new engineering class each of the next few years until it has a five-course program under the national Project Lead the Way’s guidelines.
Superintendent Mary Jo Scalzo said as part of the Centerville-Kettering-Oakwood Career Education Consortium, these courses will be available to students at the other two schools as well. That could be increasingly valuable as Oakwood adds more specialized courses in the coming years.
Scalzo also said the type of study done in Oakwood’s former industrial arts classes — electrical wiring, engine repair, woodworking and more — is still available to Oakwood students at Fairmont High School through that same career education consortium.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2278 or jkelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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