How Do We Prepare Our Kids For Jobs and Careers That Don’t Even Exist Yet?
The Finn Hill Technology Student Association
The future is indeed changing rapidly, it is technological, and it is overwhelming. It is our job … to prepare our students for the future .. making sure that they are ready for jobs that don't exist, using technologies that have not been invented. |
How can we possibly do this? What skills do they need? How do we guide them? How can we encourage students to work together to creatively solve problems?
It’s a rainy Thursday after school and the dinner hour is fast approaching. But at Finn Hill Junior High School, the wood shop is alive with the sound of 20 kids all intent on a wide range of projects. The whine of a band saw fills the air as it carves up blocks of wood into CO2 powered dragsters. Gliders are flying around the room, sometimes ungracefully crashing to the ground with the sound of “Oops!” being heard in the background. Heads are bent intently over bridge design plans. You can almost read the kid’s minds. “Will they hold? Will they win?”
These are the members of the Finn Hill chapter of the Washington Technology Students Association (WTSA) at work, eagerly anticipating this year’s competition and a chance to pit their skills against others from around the state.
The Washington TSA chapters take the study of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) beyond the classroom and give students the chance to pursue academic challenges among peers with similar goals and interests.
The TSA chapters gather each year for a variety of technological competitions, including:
Dragster Design Challenge - Participants design, produce working drawings for, and build a CO2-powered dragster according to stated specifications and using only certain specified materials.
Engineering Structure - Students research, model, and test a structure designed to hold the greatest load. Each team is given the selected span to be tested and must plan and then construct a model using the supplied materials within two and one-half hours. The model is submitted for destructive testing.
Electronic Gaming - Participants develop an E-rated game that focuses on the subject of their choice.
With the help of advisors Lisa Shulman and Scott Merrell, the Finn Hill TSA students learn a variety of skills in anticipation of the yearly competition. These range from making sure their designs meet TSA requirements to learning the computer aided drafting (CAD) programs used to layout designs of the bridges, gliders, and CO2 powered dragsters.
Scott Merrell helps the students make sure each gliders’ wing structure is aerodynamic. Krazy Glue is being used in large quantities. Teacher Lisa Shulman mentioned, “I’ve become very good at pulling glued fingers apart!”
Best of all, students learn to work in teams to apply their math and engineering skills to solve problems.
TSA advisor Scott Merrell helping a student with glider construction. |
“I’ve become very good at pulling glued fingers apart.” Finn Hill teacher and TSA advisor, Lisa Shulman, helping out a student on design |
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Finn Hill TSA students working on their gliders. |
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The Lake Washington Schools Foundation helped the Finn Hill TSA with a grant of $1,500 this past year. As advisor Lisa Shulman noted, “A number of kids could not have participated in the Finn Hill TSA club without the grant from the Lake Washington Schools Foundation.”
The TSA team did very well overall at the 2011 Washington Technology Student Association Annual State Conference held at the Bellevue Hilton this past March 24-26. Several students placed in the "top 5" finalist positions in numerous events. Two of the students placed third and fifth in the Flight Concept Component. This year the preparation of the Finn Hill students paid off.
Learn more about the Washington Technology Student Association.
Finn Hill Middle School Students |
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