The piece of reclaimed oak wood in Jose’s hands was a chair leg just the day before, but now with a very focused look on his face, he’s feeding it into a saw and it’s well on its way to becoming a sign he designed. He plans to hang it on his bedroom wall, where it’ll be a reminder of what he can accomplish if he stays in school.
Jose is part of a middle school program that connects middle school students to the trades, and bridges the opportunity gap for students who may want to explore other high wage, high demand careers. Working in collaboration with industry partners, students work with professionals on hands-on, industry-authentic projects. BEF leverages donations from industry leaders like Intel to pilot new trades exploration programs across Beaverton schools that focus on construction, automotive technology, and manufacturing.
This summer, BEF supported a pilot summer program that brought manufacturing careers to life for 40 middle school students. They spent two weeks at Westview High School designing their projects and learning how to use hand power tools and computer-controlled technology, like saws and CNC routers, to make signs from wood they reclaimed from old pallets and chairs, as well as reclaimed metal.
“Most of those kids will never get this experience at home, and they don’t get it in their middle school classes,” says Furl Kamakaala, the manufacturing teacher at Westview High School who led the summer trades exploration program. “The students had to apply academic skills, such as math, reading, writing, computer skills and problem solving, to do their projects working on their own and in teams And they did an amazing job.”
Furl is passionate about engaging students in manufacturing in middle school because he believes kids are dropping out even before high school because they’re not experiencing enough hands-on, project-based learning. “This summer was a very unique opportunity for our students, and we couldn’t have done it without BEF,” he says. “BEF first helped us 33 years ago build out our shop at Westview, and that support has continued over the decades.”
Piloting programs that take a new idea and prove its effectiveness is at the core of what BEF does, says Kristine Baggett, BEF’s executive director. “With the summer trades exploration program, we want to help create a pipeline in Beaverton schools by exciting middle schoolers about what’s to come in high school.”
Westview’s career and technical education (CTE) program is based on tribal learning, where older generations teach younger ones. So over the summer, Westview High School students served as teachers and mentors for the middle school students.
Olivia Yin-Dolvig, now a Westview senior, started out as the younger half of that equation last year, and over the summer, she became the mentor.
“It was a highlight to watch the middle school students change over the course of the two weeks,” says Olivia, who wants to be an engineer after college. “When they first come into the shop, they’re usually pretty scared of the tools. We walked them through how to use them, and it was really nice to be a role model for them, showing them what’s possible in the shop.”
Over the summer, Olivia says she saw how people learn in different ways. “The middle schoolers were able to see hands-on applications of how fractions can be used to measure out a board, or how geometry and a point on a coordinate system is used with the CNC machine,” she says. “Just because someone’s not getting something in class doesn’t mean that they can’t get it. Maybe they just need a different perspective on it.”
The next step in building students’ excitement in the trades is to educate more teachers about what’s possible in CTE education. On October 14, the statewide in-service day for educators, Furl welcomed dozens of CTE teachers, industry partners, and a few students to Westview for a day of collaboration, information sharing, and inspiration.
Jacob Small, a CTE and physics teacher at Southridge High School who participated in the recent In-Service Day workshop, is a “department of one” and often feels isolated, he says. “Just getting a chance to talk to someone else who teaches in a related area is a really good thing. We need more of this time. I left at the end of the day with creative ideas from other teachers and a better understanding of tribal learning, which I want to explore for my school.”