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Two Iowa secondary
schools are teaching lessons about entrepreneurship and life
disguised as shop classes. Gregg Helmich, teacher at Forest City
High School, Forest City, Iowa, and William Grothus, teacher at
Black Hawk Junior High School, Pleasant Valley, Iowa, have
independently developed remarkably similar programs in which
students build useful products using inexpensive but powerful CNC
machines and then market them with the goal of developing their
business skills. Both programs
have been remarkably successful with the students earning far more
than their cost of materials while learning both CNC as well as some
important lessons about the role of the businessperson in today’s
society.
Forest City High
School manufacturing technology students formed a company to design,
build and sell key chains with the school symbol, an Indian.
Students came up with the idea on their own after discussing the
potential market for a number of different products that they had
conceived. The students developed a flow chart that included all of
the activities need to make and sell the key chains. They start with
2-inch diameter plastic rod and slice it into ¼ inch wafers with a
band saw. The wafers then go through several stages of sanding,
buffing and polishing before they are ready for the key operations
that engrave the design.
The Indian head
design was first drawn by students in an art class, then converted
to an electronic model by students in drafting class using computer
aided design (CAD) software. A few simple conversions and the design
was turned into a program that controls a computer numerically
controlled (CNC) gantry mill from Techno, New Hyde Park, New York.
The DaVinci CNC mill, which costs
less than $6000, can mill virtually any design that can be drawn on
a computer in wood, plastic or soft metal. Despite its low cost, the
machine is a standard product used by Techno industrial customers as
well as educational institutions.
It possesses 0.0005 inch resolution, a top speed of 140
inches/min., and is used by many manufacturers of millwork, kitchen
counters, industrial models and patterns, and a wide range of other
wood and plastic components.
The students sold
the Indian key chains for $2 and did special designs for $5.
Sales were far higher than
the student’s estimates and could have been higher still if the
students had been able to produce more of the chains.
The sales covered all materials costs and with part of the
profits students had a breakfast party during one class period.
Echoing modern business practices, the top student salesperson
received a bonus. "It’s
been one of the most rewarding classes I’ve eve been involved in
because the students took charge of everything and I merely served
as an advisor
whenever they asked me for help," Helmich said. "We truly
created a mock business. I’d be willing to bet that these students
are going to be more inclined to create a business of their own
later in life because of the positive experience they had in this
class."
William Grothus has
focused his wood shop classes more on learning by doing than on
entrepreneurship yet the lessons learned seem to be similar to the
Forest City example. He saw his students becoming interested in
computers and wanted them to understand that a computer was not just
good for storing knowledge but also for building things.
He convinced the district
to purchase the DaVinci CNC machine primarily by positioning it as a
device to help students increase their computer skills. This was no
exaggeration -- the machine fabricates the part that has been
created in software to a tee, challenging the students to increase
their computer skills in order to raise the beauty and utility of
the objects that it produces.
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The DaVinci CNC mill is an industrial machine that is
affordable by educational institutions.
The DaVinci has various sizes available, from eight inches to
10 inches travel as the smallest to machines big enough for a full
sheet of plywood or larger. The table for the clipboard and Corian
products of Mr. Grothus is 10 inches by 12 inches. Because of its
relatively large travel, accuracy and speed it can be used to make
"real" parts and not just wax models. This motivates students to
learn because there is a true sense of accomplishment and ownership.
Thus, using the DaVinci CNC mill provides a tool for teaching not
only CNC and CAD/CAM skills but design, entrepreneurship, computers,
math, teambuilding and problem solving. It also enhances creativity.
When the CNC machine
was first delivered by Techno distributor Midwest Tech of Madrid,
Iowa, Grothus gave his eighth grade class the assignment of building
a treasure chest using hand tools, then programming and machining an
original design on its cover. This assignment fits well with Grothus’
opinions on the future of education and technology. "I have to admit
that I am of the old school of skill," Grothus said. "I am also of
the school of knowledge. You need both. But if you only have
technology knowledge, such as the World Wide Web, what are you going
to with it? Search the web, find it and do what with it?"
"I delight in
teaching and doing. I feel that I am meeting the challenges of the
future, if the students will just cooperate," Grothus said, "but I
do not see abandoning the old arguments and skills. One of my values
is doing things in class rather than just learning. My class is the
only one in school where the boys and girls come into the room and
say: "Do we get to work today?" Learning by doing is the best way to
learn. Another value is driving a nail with a hammer. If 90 degrees
is not technology, I do not know what is. Habitat for Humanity
enjoys the hammer and nail skill and so does everyone that lives in
the house."
Because of their
age, the entrepreneurial instincts of Grothus’ junior high school
students are not quite as advanced as the Forest City High School
youth, but the potential is there. Grothus started by challenging
several of his best students to make something on the machines and
sell them for a profit. He enlisted a local kitchen/custom bathroom
remodeling company to contribute scrap materials The kids are just
getting started producing engraved signs made out of Corian,
ornaments and clipboards. Grothus has challenged one of his more
motivated seventh graders to gross $1000 over the next year and has
no doubt he can do it.
Both Grothus and
Helmich agree that the primary benefit of introducing
entrepreneurship in wood shop class is opening up their students
eyes to what they can accomplish if they set their minds to a task
and obtain the right tools and knowledge.
"The gantry CNC mill motivates
students to learn because there is a true sense of accomplishment
and ownership," Grothus said. "Using the DaVinci mill from Techno
provides a tool not only for teaching CNC and CAD/CAM skills for
also design, entrepreneurship, computer math, team building and
problem solving. If
you want x, y, and z coordinates, they are right there on the
machine." Helmich said: "It’s wonderful to see the look in
kids' eyes after they have spent a few hours learning how to do
something and end up with a tangible product that someone is willing
to pay money for. They see that
there is no limit to what they can produce and, for many of them,
that feeling transfers over to increased self confidence
and sense of their own potential."
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Both Grothus and
Helmich agree that the primary benefit of introducing
entrepreneurship in wood shop class is opening up their students
eyes to what they can accomplish if they set their minds to a task
and obtain the right tools and knowledge.
"The gantry CNC mill motivates
students to learn because there is a true sense of accomplishment
and ownership," Grothus said. "Using the DaVinci mill from Techno
provides a tool not only for teaching CNC and CAD/CAM skills for
also design, entrepreneurship, computer math, team building and
problem solving. If
you want x, y, and z coordinates, they are right there on the
machine." Helmich said: "It’s wonderful to see the look in
kids' eyes after they have spent a few hours learning how to do
something and end up with a tangible product that someone is willing
to pay money for. They see that
there is no limit to what they can produce and, for many of them,
that feeling transfers over to increased self confidence
and sense of their own potential."
When the CNC machine
was first delivered by Techno distributor Midwest Tech of Madrid,
Iowa, Grothus gave his eighth grade class the assignment of building
a treasure chest using hand tools, then programming and machining an
original design on its cover. This assignment fits well with Grothus’
opinions on the future of education and technology. "I have to admit
that I am of the old school of skill," Grothus said. "I am also of
the school of knowledge. You need both. But if you only have
technology knowledge, such as the World Wide Web, what are you going
to with it? Search the web, find it and do what with it?"
"I delight in
teaching and doing. I feel that I am meeting the challenges of the
future, if the students will just cooperate," Grothus said, "but I
do not see abandoning the old arguments and skills. One of my values
is doing things in class rather than just learning. My class is the
only one in school where the boys and girls come into the room and
say: "Do we get to work today?" Learning by doing is the best way to
learn. Another value is driving a nail with a hammer. If 90 degrees
is not technology, I do not know what is. Habitat for Humanity
enjoys the hammer and nail skill and so does everyone that lives in
the house."
Because of their
age, the entrepreneurial instincts of Grothus’ junior high school
students are not quite as advanced as the Forest City High School
youth, but the potential is there. Grothus started by challenging
several of his best students to make something on the machines and
sell them for a profit. He enlisted a local kitchen/custom bathroom
remodeling company to contribute scrap materials The kids are just
getting started producing engraved signs made out of Corian,
ornaments and clipboards. Grothus has challenged one of his more
motivated seventh graders to gross $1000 over the next year and has
no doubt he can do it.
Both Grothus and
Helmich agree that the primary benefit of introducing
entrepreneurship in wood shop class is opening up their students
eyes to what they can accomplish if they set their minds to a task
and obtain the right tools and knowledge.
"The gantry CNC mill motivates
students to learn because there is a true sense of accomplishment
and ownership," Grothus said. "Using the DaVinci mill from Techno
provides a tool not only for teaching CNC and CAD/CAM skills for
also design, entrepreneurship, computer math, team building and
problem solving. If
you want x, y, and z coordinates, they are right there on the
machine." Helmich said: "It’s wonderful to see the look in kids'
eyes after they have spent a few hours learning how to do something
and end up with a tangible product that someone is willing to pay
money for.
They see that there is no limit to what they can produce and, for
many of them, that feeling transfers over to increased self
confidence and sense of their own potential."
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