Edgewood Starts Mfg. Club To Meet Demand For Training
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
A challenge facing manufacturers is recruiting quality trained workers, according to a 2017 story on the National Association of Manufacturers website.
Edgewood Middle School officials are hoping to ease that challenge through the new Manufacturing Club.
“I want the students to learn to use the technology we have, which is similar to what we have in this community. This is new for the students to use. I want them to start thinking about how products are made and how they can make their own,” said club co-advisor Abbi Richcreek.
Richcreek teaches design and modeling, automation and robotics, and medical detectives at Edgewood.
The club meets for about an hour after school on Thursdays.
Edgewood librarian and co-advisor Susan Eberhardt said the goal for the students this week was to make a wooden bookmark.
Each student was given a blank wooden bookmark. Students had to look online and through Clip Art to find an image they liked, Eberhardt said. Richcreek also had them make their own designs.
Once they decided on an image, they took it to Edgewood teacher and club co-advisor Nate Howett who helped them move their design from the concept stage to the computer to be engraved by a laser.
The Kosciusko County Community Foundation awarded $10,000 from a Dekko Enhancement Fund last year for the purchase of the Epiloglaser Zing laser engraver to enhance the science, technology, engineering and math environment at Edgewood.
Seventh-grader Alyssa Swanson chose a Cubs logo, which she found through Google for her bookmark.
“I copied it and pasted it onto a template. We made sure it was the right size and shape. Mr. Howett then put it in the computer and sent it to the engraver. We checked to see if it was doing it right, and then we had it etched,” Swanson said.
The club’s meeting Thursday was its third of the year, but Richcreek said they grow in numbers each time. Students don’t have to attend every meeting to be a member. She estimated there were 20 students there Thursday.
At the club’s first meeting, she said they anodized tags. During the second meeting, they engraved glass vases.
“I think those laser engraving machines are interesting and I’ve always wanted to make something out of it,” seventh-grader Owen Stevens said.
“I’ve always liked the idea of making things,” said Ryun Hoffert, seventh-grader. He said in the club they get to do more engraving than in the design and modeling class, which he’s taking. “I’ve always been interested in engraving things.”
Hoffert was working to engrave a Harry Potter logo on his bookmark.
The students won’t just be engraving things, Richcreek said, but the club is in its early stages and the advisors are seeing how everything works out.
“Students are designing and making things. We have an employee shortage in our community, and we have to start somewhere,” she said.
In the future, she said she’d like to take club members on tours of manufacturing plants.
