Schools Team Up on Pre-Engineering Class
Twenty-five Deering High School students are enrolled in an intensive pre-engineering class that allows them to test theories in lab experiments using automobile, manufacturing technology and telecommunications equipment. The class, offered through a partnership between Deering and Portland Arts and Technology High School (PATHS), also gives students the opportunity to work with engineers at local companies.
Students spend half of their school day on the semester-long class. They study pre-engineering theory with John Cobleigh, a Deering advanced physics teacher, and Alan Carp, a Deering advanced pre-calculus teacher.
The class draws on the faculty and facilities of three PATHS programs - manufacturing technology, automobile technology and telecommunications - when conducting experiments that tackle real-world problems. For example, students measured the velocity and distance of a speeding car in one experiment, and they measured periodic electrical signals using an oscilloscope in another.
“We planned field trips to CMP (Central Maine Power) and Fairchild Semiconductor- not just to visit, but to work with their engineers,” said Carp. The class also drew on the resources of Cianbro and Stantec Consulting.
The course has helped students integrate science and math, apply their knowledge and learn to work cooperatively and independently. “Students need the capability to work with all types of workers and this is one way we can expose them to that,” Carp said.
