Several engineering students at Elgin High School will be earning college credit while attending high school next fall. Elgin will have 10 junior engineering students attend Marion Technical College (MTC) during the 2010-2011 school year.
The students will be taking the College Tech Prep Engineering Level II Class with instructor Ritch Ramey. The half-day College Tech Prep Engineering program is a Tri-Rivers Career Center program located at MTC.
The Senior Engineering program consists of Digital Electronics, Computer-Integrated-Manufacturing, and Engineering Drafting and Design courses. Students learn to program and build robots, automated machines, and many other projects.
Students take the College Tech Prep Engineering I, Intro to Engineering, and Principle of Engineering courses for college credit before attending the Senior College Tech Prep Engineering program located at MTC.
Other districts that participate in this program include Cardington-Lincoln, Marion City, North Union, Ridgedale, River Valley, and Tri-Rivers Career Center.
The engineering program at Elgin has evolved throughout the past decades and a lot of that is due to the partnerships between Elgin, Tri-Rivers and MTC. Ramey was actually a student of Elgin teacher John Kuzio’s first Architectural Drafting class in 1979. A few years later, Ramey became the Engineering Drafting teacher at Tri-Rivers and the partnership continued with Elgin students participating in the Engineering Drafting class.
In 2000, when the Engineering program moved to MTC, Elgin continued to be represented well. Since that time, Elgin has had more than 50 students participate in the program.
“My goal as the College Tech Prep Engineering Level I Instructor is to make my students stand apart from the rest and give them the tools and skills to compete in today’s ever-changing technological world, “Kuzio said. “With a down economy, it is extremely important to make yourself even more marketable by learning more skills than your competition. Even if a student changes his or her mind about engineering, the rigorous program, problem solving skills, and positive work ethic learned will carry on throughout the rest of their lives.”
Students also earn six hours of MTC credit for Digital Electronics I and Robotics I in our College Tech Prep Engineering programs. Our national certification in Project Lead The Way (PLTW) and its curriculum allows our students to also earn up to 12 hours of college credit through many institutions of higher learning throughout the nation.
The courses are project based with students also competing in the National Robotics Challenge, which took place April 15-17 at the Marion Fairgrounds Coliseum.
If you are interested in taking a PLTW course, contact Ritch Ramey at [email protected] or (740) 360-8156, and see your home school guidance counselor.
Photo Caption: Front row from left: Kaulin Apt, Haleigh Bowden, Nick Duncum and Brad Beltz. Back row: Mr. John Kuzio, Andrew Thacker, Matt Carr, Isaac Dewiel, C.J. Schneider, Logan Johnson, and Jacob Hoffman.
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