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Hello everyone,

It has been several months since I have sent a report regarding the Marion County Area Technology Center and since that time, there have been many exciting things happen for our students and staff. We have two additional staff members, our enrollment has increased, and we just received notice there will be state funding available in the amount of $374,000 for industrial maintenance equipment to be used for our students and industry training. The Secretary of Education, Laura Owens, will be in Lebanon on Friday, August 31st to present a check to our community for the equipment.

Even though we have only been in school a little over a week, the staff and students are into a normal routine. Please read what has been taking place in our classrooms and labs over the past week.

Construction

The construction classes have placed a big focus on geometry. The floor and wall and ceiling and roof classes complete geometry math lessons prior to the hands-on construction activities. This week’s lessons focused on planes, lines, points, and right angles. Mr. Taylor works with Sally Thompson, math instructor from MCHS, to grade all math assignments. This week the students completed two written assessments made up of multiple choice and open response questions.
The introductory to carpentry students spent time learning how to use cutting equipment appropriately. After learning how to use the equipment, students used a jigsaw to cut out signs that will be used by the Chamber of Commerce for Ham Days.

Welding Technology

Mr. McDaniel, the welding instructor, spends much of his day working with over 40 beginning welding students. He is teaching 4 introductory welding classes in addition to cutting process and blueprint reading. This week I observed him working with cutting processes students where they were learning how to properly light a torch to begin the cutting process.

Health Sciences

The anatomy class studied the skeletal system this week. They completed a test today on identifying and understanding the parts of the skeletal system. After completing the test, Ms. Clark, the instructor, began a discussion on the balance of the body functions. She introduced students to the word “homeostasis” which deals the constancy of the internal environment of the body.
The Center is excited to have a new health sciences teacher, Christie Glasscock. Her students have been busy studying the history of medicine by completing time lines and doing research on the Internet. She has also been working with medical terminology students by introducing new vocabulary words like: adenectomy, cerebromalacia, blepharoplasty.

Automotive Technology

The school has seen a huge increase of students in the automotive field. Mr. Gerhardt, the automotive teacher, has approximately 60 students taking the introductory course alone. During one of the introductory courses, students were observed discussing safety hazards in an automotive shop. They also observed how to work a car lift properly.

Blueprint Reading and Machine Tool Technology

Mr. Spalding has been working with his students on how to identify and read parts of a blueprint. Today, they were viewing a blueprint of a rear bracket. They had to identify how many holes were in the print, the size of the holes, and the length of the brackets.
he advanced machine tool classes taught by Chris Sublett were beginning to make vises and tapping handles.
Industrial Maintenance
The robotics class is up and running. This week students worked on programming small Lego robots. The students built the robots out of Legos and then programmed the motions via a computer program. After completing the Lego robots, students will start working on how to program a genesis welding robot. The new funding mentioned in the opening paragraph will also be focused around the new robotics courses. Once the equipment is ordered and placed in the facility, training will begin for adults.

Project-Lead-the –Way

Project-Lead-The-Way is the pre-engineering course being offered through MCHS. The course is taught by Greg Conley and Ginger Gardiner both teachers at MCHS; however, the courses are held at the ATC. Today, I observed students presenting power point presentations. One student did an excellent job showing a power point explaining the history of automotive motors another shared about the history of ATV’s and how they were developed.

Adult Training

Several adult classes will begin the week of August 20, 2007. We will start a basic welding course through collaboration with the Marion County Office of Economic Development and an Auto Cad class which will begin on the 20th. There will also be an excel class for TG Ky employees. Other classes will be posted soon for adult training.

Student of the Month

Again, this year we asked local industries to sponsor our Student of the Month activities and scholarship. Last year, local industries that sponsored this event also provided a $500 scholarship to one of our graduates, Thomas Murphy. Thomas is enrolled at the University of Kentucky majoring in engineering.
This year we had an overwhelming response to assist with Student of the Month. Mary Lancaster, the new ATC counselor, invited all local industries to participate and she had more responses than slots for participation. You will be receiving another e-mail soon recognizing this year’s sponsors.

As you can see, the MCATC is off to a great year. We will continue to market the MCATC and let students know we can be their new option to the future!

Laura K. Arnold
Principal
Marion County Area Technology Center
721 East Main St.
Lebanon, KY 40033
270-692-3155