I received a message asking about our program and how the car will be used with our students. I will answer the following questions and please keep them coming this whole project has been incredible for my students.
How many classes do you have working on the project?
I have 4, two hour classes a day starting at 6:50 in the morning. My first class is an advanced auto class with all seniors and their second year of the program. My students receive 3 college credits for completing two full years and receiving a C or better.
How many students in each class? My class sizes range from 10-25 this year I had 65 students total and I have had as many as 97. Every year changes.
How often / long does the class meet? I have my students 5 days a week for 2 hours each class
Did they all participate in the tear down?
Every student has had the opportunity to work on different parts of the project from beginning to end. My assistant break the students up into small groups and give each group a task to accomplish by them end of class. We had a complete running/driving 2010 Cobalt that we traded some of our old shop cars for. Our students went through every system and inspected the entire vehicle so we could build a parts list of what we would need to repair or replace from the donor. We also did a compression and cylinder leakage test on our engine before it was removed to make sure it was in excellent mechanical condition.
Did you take time to go over the function and operation of the parts removed that will not be re-used? see previous answer
Did / are you creating a course teaching plan as you go? We have a very detailed curriculum according to NATEF which is the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation. They require us to complete given tasks and mandate our hours of classroom/shop time. more information is available at
www.natef.org NATEF is the organization responsible for creating and issuing ASE certification exams for technicians. My seniors take and hopefully pass an ASE student certification exam in Maintenance and Light Repair at the end of their senior year. I did not need to develop a new curriculum for the kit car we just use it as a lab module during each section of our task list. When we approached our school board about this project they were possibly more excited then I was and even helped us receive a grant that paid for the first two stages of the project.
Are you a member of NACAT? I am not a member but will probably join for the upcoming conference since it will be fairly local. During the summer I don't have a lot of time off as I also have a repair shop for side work and work as a crew member for an NHRA Top Fuel team and do a lot of traveling. I am a member of the Illinois College Automotive Instructors Association and attend 2 conferences per year with them. Their web site is
www.icaia.org if anyone is interested.
Do you read their magazine? No I do not but I have many other subscriptions for use in the classroom such as Tomorrow Technician and Motor Age
Please let me know if anyone has more questions for us.
Thank you very much.
Andy
