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Highlands Today

Career/Tech Education Trains Students ForThe Workplace

KATHY WATERS/Highlands Today

Senior Clarence Gochenour grinds off excess metal from a deer stand on Wednesday in building construction II class at Avon Park High School. “The building class is great,” he said. “It helps with understanding the tools and what they are and how they work and good safety tips on how to use them.

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By MARC VALERO | Highlands Today

Published: October 14, 2007

Avon Park High School senior Clarence Gochenour started small in his first year in a building construction class – making little boxes to become familiar with operating a table saw.

Now with the experience he's gained, Gochenour and his fellow advanced students, and students from Sebring and Lake Placid high schools, will tackle a much larger project — working side-by side with volunteers to build a Habitat for Humanity House.

Students constructed sheds for habitat houses last school year and will work Saturdays, starting Oct. 27, on a Habitat House in Desoto City.

The raised expectations for the students mirrors the school district's increased focus on career and technical education, which along with building construction also encompasses various other fields including: culinary arts, business systems technology, accounting, Web design, agriculture and drafting/engineering.

After high school, Gochenour plans to become a U.S. Marine and specialize in combat engineering.
"The building class is great," he said. "It helps with understanding the tools and what they are and how they work, and good safety tips on how to use them.

"Being in here ... it gives you a good understanding of what you can really do not only now in high school, but when you get out no matter what you do."

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Avon Park High sophomore Chad Marley learned to "measure twice and cut once," in class.
During the summer, while working atop a house, he learned that a job as a roofer would definitely be his third choice for a career behind engineering and woodworking.

Marley and his fellow students in the building construction class were putting the finishing touches Wednesday on storage cabinets for the girls basketball team.

Avon Park High construction technology instructor Ed Brown remembers making two swans as a seventh-grader in woodshop. He also made a wooden model of a PT boat, using finishing nails for posts, thread for a guard rail and a battery-operated light within the cabin.

"I don't think those skills helped me in industry as much as what I learned in apprenticeship school and on the job training and doing stuff like this and working with my dad on side jobs," Brown said. "Those skills that I learned in school gave me an appreciation for detail and helped me develop patience."
Now, for career and technical education, the Florida Department of Education is stressing "industry certification."

"It's real hard for me to give an industrial certification in bird house building or lamp making," Brown said.

The district's construction technology courses are following an industry-recognized certification program. Participating students are involved in curriculum from the National Center of Construction Education and Research.

"My shop is geared more toward actual job skills that they can take and make a living with," Brown said. "That's why these sheds and the housing projects are going to be really good for us."

Teaching Safety And Soffit

"Do you know what soffit material looks like?" Sebring High construction technology instructor Joe Marquart asks two students.

"No" one student responds as the other remains mum.

Marquart shows the students a piece of the material that is used to bridge the gap between a home's siding and the roofline. He explains how to cut it and later advises a student to start the soffit installation on a shed from one end and continue uninterrupted to the other end.

Some details Marquart lets the students learn by doing themselves.

A student splattered wood stain on his arms as he hammered a lid onto a quart can of stain.
Place a paper towel on top of the lid to to prevent the splatter, Marquart said and demonstrated.
Later the student asked how to remove the stain from his arms.

Read the label on the can, Marquart advised.

"Mineral spirits," the student blurted out a couple of minutes later.

Marquart said, "You've got heavy duty dose of safety."

Marquart, Brown and Lake Placid High's instructor Leroy Kaylor recently went back to school to become certified by the National Center for Construction Education and Research. They are also certified OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) Field Safety Instructors.

All three high schools received new table saws last year with the latest safety features.

It has an emergency shutoff switch that will stop the saw and drop the saw blade below the table in 1/2 a millisecond, Marquart said. Students view a safety video and take a safety test prior to using each piece of machinery in the class.

Sebring High Senior Kevin Cornine took construction technology classes each of his four years in high school. He plans to become an electrician.

Working on the sheds is just like working on a house, so if you need to repair something on your house you know exactly what to do, he said.

The skills he learned in school came in handy when he helped repair the roof drip edges at his home following the 2004 hurricane season.

"I had no familiarity with tools; I could barely use a hammer," before attending the classes, Cornine said.

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