Rockwood students put skills to use making chamber of commerce awards and more
ROCKWOOD ― Students from Joe Kush’s Life Skills Technology Class at Rockwood Area High School put their knowledge and skills together to make plaques for the Somerset County Chamber of Commerce.
This is the third year students in the Functional Life Skills have been commissioned to make award plaques for the Somerset County Chamber of Commerce Award Gala. This year, the students, Dylan Coho, Jacob Collier, Jonathan Walden, Savana Bittner and Rachael Polak, manufactured nine awards.
"We have been honored to have our Life Skills Technology class create and manufacture the chamber of commerce awards," said Mark Bower, superintendent, in an email. "Our students' real-world life experiences through the project's completion have been quite valuable. The district is proud of the care, hard work, and dedication of these talented students, under the direction of their teachers."
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The students use the woodworking equipment, including the radial arm saw, jointer, table saw, planer, table router, and random orbit sanders, to make the plaques from rough-cut poplar lumber. Some of the students can operate the equipment independently, and the other students can do it with hand-over-hand guidance.
"In 2022, Mrs. Sharon Clapper who was connected to the Somerset Chamber of Commerce suggested that the students at Rockwood could make the plaques," said Joe Kush, engineering and technology teacher at the Rockwood School District, in an email. "Mrs. Clapper has been a fantastic advocate for the Engineering & Technology program at the Rockwood School District and she has opened many opportunities for my students."
In another partnership with the chamber, the class will refurbish wooden advertising signs and holders. Students will sand, paint and create new vinyl lettering for the signs.
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"The Functional Life Skills class has a flexible curriculum and I knew that this project was a good fit for them. The chamber gave me enough lead time for the due date for the project so that the FLS students could work on this in between our other hands-on learning activities," Kush said. "The students and I worked on a design for the plaques that featured the outline of Somerset County and the chamber's logo. We sent a prototype for approval to Ron Aldom, the director of the chamber of commerce. According to an old email that I found, Mr. Aldom was impressed with the quality of the product and we have been commissioned to make the plaques ever since.
"The students completed about 90% of the work on the project themselves using a variety of woodworking equipment. Some of the machine operations like the radial arm saw and the jointer we did hand over hand and with direct guidance so that the students were always safe. Other operations such as using the planer, router, and random orbit sander, I demonstrated how to use the tool and with a bit of guidance, the students could use it independently."
Other projects
In addition to woodworking projects, the students maintain a drink and a snack vending machine. They are responsible for stocking the machine, counting money from the machines and making orders with help.
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Another job that the school students do is to maintain the paper recycling bins throughout the building.
Periodically, students remove the recycled paper from the bins and put the paper into feed sacks. The feed sacks are then taken to the back room of the high school library for storage. Once enough sacks of recycled paper accumulate, the Somerset County Workshop Shred Express picks up the paper and takes it to their venue for processing.
"In addition to making the plaques, students help build Rockwood's first-place entry in the Christmas design contest hosted by Somerset Inc., maintain two vending machines in the school, and participate in the Shred Express paper recycling program," Kush said.
Students work on building the Christmas display project in October and November, and other community or school-based projects. Students also help with the process of updating the roster board names with vinyl lettering for the high school gymnasium boys and girls volleyball and basketball teams.
"Teaching the class is a team effort. Ms. Megan Berkebile took over for Mrs. Dana Weimer, who was a co-teacher for many years and retired at the end of the last school year," Kush said. "Ms. Berkebile is doing a great job encouraging the students to do their best. In addition, two educational support aids, Mrs. Becky Saylor and Mrs. Lacey Snyder who work hand in hand with the students."
Berkebile is a Rockwood High School Life Skills teacher. Saylor and Snyder are Rockwood paraprofessionals.
"This class is one of the joys of my day," Kush said. "The students are eager to participate in whatever activity that I have planned. I have had most of the students since seventh grade and it is great to see their skills and abilities grow through their senior year."
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Rockwood students put skills to good use in variety of projects
