Beaver Lake metal shop students mix new technology with traditional tools
January 19, 2009
By Christopher Huber
As students walk into Mr. Ford’s classroom, they plop their backpacks down on tall, maple drafting desks.
They pull up their metal stools and wait for class to begin as Buddy, Ford’s pet bulldog and the school’s official mascot, paces the sides of the room.
Beaver Lake seventh grader Andrew Springer, right, tamps down the artificial molding sand as seventh grader Paul Jett helps him prepare the mold for pouring. Photo by Christopher Huber
It takes a second to notice, but a pungent odor — part molten aluminum, part burning synthetic sand — permeates the classroom. It’s coming from the direction of the roaring, red-hot kiln in the other room.
That is the smell of middle school industrial technology education.
The Issaquah School District’s only remaining full-size middle school wood and metal shop belongs to the students at Beaver Lake Middle School.
The shop is filled with band saws, table saws, workbenches, sanders and tool cabinets. And in the back sits the foundry, a place where students — with Ford’s help — pour molten metals into molds and solder together the side panels of their helicopters and CO2-powered cars.
“This is my 30th year doing it and all my kids have two eyes and 10 fingers, knock on wood,” Ford said.
Many of his students have already taken both the wood and metals electives because of the engaging projects, such as designing bridges with Model Smart, a computer program that helps students design and test the structures before building them, and pouring the molds for aluminum car wheels.
“I sweat more in here than in PE,” said seventh grader Jamie Thorgalsen as he worked on his sheet metal helicopter. “I’m good with my hands, so I just love it.”
This course is one-of-a-kind in this area because it incorporates new technology — mostly for project design — with the traditional metal shop equipment — the blowtorch and solder wire, the metal lathe.
“By designing their own transportation project from scratch, there are never two projects alike,” Ford said in an email. “Many times when they are developing their project, it stretches me by helping them make their plan work.”
The students spend about 55 minutes each day measuring dimensions, electronically testing load capacity, grinding axel rods, pounding the metal flat, bending it into the right form and painting it.
The end result is an engineered, precision-crafted project, made by a 13-year-old.
“When I went to school, you’d cast a foundry and hang it on the wall,” Ford said.
Seventh graders like Erik Cho and Kian Tingey appreciate the mental and technical challenges of the metal and shop classes.
“You have to have everything perfect,” Tingey said about building a bridge.
Cho said he might consider applying the skills he learns here to a career path, but overall, just enjoys working with his hands.
“It looks easy, but it’s really hard,” he said.
Ford is one of the few remaining shop teachers in the Sammamish area to work with traditional metals technology in addition to teaching wood tech and drafting classes.
Pine Lake is the only other middle school in the Issaquah district that still offers wood shop classes, and Inglewood Junior High, in the Lake Washington School District, only offers woodworking in its industrial technology course, according to officials from both districts.
“We don’t have the traditional metal shop anymore in our district,” said Brad Stolz, LWSD director of teaching and learning.
All three high schools in the ISD have various metal shop projects offered in their materials science and welding labs, said Sara Niegowski, ISD director of communications.
Ford also teaches directed exploratory and wood tech classes to sixth-eighth graders.
“When I was in eighth grade, I knew I wanted to be a shop teacher, so I took as many shop classes as I could,” Ford said.
He’s been teaching the classes since Beaver Lake opened 13 years ago, and has spent his 30-year career in Issaquah schools. He taught metal and wood tech at Maywood Middle School for the first 15 years of his career, before spending two years at Pine Lake Middle School.
The Lake Washington district does offer similar courses at the high school level, Stolz said, such as Sci-Ma-Tech, in which students incorporate science, math and technology to design and create bridges and cars, etc.
At Beaver Lake, students work on their bridge projects for wood tech class as the freshly poured aluminum cools between blocks of molding sand. It will soon take the shape of wheels.
And as they work, some of them realize they have an opportunity other students around the district don’t.
“We’re lucky to be in here,” Thorgalsen said.
Some of the greatest aspects of teaching metals technology class are the life skills students take away, as well as teaching safety. But he also appreciates students’ enthusiasm for the class.
“They always say, ‘This is so cool!’ I reply, ‘Actually, it’s very hot,’” Ford said. “I enjoy watching the kids’ problem solve, create and show pride in a job well done.”
Reporter Christopher Huber can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or at chuber@isspress.com.
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[...] Beaver Lake metal shop students mix new technology with …Seventh graders like Erik Cho and Kian Tingey appreciate the mental and technical challenges of the metal and shop classes. “You have to have everything perfect,” Tingey said about building a bridge. … [...]