When I started teaching here in the 2000-01 school year, we made drastic shift over to mechanical drafting.  While the school had a well established CAD program, it was primarily architectural.  Since it was my experience in industry, that you are employable much sooner with a mechanical background (and that’s what MY industry time was spent in) – the shift to mechanical drafting seemed natural.   Perhaps one the things I am most proud of is the shift to include a second D in teh CADD name.  We are a Computer Aided Drafting and DESIGN class.  We design several things from scratch in my classes and as often as time and money permit, we BUILD them.  Its incredibly powerful to watch young people develop an idea from concept to production when they are passionate about it.

Because the State of Michigan wants to lure Industrial Education teachers and bolster well built Industrial Education programs, if the teacher has recent and relevant industry experience, the program can apply for CTE funding (Certified Technical Educator).  We did that in 2002 and have been building our program ever since.  We recently added our own Manufacturing Lab (in the closed Auto Shop area) and are in the process of building it up.

We run AutoCAD LT for the first year (C1).  Students spend about 6-8 weeks on the board and then move to ACAD LT.  In their second year (C2) we introduce them to SolidWorks and they begin their life in 3D.  Its simply awesome to watch them progress here.  And in their last year with me (C3) we continue with Advanced Topics in SolidWorks and students do several large scale projects – usually a full production run (20-30 pcs) of an original design (so they learn to design for production) and they end their year with a prototype/one-off project – usually vehicle related.  When they leave me, I consider them prepared for college and beyond.

 Here some examples of our projects.

Using donated components from scrapped mobility scooters, students designed a built this miniature indoor four wheeler.  With a fiberglass *tank* area and plastic body panels, it was quite a hit in the hallways.  As a communication portion of the project, we took it to the elementary school and allowed grades 1 and 2 to drive it.  We presented a summary fo the project and the manufacturing process to them.

 This project was one of our most challenging.  We used a scrapped CVT Belt drivetrain off of an old donated four wheeler.  Students wanted to try something fast and yet very different looking.  This is where we ended up.  Throttle is on the RH side of the seat as it still uses the throttle from the four wheeler and a single disk brake is operated by the foot pedal out front.  While the motor is only a 110cc , this unit, affectionately called “Trizilla” was a blast to drive. 

 The CADD 3 Milwaukee Trip in 2005

 The Hovercraft.