Today Jerry met with me to go over my ideas for my project: virtual tour/gallery walk. I started looking at the template for the lesson plan and getting together the basic info needed for it.
After lunch Jerry took us to the Industrial Park section of Sanford. We went to the Innovation Center, which is a training center for Central Carolina Community College (C4). We toured the welding room, where students learn through a simulator, learn how to train robots to weld and also get a hands on for welding without wasting too much steel. The camera is in the welding helmet part of the Lincoln Electric Vrtex 360 machine. Southern Lee High also has an apprentice program with Caterpillar Jerry was telling us about. We saw the simulated work environment (SWE), which is a sample floor factory. A industrial skills lab with hydraulics, a PLC, electrical program, and a synchronize CAM machine. I was telling Jerry that in NC-Science, air pressure is not taught in high school. We saw the 2 forklifts for training, every plant requires operation certification of these machines. They also offer blueprint reading at this facility. C4 outreaches to Chatham, Lee and Harnett counties. I picked up at least 30 job flyers, I can use them for a career activity with my students! Jerry then drove us around Industrial Park, an area of the Sanford community that has MANY businesses.
