Demonstrating
Workplace Readiness Skills: Personal Qualities and People Skills
1.
Demonstrate positive work ethic.
Students had
to show up on time for school and class each day in order to successfully complete
the project. They had to overcome failures in design and fix those adversities
before they ended up with a competitive design.
2.
Demonstrate integrity.
The students
had to work with and take care of expensive equipment in the shops and computer
labs. They had to clean their work areas and put everything back where it belonged.
3.
Demonstrate teamwork skills.
The students
in Mr. Grubbs’, Mr. Altizer’s, Mrs. McMullen’s and Mr.Ozols’ classes had to
work together to achieve a final goal- building a wind turbine and then
describing the processes used to build it.
The students
in each group- Technology Education, Business Education, Electricity, and
Carpentry had to work with each other to maximize each group’s knowledge and
contribution to the final project.
4.
Demonstrate self-representation skills.
The students
on the Wind Turbine Design Team had to present their project to a panel of
judges, describe what they had done to get from an idea to a finished product,
discuss alternatives that they could have used and defend why they chose their
final design.
5.
Demonstrate diversity awareness.
The students
had to work with and accept other students who differed from them in respect to
gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status.
6.
Demonstrate conflict-resolution skills.
Combining
students from each of the four groups- electricity, carpentry, technology and
business- meant that the students had to reach consensus on virtually every
aspect of the design and promotion of the turbine. Students had to look at
other viewpoints, coming from different knowledge bases, and meld those
viewpoints into a competitive design.
7.
Demonstrate creativity and resourcefulness.
The students
in Mrs.McMullen's Business Education classes designed posters, brochures and
other promotional materials for the BCHS Wind Turbine Design Team.
The students
in Mr. Ozols’ Technology Education classes designed gears for the wind turbines
using AutoCAD and then printed them out with a 3D printer.
Demonstrating
Workplace Readiness Skills: Professional Knowledge and Skills
8.
Demonstrate effective speaking and listening skills.
The students
on the design team had to present the turbine to a panel of judges that
included university faculty and industry businessmen. They also presented the
turbine to the public at BARC’s (the local electrical cooperative) energy fair
and to educators at Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE).
9.
Demonstrate effective reading and writing skills.
The business
students developed a poster for presentations at the Virginia School Board
Association’s (VSBA) annual conference, a poster for the VSTE presentation and
flyers for the event at BARC and for VSTE.
10.
Demonstrate critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
The Wind
Turbine Design Team encountered many issues with the turbine. They had to
effectively address and correct each issue to create a turbine that worked as
efficiently as possible. The students were able to fix problems that occurred on
the competition floor at Virginia Tech in time to compete.
11.
Demonstrate healthy behaviors and safety skills.
Working in
an electrical and carpentry shop can be hazardous. The students had to follow
all of the safety rules and wear the proper safety equipment in each shop.
12.
Demonstrate an understanding of workplace organizations, systems, and climates.
Although the
students came from four different educational groups, they were able to see the
big picture- create and promote a competitive wind turbine- and worked towards that
goal.
13.
Demonstrate lifelong-learning skills.
The students
had to do active research in order to understand wind power, develop a workable
design and learn what materials would be best for the turbine.
14.
Demonstrate job-acquisition and advancement skills.
The students
on the Wind Turbine Design Team practiced their presentation skills with Kari
Sponaugle, the Virginia Tech Associate Extension Agent, 4-H Youth Development.
They improved their performance to the point where they were confident and
poised in answering all of the questions the judges asked.
15.
Demonstrate time-, task-, and resource-management skills.
The students
had to complete the wind turbines in time to compete at each event. Once the
team moved on to the Eastern United States regional competition, they had to
complete the modifications to the turbine in order to be competitive at a
higher level.
16.
Demonstrate job-specific mathematics skills.
The students
had to design the turbine to fit within a 4’X4’X4’ cube. The measurements for
the blades had to be precise as did the measurements for the angle the blade
would be placed in relative to the rotating outside enclosures of the turbine.
The gears were designed and tested to achieve an optimal gear ratio to attempt
to develop as much power as possible.
17.
Demonstrate customer-service skills.
The business
students had to develop raffle tickets that would appeal to the purchaser and
convey information about why and how the raffle tickets would help the Wind
Turbine Design Team.
Demonstrating
Workplace Readiness Skills: Technology Knowledge and Skills
18.
Demonstrate proficiency with technologies common to a specific occupation.
Mrs. McMullen’s
Business Education students used multiple business software programs in order
to develop the promotional materials needed for the Wind Turbine Design Team.
Mr. Ozols’
Technology Education students used AutoCAD software to design gears for the
turbines and then used a 3D printer to create the gears.
Mr. Altizer’s
Carpentry students used industry standard tools to craft the turbine.
Mr. Grubbs’
Electricity students used industry standard tools to craft the electrical components
of the turbine and used state of the art instruments and computers to measure
the output of the turbine.
19.
Demonstrate information technology skills.
The students
in Mrs. McMullen’s class had to decide which software would be most appropriate
for each task that they undertook. They then had to utilize that software to
maximize the impact of their final promotional products.
20.
Demonstrate an understanding of Internet use and security issues.
The students
in all four groups used the Internet to research their individual aspects of
the project. While doing so, they had to comply with BCPS technology rules.
21.
Demonstrate telecommunications skills.