Students show 'what's so cool' about manufacturing
Students at Butler Intermediate High School are learning “what's so cool” about manufacturing.
Over the course of a few months, the eighth-grade students are meeting with workers from material producers, Ellwood City Forge and MECCO.
Students in the school's enrichment studies program have spoken with workers about their jobs, and then teamed up to make videos answering the question, “What's so cool about manufacturing?”
“The goal is to partner middle schools with local manufacturers,” said Breit Cochran, an eighth-grade history teacher at Butler Intermediate. “Students visit the manufacturers and interview people there.”
The videos are submitted to the “What's so cool about manufacturing?” contest, which is hosted annually by Pittsburgh-based economic development agency Catalyst Connection through the Manufacturers Resource Center. The agency aims to teach students about employment opportunities in manufacturing.
Butler Intermediate students entered one video about both companies they interviewed.
People can view and vote for their favorite on Catalyst Connection's website starting Monday. Voting ends April 25.
Catalyst Connection will announce winners in several categories in a virtual awards ceremony at 6:30 p.m. April 28.
Scott Dietz, director of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) initiatives for Catalyst Connection, said 19 teams from Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties submitted videos this year, despite much of the process being completed virtually.
Many of the videos are viewed by students in the community, which helps promote opportunities in manufacturing jobs.
“It's flipping the marketing game on its head,” Dietz said. “Let's let the kids tell us what they think is cool about manufacturing and have the videos as marketing tools for their peers.”
Cochran said his students spoke with workers via Google Meet, which is also how they made the videos.
“The video is focused not only on what the company does, but the opportunities that manufacturing gives to people,” Cochran said. “Start to finish, there are so many lessons.”
In addition to learning about what manufacturers do, Cochran said, they also got a taste of professional skills as well.
“They were learning valuable skills for any career path,” Cochran said. “They learned to organize thoughts, write things down in a cohesive manner, communicate with others, organize their time and get practical experience that help people in a lot of different careers.”
Cochran said Butler Intermediate has won several awards in previous entries for the contest, including the viewer's choice award. The videos will be available Monday at whatssocool.org, where people can also vote as many times as they would like.
