Students learn about chosen fields during Explore Week

Published 7:29 am Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Ryan Pratt thought he was interested in becoming an engineer, but after spending four days with a professional at Shaw Industries, he said he’s even more sure of it.

“We explored a bunch about the engineering career, and I worked on a project about a steam plant,” Pratt said. “I learned a lot about engineering and that it is a career that I want to actually invest in.”

Pratt, who attends Dalton High School, was one of 14 juniors from area schools who spent the first four days of last week shadowing and learning from someone in their chosen fields as part of Explore Week. Explore is a first-time effort spearheaded by the Dalton-Whitfield County Joint Development Authority (JDA) and Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools.

Barbara Ward, work force development director for the JDA, said organizers plan to open the opportunity to more students in Explore Weeks planned for March and April. The idea grew out of more than a year of Archway Partnership discussions community leaders have held about the need for bettering the community through in part by introducing students to the wide variety of careers available to them in area industries.

Ward said she was able to talk with teachers in Texas about how they implemented something similar.

“I went to a tech prep conference in Dallas about five years ago and learned about a school out there doing (an Explore Week),” Ward said. “When I retired from Dalton High, I saved that (information).”

Dalton High junior Eddie Leon said he learned a lot about the manufacturing process from his week with Shaw where he got to see programmable logic computers, or PLCs, at work in the automated manufacturing process, as well as view the inside of plants.

“It was a great experience just to see that,” said Leon.

Butch Hicks, an engineering manager at Shaw and Pratt’s mentor for the week, said experiences like Explore Week weren’t as widely available when he was in school.

“They get some of the advanced math classes earlier in high school, and they have a lot more (engineering) electives available to them than when I was in high school,” he added. “The value (of Explore Week) is showing them that what they’re learning in high school is critical to being ready for college, and that even after college, as an engineer, you’re going to go back and use what you learned in high school.”

Ward said the JDA and local schools are working to create more work-based learning opportunities for students in elementary and middle school.

“We want to help them make their decisions before they get to that point (of being a senior in high school),” she said.