Tech education is not your father's wood shop class anymore.
That's what Gateway teachers Mike Chalus and Steve Reese hope to drive home to students and parents alike as they walk through the technology education rooms at Gateway Middle School -- rooms that include everything from power tools and clamps to computers and an engraving machine that uses a laser to etch designs on surfaces from leather to steel.
"It's not just drilling a hole in balsa wood but ... looking at the whole process," Reese said. "It's not just building a project and that's it."
"They (students) have to research, plan, lay out and create," Chalus said.
That process includes mass production, graphic design, advertising, writing, math and science.
Students get the chance to design and build such varied things as a beach chair with Gateway's coat of arms or a carbon dioxide-driven balsa wood car.
Tech education is already offered at Gateway High School, but both teachers said having the program in a middle school is a good way to get students involved early.
They want to start an engineering club at the middle school.
"College is so expensive now, you don't want to waste any time," Chalus said.
Both teachers are making the push for technology education as demand for people with expertise in science and math, particularly engineering, is expected to increase over the coming years.
Students who are just getting a feel for what they may want to do for a career like the opportunity the class gives them to try new things.
Adam Salandro, 13, of Monroeville, who wants to run his own business, enjoyed the chance to design a wooden dime hockey game.
"It's really hands-on," he said. "You get to use different machines and you get to be creative."
Erin Polnar, 14, also of Monroeville, likes that the class has elements that she wouldn't usually get to work with in a typical classroom setting, including the laser engraver, which Gateway believes is the only one in a middle school in Pennsylvania.
"It's just cool to watch," she said. "I like that you can work with things that you don't usually do."
Some projects and programs that Chalus and Reese hope to bring together include having students build and race a soap box derby car in a competition.
Members of Monroeville Area Chamber of Commerce have contributed money and materials for supplies and building projects.
