{"id":8239,"date":"2015-11-15T18:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T01:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=8239"},"modified":"2015-11-20T09:24:31","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T16:24:31","slug":"education-turns-real-for-tech-school-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/investment-in-new-mexico\/education-turns-real-for-tech-school-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Education Turns Real for Tech School Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Interim State Director, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Technology<\/a>

Technology Leadership High School students during the Sandia Science and Technology Park Manufacturing Day 2015 tour<\/p><\/div>\n

Like her classmates at Technology Leadership High School in Albuquerque, Paola Rodriguez always wondered what went on behind the doors of neighboring businesses in the Sandia Science and Technology Park. On Oct. 30, the 16-year-old freshman and about 60 other students and six teachers satisfied that curiosity on a tour organized by the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership as part of Manufacturing Day \u2014 a national celebration of American manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese buildings are all around you \u2014 businesses with names like \u2018Air Products\u2019 \u2014 and you wonder what they do,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cI was very curious.\u201d<\/p>\n

That interest in the larger world and a desire for interactive learning drew Rodriguez away from a traditional high school to the tech-oriented public charter school, which opened just this year in Sandia Science and Technology Park with support from the city\u2019s tech, startup and entrepreneurial industries.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s mission is to develop future innovators and technology leaders by providing an immersive educational environment where students apply science and math knowledge to projects that solve real-world problems or create new products. Rather than learning from lectures and textbooks, students at Technology Leadership do things like use algebra to write code for animated games, for instance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it really opens students\u2019 minds about what technology means \u2014 not just smartphones and computers, but making<\/em> something,\u201d said Velana Chavez, the school\u2019s director of community engagement. \u201cWe provide the \u2018why,\u2019 the relevance element, through projects, and we embed (educational) content in those projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

That approach made the school a natural fit for Manufacturing Day. This annual event aims to inspire young people to embrace careers in engineering, technology and science by showing them what modern manufacturing is and the skills and education required for a career in this bedrock American industry. Chavez said Manufacturing Day tour organizers invited the school to participate \u201cand it was good to be recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n

On tour day, students and their teachers split into three groups that rotated among the host manufacturers, all of which are within walking distance of the school. Businesses hosting tours in the industrial park were Air Products and Chemicals, TEAM Technologies and the QC Group.<\/p>\n

Air Products was Rodriguez\u2019s favorite stop. It began with a meeting, where managers explained the history of the 75-year-old company based in Pennsylvania. Air Products supplies industrial gases and equipment and chemicals to a variety of industries worldwide, but Rodriguez was particularly intrigued by the tubular forms she saw being created there. \u201cI was interested in becoming a nurse, but now I\u2019m thinking about Air Products and what they do. We should do another trip there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The relationship between the math and science fundamentals she learns at school and a career in engineering and manufacturing isn\u2019t obvious at first, Rodriguez said, but the Manufacturing Day tours clarified that association. \u201cThere is a connection,\u201d she said, \u201cbut you don\u2019t see it right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manufacturing Day is celebrated annually in New Mexico during the first week of October. For more information, visit mfgday.com or contact New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership at 505-314-9131.<\/p>\n

Download 424_Education Turns Real for Tech School Students<\/a>\u00a0PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Interim State Director, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership Like her classmates at Technology Leadership High School in Albuquerque, Paola Rodriguez always wondered what went on behind the doors of neighboring businesses in the Sandia Science and Technology … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8239"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8252,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239\/revisions\/8252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}