Glen Lake high school students are building their future participating in the county’s only school industrial arts program.
The class holds a unique signifi cance, providing students with hands-on experiences that transcend traditional classroom learning.
Glen Lake’s first-year teacher, George Drown, is in his third district and 17th year in education, having moved to the peninsula last spring.
The industrial arts classes were introduced to provide more electives as the school switched from a six to a sevenhour day. Drown taught metalwork, welding, technology engineering, computer-aided design, CAD drafting, and woodworking, to name a few.
“I think the status quo still is to go to school K-12 then go to college,” Drown said. “What we’re finding now... there aren’t as many people out there that are in skilled trades that know how to do those types of things, so I think that’s the part of it for me is it gives the student another opportunity.”
This specialized class fosters creativity and problem-solving skills through practical projects, ranging from woodworking to metal fabrication. It not only equips students with valuable technical skills but also instills a sense of accomplishment as they witness their creations come to life.
Glen Lake offers several classes for middle school and high school students as it ramps up its industrial arts programming.
“It gives them exposure and sometimes maybe something they would have never thought they were good at or interested in all of a sudden becomes, if nothing else, a hobby,” Drown said.
Industrial Arts is studentcentered and student-focused, and hopes for more opportunities are high, according to Drown. He teaches three sections of middle school and three sections of high school, hoping to continue growing the program step-by-step. His last district, which is at least three times the size of Glen Lake, offered much more.
Right now, he is teaching “Woods One,” and the entire first marking period was spent mass-producing the same project. Students had to create a coat rack that finished around Halloween. This allowed students to be introduced to nine power tools through that one project.
“Some of them have never held a power tool in their life,” Drown said.
The next step in the class was talking about product and project design.
“So how do you come up with your own drawing and what sizes should it be?”
And as the semester is wrapping up, students are acting on those plans by making their own challenging projects.
“It becomes a series of minilessons,” Drown said. “Projects are individualized at that point.” Students are running with the program with eager attentiveness.
Senior Tyler Schettek is creating a cutting board featuring the State of Michigan. This isn’t his first project, as he’s created cornhole boards among other cutting boards.
“It’s hands-on. It’s actually useful for me,” Schettek said.
Britton Wheeler, a freshman, who is making a cutting board as well said, “I like this class because it just gives me an opportunity to use woodworking. I was never really a person to do woodworking until I started this class.”
Another senior, Joseph Rioux, was meticulously sanding the edges of an end table to make sure there are no splinters and to seal easier.
“You get to explore your creativity and see what you can do in other settings and, like, you know, just kind of see what you can build and what you want to build,” Rioux said.
