Working directly with customers isn’t something students normally get to experience in high school classes. But the introduction of project-based learning (PBL) is changing that at some SME PRIME® (Partnership Response in Manufacturing Education) schools, bringing students into authentic, real-world business and industry contexts. Using PBL’s instructional approach — which focuses on developing new knowledge and skills through hands-on projects, exploration and student-driven inquiry — teachers challenge students to solve real-world manufacturing problems.
For the past year, SME PRIME students at Michigan’s Saline High School (SHS) have been modeling and 3D-printing various products for students with disabilities in the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD), of which SHS is a part.
For their first WISD project, SHS students designed a plastic key guard that partially covers an iPad or other mobile device, keeping users from accessing certain keys. The project was conducted just as it would have been at a business, says Trent Trout, industrial tech teacher and South & West Washtenaw Consortium computer-integrated manufacturing teacher at SHS.
Noting that the compensation SHS receives for its enterprise projects funds the competitions that its students attend, Trout says, “The money that doesn't get used toward competition, we can use toward new equipment.”
SHS’s SME PRIME students also work with Liebherr Aerospace Saline Inc. to manufacture purge caps, components used to seal pipes in order to fill them with shielding gas for welding.
“Through these different projects, students are learning different skills,” notes Trout. “They were a lot more committed because they know this is the real deal.”
Christopher Desmond, CTE engineering teacher at Hopewell High School (HHS) in Huntersville, North Carolina, agrees about the impact of PBL. “We do some more traditional lessons, but the project-based part is where everything comes to life,” he says.
Each holiday season, HHS’s SME PRIME students follow a design process and a budget to manufacture 50 personalized ornaments for area children. They also mass-produce about 150 gifts each year for Teacher Appreciation Day.
The industry project that Desmond is most excited about is one that is going to kick off in April with Alro Steel. “The students are going to work in teams to pitch [to Alro] what their price is going to be,” he says. “They're getting a real-world lesson in the need to earn this work.”
According to Desmond, PBL improves the learning experience for all participants because it provides authentic opportunities for students to apply what they have learned.
Describing his personal experiences with both traditional learning and PBL, Desmond says, “I felt like when I taught in the math realm, I was doing lessons to prepare students for a test.” On the other hand, he says PBL, which positions students’ work for an authentic assessment, is the test that “prepares you for the world.”
