College Hosts Electronics Camp for High School Students

Ninth- and 10th-grade students explored "Electronics and the Future!" during a recent four-day, three-night camp at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

The campers seven girls and 16 boys took part in a variety of hands-on workshops in the college's electronics and computer engineering technology labs, as well as in advanced manufacturing majors that play a role in electronics production.

Over the course of the workshops, the students built an electronic LED light-up device by making circuit boards in electronics, producing additional components in automated manufacturing labs, designing the casing in computer-aided product design labs, and producing the casing in the college's rapid-prototyping lab.

The students also attended workshops in plastics and polymer technology and welding technology labs, where they explored the role of those processes in producing electronic components and how electronics is used in the production processes.

The campers also visited the Center for Nanotechnology Education and Utilization at The Pennsylvania State University, where they toured the facility and participated in more hands-on workshops, learning about electronic circuitry at the nanometer (one-billionth of a meter) scale.

The campers closed their stay with a presentation from Francis "Dave" Nevill, a controls engineer for First Quality Hygienic in McElhattan and a 2009 Penn College electronics engineering technology graduate.

The camp was funded by a $10,000 grant to Penn College and its Outreach for K-12 Office from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Workforce Leadership Program, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

The goal for the Workforce Leadership Program grant is to help promote continued dual enrollment a program through which high school students earn full college credit for college courses taken during the course of their high school day which ultimately helps students to enter into technical majors at the postsecondary level.

Participants represented Bald Eagle High School, East Stroudsburg High School North, East Stroudsburg High School South, Jersey Shore Area Senior High School, Meadowbrook Christian School, Monroe Career and Technical Institute, Pleasant Valley High School, Pocono Mountain High School, Selinsgrove Area High School, State College Area High School, Sullivan County Junior-Senior High School and Williamsport Area High School.

Penn College NOW offers dual enrollment courses in electronics at several of the secondary schools and career and technology centers. High school educators who teach the courses are mentored by Penn College faculty to ensure the rigor of the classes are equal to their on-campus counterparts.

To learn more about services available to schools through the Outreach for K-12 Office, call 570-320-8003 or visit online .

For more about Penn College, visit on the Web , email or call toll-free 800-367-9222.

For more information about grant-funding opportunities, faculty and staff may contact the Grants and Contracts Office at ext. 7562 or through its Web portal.

Photos by Stacey C. Hampton, coordinator of matriculation and retention, School of Industrial and Engineering Technologies