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Precision Plus Delves into Remote Problem Solving and Instruction

Michael Reader

Barry Butters, Director of Education and Training at Precision Plus, teamed with Elkhorn Area High School’s Project Lead The Way (PLTW ) teacher Fred Ganter to give his Introduction to Engineering and Design (IED) students a chance to reverse engineer some obsolete components.

The premise of the project was that if an older machine had a component fail and a replacement component was no longer available, then a component replacement would have to be machined. To machine the component a print would be needed.

The students were broken into groups and assigned components to first sketch and then measure. The students then used Autodesk CAD Inventor software to model the components and finally develop a working print of the part.

Throughout the project, however, teams had a chance to interact and be coached remotely by Barry Butters, who is a certified PLTW Engineering Design and Development (EDD) instructor. He regularly logged in, in real time, into the system in order to view and discuss the progress of the projects with each individual team.

Elkhorn Area High School Students and Precision Plus Visit Wisconsin’s SkillsUSA Competition at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin

Michael Reader

Students from Elkhorn Area High School, advisor Fred Ganter (pictured on the far right), and Barry Butters of Precision Plus visited the Wisconsin SkillsUSA competition, which was held at the Alliant Energy Center on April 30, 2014. Precision Plus sponsored the transportation of the group. This was an important event for the students, as they are looking into participating in the robotics competition next year.

Butters also had the opportunity to go to Madison Area Technical College where the SkillsUSA Machining Competition took place.

One June 23-27, 2014, the 50th Annual SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Championships will take place in Kansas City, Missouri.  Last year, the keynote speaker at the conference was Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs.  Click here to watch the keynote address on YouTube.

The SkillsUSA promotional video below, summarizes the essence of the conference and the movement.