Schools in the News

Students Embark Upon Unique Opportunity at Keokuk County Career Academy

Posted: Sep 08, 2010, By Robin Handy, Keota Eagle

The Keokuk County Career Academy (KCCA), a several hundred-thousand dollar project, opened its doors in late spring of 2010 and is located on the east side of the Sigourney Junior/Senior High School campus at 907 E. Pleasant Valley St. It is the direct result of the innovative thinking and collaborative efforts between Sigourney Community School District Superintendent Todd Abrahamson, the Keokuk County Consortium (including Sigourney, English Valleys, Keota, Pekin and Tri-County school districts), Project Lead the Way (via Sigourney Community School District) and Indian Hills Community College (IHCC).

Students of the Keokuk County Consortium (KCC) have access to a unique opportunity at the Career Academy. They are able to train and develop the highly coveted skills needed to compete successfully in the demanding as well as emerging job market via Career Connections and Project Lead the Way and obtain a head start in their college education, all while attending high school at home.

Career Connections is an emerging dynamic partnership between IHCC and KCC high schools. High school juniors and seniors are able to earn college credit by enrolling in courses taught at the KCCA or on an Indian Hills campus. Freshmen and sophomores are also able to enroll in Project Lead The Way courses. Career Connections features career-focused college credit courses offered at no charge to the student or their family. The Keokuk County Career Academy offers programs in Associate Degree Nursing, Information Technology, Machine Technology, Practical Nursing and Welding.

Career Connection students are taught by IHCC professors/instructors with professional experience in their field of choice.

For the full story, see the September 8, 2010 print edition of The Keota Eagle.

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Like Something Out of a Sci-Fi Movie

Posted: Aug 25, 2010 01:16 PM CDT, KPTH News

Earlier this summer we introduced you to a handful of Project Lead the Way students hired as interns at Beef Products Incorporated.

It’s the third year BPI has offered the internships.

And, this year’s students had the opportunity of a lifetime.

The sound of beep, beep, beep fills the air.

 ”They’re running on like an invisible track.  It’s pretty cool.  It’s like something out of a science fiction movie,” says intern Ian Curtis.

Inside BPI this summer the company implemented what’s called an Automated Guided Vehicle System…sort of like a small fleet of automated train carrying cargo within a portion of BPI’s 400 million dollar expansion project.

8 Sioux City High School students not only got a front row seat to watch, but internships to play an active role.

BPI Human Resources Manager Jen Horken says, ” There’s a lot of projects going on at any one time at BPI and sometimes we need some outside eyes to come in, especially on a project such as this and say ok ‘here’s your focus’, what can you help us with here.  What aren’t we thinking about?”

Intern Madison Moss tells us,  “It is completely covered in sensors and it’s got like a communication system.  It communicates with the other vehicles as well.  So it knows where each vehicle is in the system.”

It is an exceptional opportunity for students of Project Lead the Way.

“It’s pretty rare to bring in anywhere from 15 to 18 year old students and say here’s this huge engineering project that normal college students or even some adults who have graduated with the education to be engineers don’t get to partake in,” Horken says.

“It’s amazing where our society is going and the advancements we’re making.  It’s crazy to think of what could happen in the future if they’ve got these running now,” Moss says.

And these interns could well be part of that surging wave of future technology…as they get a jump start on a career in engineering.  Daryl Harrison is the Head Teacher of Industrial Technology for Sioux City Schools.

Harrison tells us,  “Where else?  Who else could give them that kind of experience at this age and at this point in their engineering ‘want to be’ career?  BPI and their cooperation with Project Lead the Way, I can’t tell you how cutting edge that is in education.”

The sound of beep, beep, beep on the Automated Guided Vehicles  fills the air.

The sound of moving forward, as the bright lights of inspiration flash in students minds, after a summer spent experiencing what is best learned firsthand. 

Project Lead the Way is a joint effort between Sioux City Schools, Beef Products Incorporated, Western Iowa Tech, and Fox 44 TV.

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