CCISD program awarded $10,000 grant from Region 12

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press 

Copperas Cove High School received a $10,000 grant from Education Service Center-Region 12 Technology Foundation for its engineering program Thursday afternoon. 
The grant will be used to purchase a Mechatronics Training System to allow students in 9th and 10th grade the chance to learn about the practical and theoretical aspects of automation technology. 
The grant application was written by CTE coordinator Sandra Perry, with teacher Tim Smith serving as the project chairman. Tad Laver, another teacher at the high school, and Perry accepted the check on behalf of Smith on Thursday. 
Tad Laver explained that the project will be for the Principles of Engineering and Engineering Science classes and will prepare students with the current mechatronic (or mechanical engineering) technology that is being used in the industry now to design and build and work through manufacturing systems. Students will be able to move on through the school’s engineering program as a result. 
“Next year, basically, they’ll be in a robotics class that’s dual enrollment with the local college to basically start them on their path for success in robotics and manufacturing and engineering,” Laver said. “It’s going to be amazing.”
Laver said that this grant really helps in making this project achievable.
 “Without this grant, we’d never be able to afford the equipment that allows us to do the realistic hands-on training that they just wouldn’t have otherwise, and we are all just working on building our engineering program and trying to get more and more people of all walks of life into it,” Laver added. 
Perry said that the high school is also trying to increase the number of STEM opportunities provided to students, and a grant like this helps a lot. 
“This company that we are purchasing this equipment from, they also work with big companies like Tesla and Apple, and so we are giving our students the technology that is being used in the field,” Perry said. “This system in particular is like a conveyor belt type system that you would see in factories, and then we can also use it in conjunction with our robot arm. When they get into robotics, they can actually program them to work together, so this is something that we’re trying to get developed here at our high school and be able to provide these opportunities for our students.”
Laver also mentioned automation, which he described as programming a system to run without direct human input. 
“Engineering in general is going much more towards automation. Factories are going towards automation, and so we’re not trying to train our students to be the factory workers, but to be the designers of the factories of the future,” Laver said. 
Copperas Cove High School was one of 10 schools to receive a grant and one of 47 applicants. The Education Service Center Region 12 provides professional development and services to educators and school personnel, according to Jennifer Marshall, director of the ESC Technology Foundation. 
There are 20 ESCs in Texas. Region 12 is based in Waco and serves 12 counties and 77 school districts. The ESC Region 12 Technology Foundation was formed to allocate some of the money that ESC receives and distribute it to schools in the form of handheld technology integration programs and any sort of software activities that let kids get engaged and help them stay ngaged, Marshall said. 

The ESC Region 12 Technology Foundation does require an evaluation as a requirement of the grant, and Marshall said that she will be checking in next year to see the results of the grant and what impact it made. 
CCHS principal Dr. Jimmy Shuck said that the high school is always looking to try and keep kids familiar with the industry standard. 
“This grant is going to allow us to have kids have opportunities to be able to have experience with industry standard equipment, which is huge, and so we’re working with Central Texas College and our dual credit courses to be able to help them get on their way and be able to earn some high school credit plus college credit, plus get practical applications,” Shuck said. 
“We’re looking at industry based certifications as well that will come as a part of all of this, and so kids are going to be able to graduate high school with college hours and an industry based certification that helps prepare them to be able to leave high school and be able to go to Tesla who’s building right down in Austin and Apple and those things, and already have experience with those and give our kids an advantage over a lot of other applicants because they don’t have that practical experience. We’re excited about it. Anytime we can have partnerships with Service Centers or businesses to help our kids have a leg up on the rest of the Central Texas area, we’re all about that.”
Shuck said that CCHS has had a robotics program for the last seven years at least. 
“One of the things as you know with technology, it’s ever evolving and so this gives us an opportunity to continue to update our equipment and move some new things,” Shuck said.