During the past school year about 2000 students at three Tennessee High Schools got a first hand look at advanced manufacturing technologies through a cooperative program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12, and the Tennessee Department of Education. 

Students at Page High School in Franklin, North Side High School in Jackson, and Sullivan East High School in Blountville learned hands-on skills in the Mobile Manufacturing Learning Center during its stay at these schools. Students used the computer-integrated manufacturing devices, including robots, milling machinery, a conveyor, a computer, and computer-integrated manufacturing software, all operating on a local computer network in the center. 

Jackie Bennett, a principles of technology teacher at Page High School said students who participated in the Mobile Manufacturing Learning Center experience were very excited about the program. "Some of the kids were kind of scared of robotics when they heard about the program. But when they worked with it and saw what it could do, they were very excited. It helped them see what the real world is like. I explained to them that it used to be that a worker could make something by hand; now that product is produced through computer-aided design.  The worker tells the computer how and what to make. This taught them that you have to work with your head and your hands. The experience made a big difference to 95 percent of the students who participated," Bennett said. 

Students at the three schools used the laboratories in the center in a step-by-step process to work through 13 different levels of manufacturing technology, from design to final product. The objectives of the center are to create awareness of career opportunities in design and manufacturing; to help build an employee base from which high-technology industry can draw; to increase opportunities in Tennessee that will help keep highly skilled young workers and their abilities in the state; and to contribute effectively to the building of a competitive manufacturing base for Tennessee and the nation. 

Joe Toy, an applied physics and chemistry teacher at North Side High School, said the experience had an overwhelmingly positive response. "We had about 730 students through the center program. Many of them expressed an interest in engineering or similar careers after that. We only wish we had more time to use the center," Toy said. 

William Sprinkle, an advanced placement physics teacher at Sullivan East High School, said the experience with the manufacturing center "went great." "We had perhaps 100 students from East who worked every day in the lab for a week or more. We also had perhaps 800 students, from East and other schools, including Upward Bound students and gifted students, who were taken through the center to watch it work. We tried to reach a wide spectrum of students—and they all enjoyed it. We received a lot of very positive feedback from the state Department of Education," Sprinkle said. 

In addition to the computer-integrated system, teaching modules feature quality control using precision measuring techniques; programmable controllers to teach practical relationships between computer programming and electrical and mechanical controls; and basic pneumatics and hydraulics modules for lessons on valves, actuators, and process control instruments. 

In the 1994–1995 school year, the Mobile Manufacturing Leaning Center will be going back to Sullivan East and then to Rutledge High School, Pickett County High School, Chattanooga Howard High School, and Trezvant/Frazier High School in Memphis. 
 
   

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