Minuteman High School Awarded Grant to Purchase Virtual Training Simulation Systems to Help Students Learn Welding

By Judy Bass

Minuteman High School in Lexington has been awarded a competitive state grant of $59, 940 to purchase three training simulation systems for students learning welding. These high-tech systems will enhance instruction in three programs: Metal Fabrication & Joining Technologies, Freshman Exploratory and Advanced Manufacturing. Advanced Manufacturing is a new program that will start being phased-in during the 2016-17 school year.

“This is very exciting,” noted Michelle Roche, Director of Career and Technical Education at Minuteman.

“This equipment will add a brand new technology to our program and go a long way toward improving the efficiency of our welding instruction,” stated Richard V. Parsons, chairman of the Program Advisory Committee of the Metal Fabrication & Joining Technologies program at Minuteman.

This state-of-the-art equipment is expected to have numerous benefits for the school and for an anticipated total of 182 students annually in these career and technical education programs. That number should increase after Advanced Manufacturing is fully phased in.

These machines provide a sophisticated virtual simulation of what it’s like to actually do welding. Students using the machines wear a welder’s helmet and have an extremely realistic experience that is safe, educational, and utilizes fewer material resources - and thus is far less expensive to Minuteman - than the process of doing welding.

There are other pluses as well. By using simulators, the potential for students to sustain burns and eye injuries, both of which are ever-present dangers in welding, is eliminated; electrical consumption and hazardous gas emissions from welding are lessened or eliminated; students tend to respond enthusiastically to the virtual aspect of these simulators, which reminds them of the video games they enjoy playing and can make the welding profession seem exciting and modern to them; and teachers can more effectively train students, track their progress, more accurately pinpoint their errors and improve the quality and extent of the feedback students receive. In addition, the simulator itself provides immediate feedback on how well the student has done.

These welding simulators are designed to bring the Metal Fabrication & Joining Technology program, along with Freshman Exploratory and the as-yet-to-be-implemented Advanced Manufacturing program, into line with Minuteman’s aim of always giving its students the finest 21st-century education available.

Minuteman is an award-winning regional high school that gives its graduates a competitive edge in the new global economy by providing them with a high-quality career and technical education, coupled with a rigorous grounding in mathematics, English, science, and social studies. At Minuteman, students can currently major in 19 career and technical education programs at the same time they take challenging academic courses, similar to those in traditional academic high schools. Minuteman offers a wide selection of academic courses and programs.