JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) - About 40 burst pipes created an interesting challenge for eight second-year students enrolled in the Northeast Arkansas Career and Technical Center’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning program.
The students spent a week fixing leaks in the center’s greenhouse after freezing temperatures blanketed Jonesboro in early January.
“As soon as we’d turn on the water, we’d find another,” HVAC instructor Robert Tucker said.
The HVAC program began three years ago to teach students to install, service and repair residential heating and air conditionsers, including window units, refrigerators and commercial and residential ice makers. There are 18 students enrolled this year.
In a two-year course, students in grades 10 to 12 can earn up to 10 hours of concurrent credit with Arkansas State University in Newport. Tucker said his course sets students up to attend post-secondary training at ASU-Newport for their contractor’s license.
The course uses a hands-on approach to instill lessons in students. Tucker starts students off with tool identification, soldering and brazing, and wiring the five electrical circuits. By the second year, students are building an eight-by-eight freezer from scratch.
This year alone the students have used their lessons to fix multiple items across campus.
They installed a two-ton system for the center’s IT room after a window unit died, fixed a commercial ice machine for the culinary arts program and replaced the greenhouse’s furnace, Jonesboro junior Chandler Perry said.
Jonesboro junior Jordan Phillips said it’s just cool that the center would rely on students and allow them to fix the items. The burst pipes alone would have been costly to contract out.
“Foremost, it gave students real-world, hands-on experience,” said Lisa Trotter, the center’s director. “That’s stuff they will be doing on the job so I think it is a wonderful experience. If contracted out, it would have cost two-thirds more than what it ended up costing.”
Trotter said, as a rule of thumb, a donation is asked of the recipient any time a program at the center does work for the center, another program or a community member. The donation is typically 30 percent of the work’s commercial cost and is used to send students to SkillsUSA competitions.
While most do not consider HVAC a luxury career, Tucker said it is a trade students can use anywhere because the need for workers will always be there. Thirty percent of his students typically go into the field.
Both Phillips and Perry hope to attend ASU-Newport. Phillips said his decision was made because because he enjoyed the work, especially installing the two-ton system and building the freezer.
Perry’s decision was impacted by family members.
“My grandpa did this as a living,” Perry said. “I figured I might like it so I gave it a shot last year, and it was fun so I decided to take it again.”
The best part is just getting to work with the various tools and units and see how it all works, Perry said.
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Information from: The Jonesboro Sun, https://www.jonesborosun.com
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