Elizabeth Forward Middle School: Students in manufacturing video contest

By CHRISTINE HAINES

chaines@yourmvi.com

A group of Elizabeth Forward Middle School students worked a bit of technological magic to produce this year’s entry for the annual “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing” video contest.

The statewide contest was created by the Manufacturers Resource Center in Allentown, Pa., in 2013. Amy Duschek, the gifted and enrichment education teacher who coordinated the contest at Elizabeth Forward Middle School, said the idea is to give students an opportunity to learn about the different types of careers available in manufacturing, including areas such as engineering and design.

“It’s to introduce the kids to manufacturing and give them exposure to these types of careers,” Duschek said.

The students produce profiles of different manufacturing facilities in the region each year. Usually they go to the companies, conduct interviews and videotape aspects of the operation. Duschek said that wasn’t possible this year because of the pandemic.

“I couldn’t believe they still had the competition this year because that’s an awful lot of obstacles for the kids,” she said. “I give the kids a lot of credit. They put this together with next to nothing. They learned software they’ve never used before. They couldn’t meet in person. Despite the number of challenges they had this year, they still wanted to do this.

“Even when we came back to school, they were in different grades and attending on different days depending on their last names.”

To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Saturday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.