Brandon Twp.- They could have slept in, but at 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 9, 23 Brandon High School students showed up to Room 101 of the high school. They were joined by five Brandon Middle School students.
Overseen by BHS computer teacher and part-time career tech coordinator Patrick George, the students built 28 computers for the Brandon School District. They installed hard drives, micro processors, memory, dvd drives, and video cards, all purchased by the district through career tech education funding.
‘It’s an academic enrichment project and they’ve saved the district money– thousands of dollars,? said George.
The computers built were a little under $1,000 each for the parts. George says if they had been purchased built, they would have been about $1,200 apiece.
‘The parts were handpicked so we got supercomputers,? he said. ‘It was cheaper and we also know exactly what we got.?
George was present to give instruction as needed, along with Keri Leslie, BHS computer teacher; Andrew Spiece, a BMS computer teacher and Shari Westphall, a BHS parapro who helps with the computer classes.
‘The great thing about building the computer is it takes a theoretical approach about computers and gives it a hands-on approach,? said George. ‘It takes the mystery out of it and they realize it isn’t hard. It’s literally like opening Christmas presents. We pass out the boxes and they install all the parts on their own. It’s a practical learning experience.?
Trevor DeWitt, a BHS senior who is currently taking a Visual Basic Programming class, had built computers before with George and was pleased to be doing so again.
‘I like helping other people figure out how to do stuff inside the case,? he said. ‘I’d like to do something with computers for a career. A lot of stuff I already knew how to do, but I learned about some new hardware.?
The computers were ready to be used the next day in Keri Leslie’s computer graphics and digitools classes.