Three Grade 10 students sit around a rototiller intently trying to figure out where that squeaking noise is coming from.
A group of Grade 12s hoist an old purple Volkswagen Beetle into the air and start turning wrenches underneath it.
In the corner, two students work with a tire changer peeling rubber off rim.
Across the room, a student fires up a torch and, sparks flying, begins cutting at something under a classmate’s truck.
This was the Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School’s new automotive shop on Oct. 16. But it could be basically any day in teacher Chris Leflufy’s new classroom.
The auto shop – one of two renovations at the school totalling $3 million, which includes a new gymnasium, completed last summer – is a hub of activity, a hands-on environment, and the students, for the most part, all seem to want to be there.
Robert Parma is one of the Grade 12 students working on the Beetle, a long-term project for part of the class. They’re converting it into an off-road vehicle, otherwise known as a “Baja Bug.”
“It’s going to be pretty cool,” Parma says of the Volkswagen, which belongs to wood shop teacher Shawn Meville. “We pick at it, try to get one thing done a day.”
Before the renovation and the addition of the new workshop, the auto shop and fabrication shop were the same room. It was pretty cluttered in there and the school only offered each course for half a year.
The new shop means more space and more modern tools and equipment for the students to utilize on more projects.
“We couldn’t do a lot of the stuff we can do now,” Parma explains.
“I can work on my [truck] in here now. It’s pretty nice.”
Leflufy, who also teaches power mechanics out of the new shop, is admittedly stretched a little thin with the amount of stuff going on during class, but, he adds the point of a production shop is just that – production.
“The more stuff we get done, I think the better we’re actually doing. We have almost too many things going on at once. But then, there’s always something to do.”
Lane MacKay is one of the Grade 10 students pulling apart the rototiller, a small-engine project.
“It’s making this real loud squeaking noise and we’re trying to figure it out,” MacKay explains. “I think it’s Mr. Leflufy’s.”
MacKay and a few more Grade 10 boys rank auto shop as one of their favourite classes. They’re asked if
they see themselves working with these sorts of tools or in a similar trade in the future, and there’s a lot of eager head nodding – “definitely.”
This factor isn’t lost on Leflufy.
“It’s exciting to see my students go on and work in the industries,” he says.
“There’s always talk of job shortages in all of the trades. At the
high school level ... I want to give the kids the skills that if they’re going to go on [in a trades career], they’ve got a good starting point.”