SVMS 8th grader Kathleen Lohr
By: Kathleen Lohr- 8th grader at Saucon Valley Middle School
“What’s So Cool About Manufacturing” is a contest made to teach students about the amazing processes that are used while manufacturing products we see and use everyday. This contest was created in 2012 to promote and encourage students to take part in a career that is overlooked as something they wouldn’t aspire to pursue. I had the opportunity, along with my fellow classmates, to take part in this contest and learn about the manufacturing process. We learned countless things, not only about the manufacturing process, but also about the people who contribute to it and how we don’t realize its effect on our everyday lives. For our video, we took a one day trip to Solar Technologies to film, learn, and experience the process.
Seconds after walking into Solar Technologies, my idea of what I had imagined would be a dirty workplace transformed into a fast-paced, efficient, and safe environment. All of the employees working at Solar Tech were equipped with necessary materials to keep them safe while doing their jobs. Not only do they make products that improve safety on the road, they also exhibit safety in their workplace. While at Solar Tech, I learned that manufacturing takes a lot more than knowing how to operate a machine. Everyone who steps into the workplace has to know how to safely manage the machines and have the proper equipment to keeps himself and others safe.
After spending the day at Solar Technologies, we had hours of video and hundreds of pictures that had to be cut down into a two minute and thirty second video. It took hours of hard work in the morning and staying late after school. We learned that working together was a vital part of this project. Sitting down together and passing ideas back and forth helped improve our video quality and helped make sure we met the time limit. Teamwork was not only a major part of creating our video, but it helped connect us to the teamwork that goes on everyday at Solar Tech. The hardest part of the video was making it in a way that did more than teach people about the manufacturing process. We worked hard to convey the major role of safety that Solar Tech provides in a way that makes it interesting to the audience. As a group, we believe we overcame this challenge and created a video that would interest and inspire everyone about the amazing work that goes into manufacturing.
Please vote to help support our team! (You can vote more than once)
Voting for the contest starts Wednesday, Feb. 21 and ends Friday, Feb. 23.
Click here to see our video and vote!
Thank you to the Manufacturing Resource Center in Allentown, PA for providing this awesome experience for us and the many sponsors for supporting us.