BRATTLEBORO — Brian Tyler of A.L. Tyler & Sons in Brattleboro recently built and donated a portable wiring trainer for Windham Regional Career Center's electricity program. The trainer allows for multiple student use in the instruction of residential and commercial wiring.
According to WRCC electricity instructor David Hotin, the trainer “is very well built and is a real improvement over our current system” and will serve as an excellent model for future mock-ups.
Tyler, who serves on Hotin's advisory committee, said he was happy to meet this need and that he expects the trainer will help prepare students for rewarding careers in the field.
Hotin describes his course as giving students a broad understanding in the theory and safe application of electricity, electronics, and electronic systems. Topics include Ohm's law, alternating and direct current, circuit building and troubleshooting, audio systems, semiconductors, residential wiring, and advanced soldering techniques.
[Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points.]
The curriculum is part of WRCC's STEM program, for science, technology, engineering, and math, and is part of a national initiative to improve competitiveness in technology and workforce development.
Moreover, WRCC and Brattleboro Union High School are launching a STEM academy for the next school year with an engineering “strand” that will include electricity among its course options.
Offerings will include architecture, civil engineering, computer-integrated manufacturing, digital electronics, fiber optics, and robotics.