Engineering apprentices. Hamilton High School students receive national recognition for design projects thanks to revolutionary technology used by innovative minds

His classroom looks like a combination computer lab, drafting class and workshop.

Blueprints and drawings decorate the walls as students design quietly on about 20 black computers. In the corner, a door is open to the wood shop where sounds of table saws and smells of sawdust give this classroom the feel of production.

For Hamilton High School industrial arts teacher Brent Holmes, his classroom provides a great place for students to receive the vocational experience that gets them started in the world of engineering.

Holmes teaches computer-aided drafting and computer-aided manufacturing classes at Hamilton High School, and several of his students have earned national recognition for projects done under his tutelage.

More than half of the students at Hamilton High School are exposed to Holmes’ CAD/CAM class for six weeks as freshmen. After that they can take the classes all the way through their senior year, said Holmes, who has been teaching for 21 years.

“When they hit the second or third year of my class, I like them to do something big,” said Holmes as he showed past designs and pictures of student projects.

Recently two of his students, Austin Athman and Robert Hill, finished first and second place, respectively, in a national competition held by Mastercam, a CAD/CAM software producer.

by GREG LEMON – Ravalli Republic

Full Story: http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2005/11/02/news/news02.txt