By: Emma Sanchez
COVID-19 has put a halt on many things, including the Academy of Architecture and Engineering (AOE).
Visalia Unified only has one engineering academy in the district. Lasting four rigorous years, students with a spark of curiosity in the field are able to learn more about what engineering entails.
During a normal school year people enrolled in this course are able to take field trips to places such as Google and be involved in different job shadowings. They are also able to sign up for competitions and use their creativity to take on hands-on projects. However, the future of this class may look a little different.
Those in the academy are known for participating in interactive projects but Mr. Brown, an AOE teacher says, “This will be hard to pull off if we cannot meet in person at all. I will soon have to think about Plan B to revamp that class in case we are still in this situation come January.” With change, comes adjustments. Being more independent will come into play for this AOE school year.
Job shadowing, is a big part of learning about the daily life of a person in the field. Mr. Brown says, “The plan at this point is to have virtual job shadowing. I am not sure logistically how that is going to be pulled off, whether a series of speakers in a particular field or mounting go-pro cameras with professionals in their workplace.”
Those in the academy will still be able to get a similar experience as they would at school. Students will be walked through an engineer’s daily life, but because of the sake of health, digitally.
He also says that the engineering department, “will start planning for field trips in the spring. These may not happen, but we cannot wait until things open up to start our planning.”
Only time can tell what the future of this class will look like. As of now it is not certain but the people in charge are attempting to do everything in their power to give students the best experience possible.
Although this is the case some students are upset with the result. Ciera Perdoza, ’23 says “It’s a little sad because I won’t be able to have great experiences with my classmates.” She also says “there were a lot of trips and other things I was looking forward to doing in the program”
Nathan Perez, ’23 on the other hand says “it’s not too big of a deal. I believe we will be able to use online resources to replicate most of the learning activities provided.”
Perez is a bit more understanding of the change and holds a positive outlook on the new school year. He says he doesn’t feel he will be missing out on too much in this class.
Tags: academy of architecture and engineering, AOE, engineering, online class