New Bremen School Board Meeting was held on Dec. 14, at 7 p.m. After roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance the board members were given a demonstration of how the new technology they had purchased was going.
The school had bought two virtual welders, which helps the students practice welding without the worry of sparks, and the possibility of going blind, which has been some worries to the students in the past. Mike Heuker was in attendance to the board meeting and explained about the devices as they were demonstrated. These devices give the students the opportunity to try 12 different types of welds, they can be done from left to right or right to left, depending on the dominate hand the student is.
This has helped because before these devices students have been a little leery about welding for real in the past but also, the school had been purchasing steal plates that have gone up from $0.12 to $0.30 at about 400500 pieces a year and just scrapping them. This year there are 18-19 students in the metal class. Heuker is hoping in the future, with this app being only a year old, that there will come other angles to help the students practice doing “above head” while laying down and other angles.
It creates a muscle memory for the students that comes with welding, and the app tells you exactly what percentage the weld is at, and in what areas need to be improved on, for example steadiness, speed, and others. The over all range Heuker is looking for the students to get is 95%-96%.
