Feb. 26--FORD CITY -- Students in Steve Kalnik's metal shop classes at Ford City High School needed a wee bit o' luck, some heart and a whole lot of skill and hard work to make holiday decorations for their community.

The students had the right amount of each.

That's why when local officials wanted decorations built for use around the town's clock tower at the end of Ford Street, they called on the school's metal shop program to deliver the goods.

For their first project, the students in grades eight through 12 designed and fabricated hearts for Valentine's Day. Now they're making shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.

"There's a lot of guesses and checks," Alex Mauk, a 10th-grader in the metal technology class in the high school's industrial tech program, said of making the designs. "You play with the sizes, do some bending, put everything you can into it and if you're lucky, it shapes up into something good."

The sparks were flying in a corner of the metal shop where Dylan Piper-Stitt, a 10th-grade student, was busily grinding down his welds to make a smooth finish on a shamrock.

"You try to picture it out how you want it to look," Piper-Stitt said.

Tenth-grader Justin Knox was turning the handle on a machine that bends the quarter-inch rolls of steel rod used for the project.

"We're doing some shaping, rough guessing and second guessing," Knox said.

Nick Opalka, a 10th-grader, explained how the class used a MIG (metal inert gas) welder to connect the shaped pieces of steel together into one design.

Kalnik put his students to work on the project as soon as borough officials came to him with the idea.

He had his students figure the amount of material needed -- the borough supplied the material, work on a design sized to fit the clock tower and left them to do the final design and fabrication.

They had to put to use skills learned in the classroom such as pattern making, bending metals and welding. A little painting and the job was almost done.

Blending in other industrial arts programs, Kalnik had the power technology class students wire the finished decorations to light them up.

"We try to be resourceful in using all in-house people to make things," Kalnik said. "We tie everything together. The kids like working together on projects. They keep working on it, make changes and learn from what they're doing. It's problem-solving challenges and exposure to real-life situations that they're learning."

"It builds self-esteem and values, especially when they know it will be appreciated, needed and they can see their work out there in the public," he said.

Kalnik believes working on projects such as this one helps his students decide on careers.

"We lose some of them to the tech school (Lenape) but that's good because we know we are doing our job," Kalnik said. "That means they're finding careers."

Mauk likes the work he's doing in the classroom.

"It's almost like having a job," Mauk said. "Except you're not getting paid, you're learning. You're just doing your work."

Students and teachers agree on one thing.

"We want, and need, more and more-modern equipment for the classroom," they all said. "More technology implemented into industrial materials," Kalnik added.

The idea for the students to make the town's decorations came from the borough's office staff of Lisa Bittner, Patty Hornyak and Cassandra Klimkowicz.

"It's good for the community," they said. "It's nice to see and the kids get to see the work they've done and to say they helped make it."

Mitch Fryer can be reached at mfryer@tribweb.com or 724-543-1303, ext. 1342.

-----

To see more of The Leader-Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Leader-Times, Kittanning, Pa.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.