On Thursday Nov 2, Solar Technology welcomed a group of eighth graders from Saucon Valley Middle School who are participating in the “What’s So Cool about Manufacturing?” contest. The contest’s objective is to change students’ perceptions about manufacturing careers. The students and teacher coaches use video equipment to film at the manufacturing plant and learn to script, record, and edit their videos.

Each team produces a 2-3 minute video for the Lehigh Valley regional contest. The contest is sponsored locally by the Manufacturers Resource Center (more info at www.WhatsSoCool.org). Online voting will determine a regional winner. The videos will be shown February 27^th at the awards ceremony at ArtsQuest in Bethlehem.

The Saucon Valley students, led by teachers Chuck Austin (Tech Ed instructor) and Meredith Lesney (Librarian), were given access the SolarTech’s manufacturing facility and interviewed SolarTech workers.

They spent time in the shop, filming welding, grinding, assembly, fabrication, and paint and visited the electronics, SMT and repair departments. The students interviewed Kevin Cypher, SolarTech’s Supply Chain Manager and others. They also met Molly, the resident Papillion, who was a student favorite.

We wish them the best of luck as they move to the editing and scripting stage – and can’t wait to see the finished product! Check back here when voting begins Feb 21, 2018.