EAGLE TECH SUCCESS: Open house highlights student projects

EAGLE TECH SUCCESS: Open house highlights student projects

May 30, 2012

By
Brianne Eichman

COLUMBIA CITY — After celebrating the successful first half of Eagle Tech Academy’s (ETA) inaugural year, students displayed their projects and answered questions to visitors at an open house Tuesday. The open house was held from 10 a.m. to noon.

Joe Urschel, an English teacher at ETA, said rather than simply imparting knowledge to students, the teachers design the framework, allowing students to be involved, working as collaborative groups.

“It’s like a pinball machine where each kid is the ball, and my job is to rocket them around these different areas, this field of knowledge,” said Urschel.

One of the larger projects ETA students recently completed involved work on ancestry and immigrants.

Originally, the students were supposed to interview someone in the community, but since they could not find enough, many students turned to Brooklyn International High School.

“That’s kind of what made the project so big and so awesome because we were learning about different people outside our own state who have been outside our own country,” said 14-year-old student Kyle Scher.

Phil Stanczak, a U.S. History teacher at Eagle Tech, said the school regards the process to a final project with as much importance as the finished product. Stanczak said this attention to the process prepares the students for college.

He also said people often have many questions about ETA so they decided to hold an open house to allow current students to talk with parents.

“It’s basically a chance to walk through the facility. To ask questions and look at the projects,” said Stanczak.

It’s basically a chance to walk through the facility. To ask questions and look at the projects.
For more information on ETA, visit www.wccsonline.com/ETA.