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First came the duplication of Nobel prize-winning research on superconductors by the Rappahannock County High School physics class.
Then Superintendent David Gangel won the School Board’s endorsement for curriculum expansion to include mathematics on computers for sixth graders in the new computer lab equipped by Potomac Edison, the introduction of Spanish classes in the fifth grade, and an interdisciplinary summer enrichment “camp” focusing on the Blue Ridge Mountains.
And strengthening the county’s claim to the leadership post among Virginia’s rural school divisions, RCHS now has a computer-assisted drafting program known as autoCAD. “This is 21st century,” said technology education teacher Scott Currie, as rising senior Anna Hudson demonstrated at last month’s School Board meeting how autoCAD produces detailed, professional-looking schematics and plans.
Mr. Currie noted that RCHS is one of the few single-A schools in the State to provide the sophisticated send expensive CAD program. Its use will give students an employable skill, he said, adding that most “want ads” for drafting specify autoCAD experience. “And better yet, it’s a skill that might be expanded on later in college or technical school.”
He added that the technology education department hopes to get a plotter, “an output device that essentially moves the ink pen around,” tq print work done with auto-CAD. Currently, a regular printer is being used, and while it’s passable, the wavy dot matrix lines are far less precise that what would be possible with the plotter, he explained. But due to its cost — somewhere around $3,500 — purchase of the plotter must await a major fund raising effort or the appearance of a generous benefactor willing to donate the purchase price, Mr. Currie said.
Mr. Currie, RCHS teacher Ron Vickers, and student Anna Hudson recently completed an adult education class on auto-CAD offered by Northern Virginia Community College at Fauquier High School. The two men ackowledged that Miss Hudson probably learned the most from that class and will gain even more ^experience in computer-assisted drafting in the special busi
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