Senior Lindsey Cunningham learns about checking blood pressure. Demonstrating EMT duties is just one of the focuses on tonight's Skill Expo. Photo by Muhammad Al-Rawi
Student work and a showcase of activities will highlight the Columbia Area Career Center’s Skill Expo today from 6 to 8 p.m.
Administrative Assistant Rebecca Pisano said the event will demonstrate the opportunities available at the Career Center to sixth through 11th grade students.
“It’s really to help the students. It is what it is because as students [each] make important choices with regard to classes they want to take the following year; they need to have this information,” Pisano said. “It’s not really so much about helping the Career Center as it is helping the students to gather more information to see if the class is appropriate for their career path.”
One of the highlights of the expo will be the automotive technologies class which will be displaying a number of vehicles. The vehicles present will demonstrate both the new and old technology the class encounters while working on all types of cars.
“We’re gonna have some of the older cars in here so you can see a comparison to some of the old technology from 20 or 30 years ago,” Automotive Technology instructor Johnny Green said, “to some of the new technology we’re dealing with today.”
Green said the University of Missouri-Columbia engineering department will bring their formula car that they participate on race circuits with. On display there will also have a late model Toyota Prius, Audi on which they will demonstrates diagnostic techniques, a ford vehicle that demonstrates the new My Touch voice activation system, and possibly a 1986 Buick Grand National, if the weather is nice.
“We want to show people some of the technology that we’re dealing with,” Green said. “A lot of times people think this class is about getting dirty but now we really fix cars with a laptop [that has] an interface with the car.”
A backboarding demonstration by the Emergency Medical Technician class and an activity with pH testing by the Labratory Technologies class are some of the other events that will be a part of the skill expo.
