ROYALSTON – The 6th grade class from Royalston Community School recently visited the University of Massachusetts in Amherst for a full day of lessons about electric engineering and tours with various professors and staff members as part of the College to Career Classroom Guidance lessons created by Rachel Schwab, guidance counselor for the Royalston school.
Professor T. Baird Soules taught the students about the creation of circuits. Each student created a complete circuit and took home a blue LED “light box” from the lesson.
The students toured the 911 Call Center, the jail cells, and received instruction from an officer from the UMASS Police Mounted and Motorcycle units, and were shown the Mullins Center, the Champions Basketball Center and had lunch on campus in the Blue Wall cafeteria. They also visited the John W. Olver Design Building constructed almost entirely of cross laminated timber and concrete composite floors.
Chaperones were Brian Snell, 6th grade teacher, Jennifer Sonnabend, paraprofessional, Jason Lapointe, Merrifield Bus Company driver, and parent chaperones Thomas Gerry, Dawn Pisani and Chris Fitzpatrick.
Each year Schwab presents career lessons to students from kindergarten through sixth grade, collaborating with professors and staff at the college to set up hands-on lessons and campus tours.