Lansing High School
High School uses laser to expand its technology program.
Lansing High School, located in Lansing, Kansas, first opened its doors in 1988. Since then, they have followed their mission to “provide students with the opportunity to develop scholastic, technical, social and life-long learning skills essential for academic, occupational and personal success as productive citizens." The school campus is home to grades 9 through 12 and is recognized as part of a school district with the highest accreditation granted by the state of Kansas.
The Challenge: Finding the right technology to incorporate into school curriculum.
In keeping with their mission, Lansing High School saw the need to acquire a new piece of high-tech equipment that could be incorporated into the school's technology and shop classes. "The piece had to be some kind of CNC type machine or similar technology," said Aaron Wecas, industrial technology instructor for the school. "The problem was that most of the CNC type machinery that was available in the price range we had in mind were small desktop trainers that really weren't functional for producing shop quality pieces,” he said.
Not knowing where to start their search for a CNC machine, Aaron decided to look on the school’s AutoCAD vendor’s Web site. "I knew we were looking for something to add to our program and wasn't very satisfied with what we were finding," Aaron said. It was through the vendor's Web site that he found Epilog and immediately requested information about the engravers. Upon receiving the information he contacted his local Epilog distributor and requested a demonstration. “Once we discovered the CO2 laser, we saw it as a piece that could be used in a variety of settings, and as a way to produce items that we had previously purchased through other vendors, such as engraved awards and medals."
"Crystal Viles of Prism Sales came out and showed us the capabilities of one of Epilog's machines. We were all impressed with how easy it was to use and relatively small size. I could immediately see how it could be used in our woodworking classes. We have since used it for a wide variety of items, from engraved footballs to engraving and cutting out parts for other projects. It has just about taken the place of our scroll saw!" Aaron said.
In fact, Aaron's classes have found so many uses for the Epilog machine the word has spread and now other teachers at the school are getting excited about it too, including the art and desktop publishing instructors. Aaron's classes now produce engraved memorabilia footballs for homecoming, award medals for the cross country team, and toys to give away to children during Christmas.