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  • Andrew King sands a panel as he prepares it for painting in the auto painting class during Teen Tour at Autry Technology Center. (Staff Photo by BILLY HEFTON)

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June 15, 2011

Autry Teen Tour provides summer classes for 6th- through 8th-graders

By Phyllis Zorn, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

ENID — There’s lots of learning going on at Autry Technology Center, but don’t tell these teens that —  they think they simply are having fun.

Autry Teen Tour presents summer classes for students completing sixth through eighth grade. During four weeks, students can enroll in one-week classes running from 8-11:30 a.m. on weekdays. Each week’s menu of classes is different.

Jonathan Thompson, 14, who just completed seventh grade at Longfellow Middle School, is learning about robotics in a summer class taught by Casey Taylor.

Jonathan built a robot with a light sensor that tracked a black electrical-tape course around and around on a white mat.

Caleb Roche, 12, a home-schooled sixth-grader, programmed his robot to stop at a preset distance from boxes set up as an obstacle course. He measured the right distances, then went to his computer to program the stopping point — and the direction to turn next — and returned to the obstacle course to test the program.

When the robot didn’t complete the course as expected, Caleb went back to the computer to fine-tune the programming.

Caleb was coached along by Christian Collins, 17, a full-time mechatronics student at Autry on summer break.

“I’d already done the Teen Tour twice, and that’s why I decided to come to Autry,” Collins said.

But for Caleb, it’s all about fun. He programmed and programmed until he got the program perfect and his little robot paced through the course just right.

“I thought it would be fun to learn how to do robotics,” Caleb said.

In another Autry classroom this week, Hope Shreve, 13, a seventh-grader at Oklahoma Bible Academy, used computer-aided drafting techniques to design a tiny goblet. Her goblet program was then sent to the printer, which produced a model of the goblet from molten plastic.

Hope worked under the instruction of Jon Jones, drafting and design instructor for Autry.

Hope said the three-dimensional creation element is what attracted her to the class.

This week’s slate of classes includes auto painting, computer-aided drafting, culinary cuisine, graphic arts, information technology and robotics in mechatronics.

Architect, nail art, start your engine, be a programming pro, computer 101, fire fighter, day spa, babysitter basics, digital dynamo and welding basics are other classes offered during the four weeks of Autry Teen Tour.

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