Community Involvement

Hands-on Learning Is More Retainable

May 8, 2019 – By Donna Miller, Blaine County Journal

Caden Sullivan, Aislinn Handy, Dawson Ball, Lane Snider, Flint Annis, and Kaden Green provide a captive audience while American Garage owner Scott DePriest explains the training required to work as a mechanic.

As part of the junior high shop curriculum at Chinook Junior High School, Vocational/Agriculture Education Instructor, Robin Allen seeks out methods beyond textbooks and worksheets to capture the students’ interest. Sometimes she achieves that goal by putting the students to work in the school’s greenhouse; other times the classroom moves to a business setting where students acquire hands-on experience and knowledge. On May 2 and 3, wearing their shop coats and safety glasses, seventh and eighth graders enrolled in the Exploratory Ag class visited American Garage.

With visits to American Garage, an automotive repair service located at 40440 US Highway 2 in Chinook and specializing in the repair of General Motors’ vehicles, students get to see what happens on a day-to-day basis in a mechanic’s shop that performs tasks such as oil changes and other regular maintenance, as well as Montana DOT inspections and major repairs.

“Although we thought a tire changing derby would give the learning a competitive edge,” American Garage co-owner Heather DePriest said of the students’ visit on Thursday, “we realized that the students had to have more experience with the basics first. So, we took them through a roadside scenario of changing a tire using the equipment available in a car. Then, the students saw how that same activity works with the equipment available in a shop.”

While Keith Smith, a mechanic at American Garage, holds a tire and grimaces, as if in fear for his fingers, Aislinn Handy taps in a weight to balance a tire at American Garage while shop owner Scott DePriest monitors the process.

Using a question and answer style, Scott DePriest, the business owner, walked the students through the process of performing a roadside tire change. All the while, DePriest invited students to take an active role, saying: “Hands-on learning is more retainable.” Volunteers, Lane Snider, Caden Sullivan, and Kaden Green each took a turn at loosening lug nuts, and Flint Annis helped to set the jack.

Once the flat tire was off and replaced by the temporary “donut,” the damaged tire went to the shop, where American Garage mechanic Keith Smith demonstrated how to break the bead and then remove the rubber from the wheel. He used a Coats RC-55 Rim Clamp tire changer to assist in the process. DePriest described how a patch is affixed and explained how to use a stitcher, “not the needle and thread kind” but the tire repair apparatus. This tool, with its defined gear-like teeth, helps the repairman or woman apply penetrating pressure over the patch as it vulcanizes and cures to force out trapped air bubbles that could compromise a patching job.

Next, the group moved to the balancing machine, where they learned how to remove any old weights and to apply new ones, indicated by readings on the machine. Caden Sullivan and Aislinn Handy each stepped in to experience the process.