Moultrie Tech and CCHS Car Audio Students Make Some Noise
Moultrie Technical College’s (MTC) Electronics Technology program and Colquitt County High School dual enrolled students recently completed a year-long course in Car Audio Installation.
Instructor Andy Clark says, “These students learn the practical application of skills taught in conventional classroom settings. Many times my students tell me that they enjoy coming to class so they can learn something new. Wow, how many times do you hear a high school student say they enjoy attending school?”
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| Colquitt County High School dual enrollment students at Moultrie Technical College are pictured with the subwoofer enclosures they built themselves in the MTC Electronics Technology program. Kneeling and sitting are Blake Pierce and Duncan Brown. Standing, left to right, is Ryan Stripling, Joel Luna, Alfonso Huerta, Rigoberto Garcia, Trent Boatwright, Danny Stough, Joel Badillo, Bobby Weldon, Nick Malone and MTC Electronics Technology instructor Andy Clark. Not pictured are Justin Harrison, Jose Marquez, Jeorge Raya and Shaventreon Shannon. |
Clark uses the Car Audio Installation certificate to interest students in attending class in the Electronics Technology program when they graduate from high school. While they are in high school, students obtain both technical college and high school graduation credit simultaneously through the dual enrollment program at MTC.
He says, “Even if they do not continue with the Electronics program or attend some other program at Moultrie Tech, they have a leg up on their classmates; and in this economy any enhancement of job skills is a great plus in getting the right job.”
The MTC Veterans Parkway Campus is the setting for the fast-paced and easygoing but often charged learning environment.
“These students come in the doors fired up wanting to learn about Car Audio, and I’m constantly challenging them to learn more and make the leap between what has been taught and where they need to go in the application of their skills,” says Clark.
He also thinks that these students benefit from a program where they get to make choices and decisions based on the outcomes and goals they set for themselves.
“So often a student gets bogged down in a class where they can’t see any possible application of the material being presented. With this program, they learn to appreciate the sciences and arts they thought were too difficult. They have to use math skills to get to the fun parts of classes like soldering, direct current circuits and alternating current circuits which are not usually listed as fun classes.”
One of the highlights of the program is the students learning how to design and construct a custom subwoofer enclosure.
“The students learn how to measure the car they want to install a stereo system in and determine the best frequency for proper sound reproduction in that vehicle. Yeah, most of the time, they want the loudest possible sound, but some have learned the hard way that there are laws against excessively loud car stereos,” Clark explains.
“My students will have applied their math skills to calculating the proper enclosure or box dimensions along with designing a computer 3D model and a quarter scale foam board model before committing to cutting up expensive materials. We were lucky this year…Langboard, Inc. of Willacoochee, Georgia, donated the needed medium density fiberboard (MDF) for these students’ projects. The night class Electronics instructor, Mr. Tim Gray, works for Langboard, and the students want him and the people at Langboard, Inc. to know just how much their generosity meant,” he adds.
