MANSFIELD — About a dozen middle school students gained skills and learned about defense manufacturing careers at the “Building Giants” submarine building camp.
The two-week camp was the first sponsored by Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs and the BlueForge Alliance. Mansfield City Schools hosted the camp for students in grades 7-9.
The students toured local businesses that supply the Submarine Industrial Base: Gorman Rupp, Warren Rupp and Stoneridge. On July 19, the students demonstrated the submersible they built in the pool at Malabar Middle School.
Brandon Green, workforce development manager for Blue Forge Alliance, said the tours and camp activities will expand participants’ knowledge of industrial supply chains.
BlueForge is a non-profit integration partner for the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Industrial Base.
“There are several submarine industrial base suppliers in the area, but a lot of kids don’t know about that, so it’s fun to see them learn about it and then apply it by building their own submarine,” Green said.
Students worked in groups of three to design their own submersibles using PVC pipes, circuit wiring, toggle switches, propellers and floats.
Serenity Jaynes, a student at the camp, said she found it difficult to operate the toggle switches on her team’s submarine.
“I wanted to make it easier for the submarine to move forward,” she says. “The controls were a bit difficult and we could only use the vertical motor.”
“It’s really cool to see them working so hard to solve problems,” Green said. “One group had a float that was coming off, so they discussed how to fix it.
“Final assembly is what makes everything that went into it come to fruition. And that goes for the workers too…the engineers’ work goes to the welders, the welders go to the painters and assemblers.”
Liam McMiskey, a soon-to-be eighth-grader at Spanish Immersion, said soldering the electronic components was probably the most difficult part of the building process for his team.
“I ended up crossing some of the wires and had to redo a bit,” he says. “If I had more time, I’d consider remaking the motherboard.”
Liam McMiskey and Kevin Lomas-Rivera demonstrate their submarines in four feet of water at the Malabar Middle School pool.
Mansfield’s “Building Giants” camp is the first of its kind
Cindy Day, senior manager of the Fabricators and Manufacturers Association’s Nuts, Bolts and Thingsmagic Foundation, said the “Building Giants” camp was the first of its kind.
“We support manufacturing camps around the country, but this is the first camp focused on raising awareness about career options in submarine manufacturing,” she said.
Green said Blue Forge Alliance focuses its outreach on young students, sometimes as young as second or third grade.
“Looking 10, 15 years out, the submarine industrial base is going to need over 100,000 skilled workers, so we need to help lay out the vision early on,” he said.
FMA Foundation Director Ed Darnulk said Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs hopes to work with BuildSubmarines to host multiple camps in different cities.
“We’re going to see more technological advances in the industry,” he said. “I think in the next 10 to 20 years, we’re going to see people programming robots to weld parts, rather than just basic welding.”
“So it’s great to have a coding and robotics camp to teach students how to do that. And this facility at Mansfield is incredible. You don’t find this kind of equipment at most high schools. They’re investing heavily in vocational skills.”
A plasma cutter in the vocational-technical welding lab at Mansfield High School.
In addition to building the submarine, students also used a plasma cutter to make floral stencils and airplanes in Mansfield High School’s Vocational Technology Welding Lab.
Mansfield City Schools will expand career-technical opportunities for middle school students this fall, offering exploratory classes like haircutting and manufacturing.
Nikia Fletcher, MCS director of career and college readiness, said the hands-on classwork combined with tours of manufacturing sites is intended to increase students’ awareness of career opportunities.
“We have students here who are interested in architecture, a few who are interested in computer science, some who are interested in cooking,” she said. “They come from all over.”
“A lot of students don’t know what they’ll be able to learn in high school until they get here, so this is an example of how we can get them to explore their options before they get to high school. The earlier they learn, the more well-rounded they become.”
Construction of Giants Camp
Students at the camp got to see a demonstration of an electronic submarine, practice welding using spray cheese and crackers, and cut out and paint steel flowers and airplanes.
