Skills Work - At Camp!

Confederation College, Thunder Bay

During the last week of July, I made my way to Thunder Bay for camp at Confederation College.  The campus was bigger than I thought it would be, and they have a whole building just for skilled trades programs.

Our first workshop of the week was electrical.  It’s a popular one for Mondays, but I’ve done so many different types of electrical workshops that it has actually been interesting.  We wired batteries and then used the charge to pick up paper clips.  It was kinda fun, trying to see how many paper clips we could pick up.  I’ve done that with magnets, but I never thought about the magnetic charge of a battery before.  Plus we tried our construction skills at making bridges out of straws.  Our leader was Sandra, and she’s obviously used to working with kids our age.  She takes her electrical program into the schools around here or something, so she was totally prepared for us.

One thing I had never done before was welding.  I was soooo scared!  At first I thought the only danger was setting stuff on fire.  Then I found out that welding involves a lot of electricity, so I had to worry about electrocuting myself too!  Plus, there are like a million different types of welding and so many crazy tools you can use, like a plasma cutter.  I was so freaked out!  Our workshop leader, Jim, was amazing though.  He assured us that as long as we were using our protective gear right, and we weren’t messing around, welding was perfectly safe.  And you know what?  I made an awesome decorative hanger for plants, nobody got hurt, and it was really fun!  Who knew?

I was definitely back on comfortable ground with carpentry. We made a different kind of birdhouse than any before, and this workshop focused a lot on math.  Did you know that carpenters do all kinds of conversions in their heads?  They have to constantly calculate fractions, and convert between metric and imperial measurements – all without a calculator!  Anyway, my birdhouse was totally amazing.  Maybe I should be a carpenter, since I’ve gotten this good after just a few workshops!

I also had an automotive workshop at this camp, and I know nothing about cars.  (I don’t even care about cars, except that I can’t wait to have a driver’s license and go wherever I want whenever I want!)  I realized after this workshop just how handy it is to know the basics.  We learned what kinds of tools and computers are used to figure out problems with cars, and how to repair a flat tire.  Then we toured the truck and coach shop on campus and took turns sitting in a custom-built hot rod.  I would probably never do something like fix a flat tire, but it got me thinking about how useful it is to know how to change a tire, or even just how a car works.  I think I might take an auto class in high school, just to get more experience.

One morning at camp, we took a trip to Union Gas.  That was pretty cool, ‘cause my parents always talk about the “gas guy” coming to the house and paying the gas bill and stuff, and I never got it.  But now I totally do!  Willie, our tour guide, showed us some of the equipment they use to locate gas lines before building on a site, he showed us how to read a meter, and he talked a lot about safety.  Everybody talks a lot about safety at these camps!  But I guess if you’re going to work with electricity and gas lines and saws and stuff, that’s probably a good thing.

Not gonna lie, I never really thought about working in skilled trades.  But after four weeks at skilled trade camps, I really think I could do this stuff!  One more week to go!