Three Fallbrook industrial arts program shines at the fair

Fallbrook High School industrial arts teacher Jacob Bagnell saw three of his students' projects receive Best of Show honors at the San Diego County Fair's Student Showcase, and he was also recognized as the Student Showcase's Instructor of the Year.

"I was really appreciative," Bagnell said. "It was really nice that they gave me that. It was unexpected, and I'm really proud of it."

The Best of Show is the only head-to-head competition in the Student Showcase. Place ribbons are given based on point scores.

"We had 17 students compete," Bagnell said. "Everyone that I saw got first place."

In past years the Student Showcase has had Best of Class recognition and Best of Show for the division. Since the classes were based on grade level and experience ninth-graders were competing against community college students for the Best of Show award, and this year the fair eliminated the Best of Class designation and gave Best of Show recognition to each level within a division.

Three of those Best of Show ribbons were given to Fallbrook High School.

"It was really good," Bagnell said.

The General Metal Work division includes a class for high school students in their second, third or fourth year. A Fallbrook group project led by Juan Jimenez and also including Ivan Arias, Jose Flor, Rafael Raymundo and Eric Ruiz won Best of Show for that class. The students made a fire pit using 2-inch and 1-inch square tubing, 16-gauge sheet metal, and one-quarter angle iron. The upper frame was welded through the gas tungsten arc welding process and the rest of the fire pit was welded with the gas metal arc welding process.

"The fire pit was really, really neat," Bagnell said.

Industrial arts programs have fallen victim to math and science class requirements, and some students have been denied vocational arts classes because their counselors wanted them to take more math and science than required, but Bagnell's students use math and science in more practical ways than they would in a math or science class.

"Kids really learn math," Bagnell said.

The fire pit is one example of the use of math skills in industrial arts.

"There's a ton of geometry involved," Bagnell said. "The cover of the fire pit had to be calculated out and executed perfectly. The kids used a ton of math in order to calculate the cover."

School administrators viewed the fire pit and offered to purchase it while also offering to have the students build additional items. The fire pit will be sold.

"That will give them the money to put into materials," Bagnell said.

Jimenez was a junior. Arias, Flor, Raymundo and Ruiz were seniors. The four seniors have either accepted industry jobs or will be attending college with an emphasis on industrial skills.

"It's pretty exciting," Bagnell said.

None of those five students began taking Bagnell's classes as freshmen. Flor and Ruiz had Bagnell as a teacher for three years, Raymundo spent two years taking Bagnell's courses and Arias was an industrial arts student as a senior only. Jimenez has been in Bagnell's program for two years.

All five of those students participated in the SkillsUSA state competition. The SkillsUSA vocational arts club had a Southern California regional competition, Feb. 3, in Ontario, and 18 of the 32 Fallbrook High School students who participated qualified for the state competition, April 25-28.

The Best of Show award in the Robotics Engineering: Non-Fabricated Semi-Autonomous division was given to 2019 Fallbrook graduate Curtis Permito. His waste disposal robot can move up to 10 pounds. Permito designed the robot for moving hazardous waste, although items safer for human contact could also be transported.

"The student put a lot of work into it. It was creative, it was different and I think the judges understood that," Bagnell said.

Bagnell taught woodshop and metal shop classes at Fallbrook High School from 2014-2015 through 2016-2017 and continued to teach those classes in subsequent years but also partnered with Matthew Eaton to teach a robotics class which integrated Eaton's expertise including electrical and circuit design with Bagnell's mechanical design skills. Permito was in Eaton's mechanical engineering class and in Bagnell's metal shop class.

"I think it's a really great example of how our CTE (Career Technical Education) department collaborates on projects," Bagnell said. "The student was able to go back and forth from class to class."

The 2018-2019 school year was Permito's first with Bagnell. This fall Permito will enroll in San Jose State University and major in mechanical engineering.

Bagnell entered the "Heart of Mary" metal creation of Felyciti Alvarez in the Fine Arts competition. Alvarez was given Best of Show for grades 9-12, first year class of the "Recycled Art: 80% Recycled Materials 3D" division.

"I really like that category," Bagnell said of the Recycled Art competition. "It's just really cool to bring metal working projects to a fine art category."

The Fine Arts judges also have a positive view of that craft integration.

"I really like that we do well in that every year," Bagnell said.

The Recycled Art projects must use at least 80% recycled materials. Alvarez used 100% recycled materials.

"She used all different stuff throughout the shop that people had thrown away," Bagnell said.

"Heart of Mary" is made entirely of metal; Alvarez welded pieces together with a tungsten inert gas weld. She used an oxyacetylene torch to feather over the metal and change its color. Alvarez started with cold roll metal and heated the metal to obtain the desired shape. She added high-carbon steel, low-carbon steel and stainless steel. Alvarez used TIG welding to form a heart and traced out two other hearts in 22-gauge sheet metal before welding those to the side of the main heart. That same process was used for the flame on the top of the heart and for the roses. Alvarez TIG welded the pieces together and ground the welds.

"I'm really proud of her," Bagnell said.

The 2018-2019 academic year was Alvarez's second with Bagnell but her first year welding. "She started welding halfway through her junior year," Bagnell said.

Alvarez placed third in the state Skills USA competition and earned TIG welding scholarships. At the national level she placed fifth in the "Future Tech of America" competition and won tools.

"She's a very good TIG welder," Bagnell said.

Bagnell said that Alvarez was competing against students who had taken middle school welding programs. Potter Junior High School no longer has industrial arts programs.

"It would be really amazing to get those back," he said.

Bagnell added that the students who were competing against Alvarez also included those whose parents have welding equipment at home.

Alvarez plans to attend Universal Technical Institute to take the vocational school's welding program, although she may also attend Mira Costa College.

The 2018-2019 school year was Bagnell's sixth at Fallbrook High School and his ninth as a teacher. Bagnell began his teaching career in Northern California as a biology teacher and taught at High Tech High North County in San Marcos before Fallbrook High School reinstated woodshop and metal shop and Bagnell successfully applied for the position. Bagnell's duties included rebuilding the school's industrial arts program as well as teaching students.

Bagnell entered the Student Showcase as a Santana High School student and has entered his Fallbrook High School students in the Student Showcase for the past five years. He first entered students in the San Diego County Fair in 2015; that year his students entered 12 projects in the fair including four which won Best of Class and one which was given Best of Show. The 26 projects entered in the 2016 Student Showcase included five given Best of Class and three receiving Best of Show. The 30 entries in 2017 resulted in seven Best of Class and four Best of Show awards. Bagnell submitted 40 projects last year with five winning Best of Class and one taking Best of Show.

Fallbrook was the only high school with industrial arts projects in the 2015 Student Showcase, and as other schools began submitting entries the Fallbrook students had more competition. Since the purpose of industrial arts programs is to provide employment and hobby skills for students, Bagnell said he appreciates additional schools in the Student Showcase. He said that potential employers are attracted by mere county fair participation which demonstrates the students' skills and motivation and that the awards are secondary. All of Bagnell's 2018-2019 seniors have employment or an internship or will be attending college for a trade.

This year the students had less time than normal to finalize their projects.

"It was somewhat rushed," Bagnell said.

The state Skills USA competition contributed to the reduced days, and Bagnell was out part of that time due to a back injury. The students had one week to finalize their projects.

"It was very well done," Bagnell said.

The students joined Bagnell in taking the projects to the Student Showcase exhibit.

"They really represent us in a really positive way," he said.

The trip also included a meal.

"We make a whole event out of it," Bagnell said.

The students along with Bagnell returned to the fair for the awards presentation.

"We try to represent Fallbrook as best as we possibly can," Bagnell said. "They represent our town in a very good way, and I try to do that as well."

The awards presentation was where Bagnell learned of his Instructor of the Year award.

"It was a really good honor," Bagnell said. "It's just a really cool award to get, and hopefully it will help people to understand what we do at Fallbrook High School."