Watch the video to learn more about the new heavy equipment simulators that were recently purchased for the Warren County Area Technology Center.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – A $392,000 grant recently secured the purchase of four heavy equipment simulators for the Warren County Area Technology Center.
The students took turns testing out the new equipment today.
Warren County high school senior, Casey Murray says, “It’s the only kind of experience you can get except out in the workplace of course. It’s like being on a real excavator. You get to dig and stuff like that. Obviously you get to have a real feeling of what it feels like.”
The course teacher, Michael Holtgraver, who has a primarily military heavy machinery background, says the simulator will provide students a real-world experience without them having to operate on an actual piece of equipment.
Holtgraver says, “The ability to use the simulators in the classroom versus just me standing up here in front of the class and teaching them monotonous information over and over and over again, it gives them the ability to actually put their hands on and that should engage more students to come out and at least try the course and take that experience and provide that back to the community through employment.”
The teacher mentioned that the use of the simulators helps to eliminate a cognitive learning gap that lies between power point and textbook learning for a hands-on job.
These simulators are the first of their kind in South Central Kentucky.
