SAN FERNANDO : 2 Computers Given to Lab at Middle School

For two years teacher Dave Nagel has scrambled for funds and equipment to outfit a classroom laboratory providing middle school students a glimpse into the world of technology.

His labor paid off Wednesday when the Van Nuys Rotary Club donated two IBM computers for the lab at San Fernando Middle School, where students learn to design and build everything from key chains to rockets and gain job skills in the process.

“This is the future,” said Nagel, as he stood in the laboratory that he built piece by donated piece. “The traditional industrial arts programs are not where the jobs are at anymore.”

Nagel has had a lot of help in his efforts. After developing the course called “Exploring Technology” in 1991, he has scrounged scrap plastic and electronic components from manufacturing companies, posters and models from Rocketdyne and Apple computers from Cal State Northridge. Parents have even kicked in old video equipment to augment limited school funding for the program.

“I’m always on the soapbox about helping out,” said Nagel, who put $4,000 of his own money into the lab after inheriting a classroom equipped with little more than workbenches.

Now the laboratory is crammed with 16 workstations containing the tools to learn subjects such as rocketry and robotics, a wind tunnel that teaches students how airplanes fly, a computer-operated lathe, and of course, two new computers.

“This really gives them a flavor of what I call real jobs,” said Nagel, who has visited the lab nearly daily to ready it for the start of school in September.

Nagel’s work has also attracted the attention of his peers. In June, he was named Middle School Teacher of the Year by the Los Angeles Industrial and Technology Education Assn., made up of instructors who teach industrial arts countywide.

“We’re trying to bring what used to be called shop classes into the 21st Century,” he said.