IBEW Shows Students Importance of Math

December 10, 2013

Math isn’t just important for balancing checkbooks and passing tests. It’s vital to a career in the electrical trade.

Middle-school students in San Bernardino County, California recently got a chance to learn real world application of their algebra and geometry homework with skilled members of the IBEW.

Riverside Local 440, San Bernardino Local 477 and the National Electrical Contractors Association opened its training center to sixth, seventh and eighth graders from the Colton Joint Unified School District.

The approximately eighty students rotated between different groups, learning about everything from electrical safety and first aid to math relevancy, trying out different equations needed to complete an electrical job.

“Everybody is really nice and they let you do the stuff yourself,” sixth-grader Kaylee Brown told the Press-Enterprise. “They just don’t do it on their own, they encourage you.”

Training Director Rick Purper said that it is important to expose students at a young age to career alternatives to a standard college degree. “The earning potential for someone with a technical degree or certification can be as much or more than an individual with a four-year degree,” he told the Press-Enterprise.

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Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user ☃