MCC Automotive is blazing new trails in Hybrid Vehicle technology

Blazing new trails in the automotive technology field is nothing new to students at Metropolitan Community College.

But did you know that MCC owns one of the first ever produced Ford Hybird vehicles and instructors use it daily to train the next generation of automotive engineers and technology specialists.

Even before Ford Automotive began mass producing the Ford Escape Hybird in 2004, instructors and students at the Longview campus were able to get a first-hand look at a prototype donated by Ford to the college.



Longview automotive instructor David Patience said the hybrid has been a valuable resource for students who want to learn about the inner-workings and mechanics of this new breed of car. Student can then take what they learn through the Longview Automotive Program and apply it directly to their career in auto engineering, mechanics or design.

The vehicle and hybrid training program is being featured next month in the Kansas City's Greenability Magazine.

To learn more about the Hybird vehicle and the MCC-Longview automotive program, be sure to check out www.mcckc.edu.

SkillsUSA Brings 1,000s to KC June 21-23 - MCC Intends to say "Hello"

The SkillsUSA Championship showcases the best career and technical students in the nation.  Students compete against the clock and each other, proving their expertise in occupations like electronics, computer-aided drafting, crime scene investigation, medical assisting, photography, robotics and culinary arts.


This multi-million dollar event requires a space larger than 16 football fields.  Last year, there were more than 5,600 contestants in 96 separate events.  This year, more than 15,000 students, parents, teachers, judges and industry representatives will attend SkillsUSA Championship between June 21 and 23.  This national competition creates an economic impact of around $15 million for the Kansas City area, according to Kansas City Business Journal.

While Bartle hall is the main location for competition, CNC Milling, CNC Turning, and Precicsion Machining Technology contests will be held in MCC-BTC's 8,800 sq. ft. Precision Machining lab.

MCC plans to welcome every single guest!  Or, at least parade amongst them wearing MCC t-shirts.

MCC-Longview automotive students offer their expertise in high school competition

MCC-Longview graduates and students hit the Kansas Speedway last week to offer their expertise. Although they weren't working under hood of some high-speed racecar, they were on hand to help judge and officiate the Ford/AAA Auto Skills state competition.

The contest was held at the Kansas Speedway in KCK and invited some of the top auto students from Kansas and Missouri to compete for a spot in the national competition held in Detroit.

Twenty identical Ford Mustangs with 12 identical problems were unveiled at the start of the competition. The goal was to see how quickly the high school students could find each problem and fix it.

MCC-Longview students stood over each

Street Survival Program at MCC-Blue River this weekend

The Sports Car Club of America holds events at MCC-Blue River’s Preceision Driving Course almost every weekend, and the Street Survival Program is hands down their most important event. Eligible students are 16 to 21 years old and hold a valid unrestricted driver’s license or a valid permit. Here’s the schedule, if you’re interested in attending:

It’s not just about Driving, it’s about Living…. 

• The leading cause of death among 13-19 year olds in the US is from a motor vehicle crash.

• 62% of teenage passenger deaths in 2004 occurred in vehicles driven by another teenager.

• Teenagers cause 2.5 million accidents per year.

• In 2007 that resulted in over 6,000 deaths of teens.

Those sobering statistics should be

Automotive students take home top prizes in MCC-Longview SkillsUSA competition

Two MCC-Longview automotive students took home top prizes from the SkillsUSA automotive competition.

This past Saturday MCC-Longview Automotive hosted the district SkillsUSA contest for both secondary and post-secondary students.

Ysabel Arias took home the bronze medal while David Michael Gray took home the gold.

Arias is a student in the Ford ASSET program. Gray is a student in the General Automotive degree program.

If you know either of these students please give them a hearty congratulations when you see them.

Overall winners at last weekend’s SkillsUSA events included:


College award winners
Ysabel Arias, MCC-Longview - 3rd
Christian Ramos, Herndon Career Center - 2nd
David Michael Gray, MCC-Longview - 1st

High School winners
Dalton Stumph, North KC Career Center - 3rd
Blake Gibson, Clinton Technical School - 2nd
Chuck Nixon, Warrensburg Technical School - 1st

To see more photos from the event, head over to the MCC-Longview Automotive Facebook page.

MCC-Longview students are looking for YOUR car questions.

It’s that time of the year where MCC-Longview students in technical writing class answer your car questions.

This year, instructor Casey Reid is asking for your help in coming up with some of the questions that will be used in the class assignments.

They don’t care what the question is: Send your question, any relevant car information (make, model, year, mileage), and contact information (phone and email preferred) to casey.reid@mcckc.edu.

The class will do its best to research your question and provide answers in the “Rev Hard” column in the December edition of The Current, the student newspaper.

If the class receives enough questions, they will put together a January column to make sure everyone’s questions are answered.

Thanks for helping us, and we look forward to hearing from you!

MCC-Longview celebrates National Alternative Fuel day

Building on its reputation as a leader in automotive technology and education, Metropolitan Community College-Longview partnered with the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition to host the 2010 National Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day Odyssey this past Friday.

The event,  held in the High Technology Automotive Building at MCC-Longview, is a nationwide event aimed at educating the public on the importance of alternative fuel vehicles and advanced technology vehicles. 

Along with alternative fuel fleet vehicles such as buses and city-owned cars, De La Salle high school students also had their own electric car on display. The car, which was part of their high school curriculum, was designed and built by the students themselves.

The program is sponsored by Bridgestone and has been recognized across the globe as a model in education and new technology.

HUGE thanks to our volunteers from MCC-Longview's Automotive Days

From the MCC-Longview Automotive Days crew, we want to thank all of our volunteers who helped on Tuesday and Wednesday as tour guides, session leaders and even helped serve lunch to 600 high school students.

Along with Longview's own staff and faculty who donned a bright orange shirt for two days, we also had volunteers from Blue River and the Business and Technology campuses and the district office pitch in to help out each day.

Without you all this event would not have been a success.

THANK YOU!

MCC-Longview's Automotive Days 2010

Despite economic worries, the automotive industry is still revving a full speed. At least that was the message the recruiters and industry experts at the 14th annual MCC-Longview Automotive Days were telling high school students.

Once again MCC-Longview opened the doors to its nationally lauded automotive program to give high school seniors, juniors and vocational/technical students a look at what opportunities lie ahead of them in the coming years in the automotive industry after high school.

MCC-Longview automotive Director Stan Abrahamson answered non-stop questions about Longview's automotive programs as close to 600 students filed through several demonstrations, round-table discussions and tours of the campus.



The two-day event also included a car show that brought some of the regions oldest and most interesting vehicles to the parking lot of the High Technology/Automotive building. The visiting students were then asked to vote for the best cars on display. The voting, according to some, was a bit more difficult than they had anticipated.



For a full gallery of all the photos from the events, be sure to hit up the MCC-Longview flickr page.

Or check out the video from the event:

'Hey, MCC-Longview, you're covered in bees!'

With the semester in full swing it is not unusual for faculty and staff to talk about the buzz of activity they hear on campus.

But when Automotive Director Stan Abrahamson heard The Buzz earlier this week, he knew it was coming from something other than students. In fact, a swarm of bees had taken up residence on a tree limb just outside the automotive building on the west side of campus.

Lucky for MCC-Longview, psychology instructor Matthew Westra moonlights as a beekeeper and knew exactly how to safely relocate the swarm.

"I borrowed a plastic 5-gallon bucket from the automotive department, went out to the swarm, held the bucket under the cone shaped swarm and gave the branch a hearty shake," Westra said. "If the queen falls into the bucket...[the bees] eventually notice that her pheromone is not coming from the tree, but from the bucket on the ground. I left the bucket there and returned just before dark to find that the bees had settled into the bucket."

Bees, according to Westra, usually swarm like this in the early spring as they spend most of the summer building up a strong reserve of honey for the winter. It's odd, he said, to find bees swarming this late into the fall.

Now, with a bucket full of bees, Westra hopes to relocate the bees safely to one of his own bee boxes where they might have a chance to build their own hive and store enough honey before the first cold snap.

"This is very late for them to have much chance of developing comb, brood and storing enough honey reserves to get through the winter," Westra said "We’ll do what we can to facilitate their success."

Thanks to Westra for ensuring that MCC-Longview is, in fact, NOT covered in bees.

(photos by Steve Greife)

MCC-Longview selected to host National Alternative Fuel symposium

Building on its reputation as a leader in automotive technology and education, Metropolitan Community College-Longview is partnering with the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Coalition to host the 2010 National Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day Odyssey on Oct. 15, 2010.

The event, which will be held in the High Technology Automotive Building at MCC-Longview, is a nationwide event aimed at educating the public on the importance of alternative fuel vehicles and advanced technology vehicles.


“We are extremely pleased to have been selected by the National Alternative Fuel Training Consortium as the site for their National Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day Odyssey event. It demonstrates our Automotive Program’s growing expertise in alternative fuels, as well as the college’s commitment to work with community agencies to further the educational and economic interests of our area,”MCC-Longview President Fred Grogan said.

Along with MCC-Longview, events will be held across the country on the same day advocating for more education and understanding when it comes to alternative fuels.

“MCC-Longview’s automotive department is honored to participate and host this event. With similar events happening across the county, this is the perfect opportunity to bring education and awareness about alternative fuels and their positive environmental impact to the public, vehicle fleet operators and the transportation industry,” said Stan Abrahamson, automotive director at MCC-Longview.

Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day is sponsored by the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) at West Virgina University. The consortium works to educate the nation about alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles. Since 2002, the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day program has shown millions of individuals the difference alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles can make in our nation's energy security and quest for cleaner air.

Other partners for this year’s event are U.S. Department of Energy, West Virginia University’s Advanced Electric Drive Vehicle Education Program and Toyota.

For more information about the event, go to:

www.nationalafvdayodyssey.org

www.kcenergy.org

MCC-Longview Automotive Dept. inspires TMC

Here is a great story about how the ingenuity and community spirit from the MCC-Longview Automotive Department is spilling out into the rest of the metro area. (Click the link to watch the video from Fox 4)

Back in January the MCC-Longview Automotive Department donated an entirely refurbished Saturn sedan to a local hospital. The car, which had its engine removed, was to be used to teach paramedics and EMT how to better treat accident victims. MCC-Longview students and faculty were involved in that project.

Now that community spirit has inspired others in the community to create similar car rehab program at the Truman Medical Center with volunteer J.R. Foster at the helm.