Kendall Rogers teaches agriculture in the same middle school she attended when, in sixth grade, she realized she wanted to be an agriculture teacher.
“The passion that my teacher had just threw me in the right direction,” said Kendall, who has been teaching for seven years. “The ability to watch the lightbulbs go off in all of these kids is my favorite thing. Every time I witness another lightbulb moment, it reminds me that we’re helping students realize what they can do.”
The Virginia FFA advisor’s desire to create as many “lightbulb moments” as possible for her students is why she let her sixth-graders use her new Electrical Wiring Kits one recent rainy day. Her students had been learning in a hybrid model all year, but a few had gathered in person that day to help with a landscaping project. When the weather proved uncooperative, Kendall thought it would be a good opportunity to unbox her new teaching tools… and give her students, who happened to be all girls, a try at electrical wiring.
What is the RealCareer Electrical Wiring Kit?
The Electrical Wiring Kit is a safe, hands-on learning aid for teaching students how to wire common electrical circuits. It includes a desktop-sized wall panel, accessories and a battery-operated assessment kit. The assessment kit includes a breakout box, light and outlet socket testers, cables and an assessment remote. The assessment remote uses indicator lights to provide immediate feedback. When the remote connects to the wall panel, lights indicate whether the light and outlet socket wiring is correct or incorrect. It also shows the student what they did wrong so they can fix it.
Because it’s battery-operated, there’s no risk of shock as students practice. That safety aspect is what allowed Kendall to try the kits with her students. And it gave them confidence.
Safe, engaging electrical wiring practice
“One of my smallest girls was nervous as can be, but I reminded them that they’re not going to electrocute themselves,” said Kendall. “From their standpoint, that was a huge relief – you’re learning a skill that in the end could kill somebody if done wrong, but with this kit, there is no danger. The most you could do is prick your finger on a wire. The kids are safe, versus some of these DIY kits that you plug into a breaker box and you have to worry about them tripping a breaker or blowing a fuse, which is a huge liability. When I saw how the Realityworks one worked, all in one box with some batteries, I thought, this is dummy-proof.”
After seeing how safe and easy to use the kit was, Kendall knew it would be worthwhile to purchase the kits instead of building her own, which she had considered. She applied for Carl D. Perkins Grant funding and received approval to purchase four kits.
“I don’t have to nitpick and build my own rubric – the assessment kit makes it easy to see how each student performs,” said Kendall. “And with lumber so high in price and my desire to build models that were to standard… this saved me a lot of time.”
Prior to purchasing the Electrical Wiring Kits, Kendall relied on PowerPoint and YouTube videos. Her school was fully remote at the time, so Kendall worked on outlets and cords while projecting her actions video. This year, Kendall plans to put her students into groups of 2-3 on each unit, with a remote student looking on. She looks forward to making more use of the student workbooks that accompany each kit, which offer a variety of wiring exercises.
“The workbooks get really in-depth, which I love. I can tell the kids who need it to do the basic lessons, but if they can, give them harder ones to look at, too,” said Kendall.
Looking ahead
As she can integrate more in-person students, Kendall looks forward to offering more hands-on practice opportunities and engaging more students in the real-world skills she’s teaching.
“As a middle school ag teacher, you teach every single topic. And some schools don’t have the ability to teach everything. When I can, I try to bring something in that’s exciting,” said Kendall. “Now I’ve got girls learning how to do electricity on a random Wednesday. And they’re like, ‘wait a minute, I can do that?!’ ‘Yes, you can!’”
Learn more
Looking for more information on teaching electrical wiring? Consider these resources:
- Read Kendall’s complete customer story here
- See product details, including curriculum and workbook samples, by clicking here
- Explore our top trade skills training tools in this recent blog
- Watch our on-demand webinar, “Wiring Concepts – How to Safely Engage Students in Residential Wiring:”
