Kendall Rogers teaches agriculture in the same Virginia 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… The ability to watch the light bulbs go off in all of these kids is my favorite thing. Every time I witness another light bulb moment, it reminds me that we’re helping students realize what they can do.”
Kendall Rogers
Agriculture Teacher
Caroline Middle School, VA
Kendall’s desire to create as many “light bulb moments” for her students is why she let her sixthgrade students practice using her new RealCareer Electrical Wiring Kits from Realityworks on a 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.
The RealCareer 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 batteryoperated 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.
“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 lumbar so high in price and my desire to build models that were to standard… this saved me a lot of time.”
Thanks to the feedback from her sixth-graders, Kendall confidently incorporated her new training tools into her eighth-graders’ electrical wiring unit. 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 via video. With these kits, Kendall was able to conclude their electrical wiring unit with realworld, hands-on practice.
“These kits took it to a whole other level for me, and for the kids, so they could see the realistic part of electrical wiring,” Kendall said. “It was so fun to see them connect the dots between what we had reviewed with videos and PowerPoint, and what we were now doing in the shop.” What’s more, Kendall saw her students step out of their comfort zone to assist their peers in the shop.
“One of my students, who is not normally one to take initiative, was doing really well,” Kendall shared. “He ended up helping two of my other kids grade their own work because he’d already figured out the assessment box. If I didn’t have those kits, I would have had to go from student to student and take time to check everything. With this, the kids can self-assess.”
In addition to assessing their own work, Kendall says her students used the workbooks that accompany each kit to work at their own pace. The workbooks include a variety of exercises, from wiring a single outlet to wiring 3-way switches.
“The workbooks get really indepth, 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.
As she can integrate more inperson students, Kendall looks forward to offering more handson 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!’”
Learning tools used:
RealCareer™ Electrical Wiring Kit
The RealCareer™ Electrical Wiring Kit gives students a safe, hands-on lesson in wiring common electrical circuits. The portable, battery-operated kit provides instant assessment and corrective feedback.