HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs
How to Teach Kids the Trades - Short #287
· Summarized
Key takeaways
- The Socratic method—teaching through questions—is highly effective in developing critical thinking and curiosity in trade education.
- Hands-on experiences, including allowing students to make mistakes and learn from them, are crucial for building real-world skills and confidence.
- Introducing kids to trades early fosters respect for skilled work and can influence their career choices positively.
- Mentoring and community engagement are essential in addressing the skilled trades shortage and inspiring the next generation.
- Flexibility, patience, and a focus on problem-solving are key traits for effective trade teaching and mentorship.
Summary
The Importance of Teaching Trades to Kids
The podcast emphasizes the significance of exposing children to trades and hands-on skills early on. Ty Branaman and Leilani discuss their experiences with the GRIT Foundation, which focuses on teaching trades through camps that foster curiosity and problem-solving. They highlight how these initiatives not only teach practical skills but also build confidence and respect for the trades. They advocate for community-based efforts to educate and inspire the next generation, emphasizing that such experiences can influence career choices positively.
The Socratic Method in Trade Education
A major theme of the episode is using the Socratic method—teaching through questioning—to encourage critical thinking and curiosity among students. Ty and Leilani share how asking 'why' and 'how' questions helps students learn more effectively and develop problem-solving abilities. They discuss how mentors guide students to make mistakes safely and learn from them, which leads to deeper understanding and confidence. This method fosters independence and a genuine interest in learning trades.
Hands-On Learning and Making Mistakes
The podcast underscores that experiential learning, including making mistakes, is vital for mastering trades. Examples include students brazing for the first time, making joints with leaks, and struggling with tools—activities that create memorable learning moments. The hosts stress the importance of letting students experiment and fail safely, which equips them with real-world skills and resilience. They also describe how mentoring students through mistakes helps reinforce lessons and build skills more effectively than traditional instruction.
Building Curiosity and Respect for the Trades
Encouraging curiosity is presented as a key to attracting young people to trades. The hosts explain how engaging activities, such as construction projects and electrical work, spark interest. They emphasize that exposing kids to trades in a fun, hands-on way helps develop respect for skilled work and broadens their understanding of different career paths. They hope that early positive experiences foster a lifelong respect for tradespeople and their work.
The GRIT Foundation and Its Resources
Leilani and Ty detail their efforts through the GRIT Foundation, which provides tools, guides, and courses to help mentors teach trades to youth. They discuss how their flexible approach allows mentors to adapt lessons without strict rules, emphasizing problem-solving and curiosity. They also mention their upcoming courses designed to equip more mentors with the Socratic method, encouraging community engagement in trade education. The foundation’s goal is to improve access and respect for trades through hands-on experience.
Community Engagement and Mentorship
The episode highlights the importance of community involvement in trade education. Mentors are encouraged to volunteer, share skills, and inspire kids, emphasizing that helping others learn trades is a meaningful way to address skilled labor shortages. Details about how to become a mentor, including contacting the hosts and joining courses, are provided. The hosts reflect on their personal experiences and the rewarding impact of mentoring, both on students and mentors themselves.
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Show notes
In this short podcast from the Bry-X stage of the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium, Ty Branaman and Leilani Orr talk about how to teach kids the trades. They share lessons they've learned from the GRIT Foundation and over their careers as trades and home educators. Their approaches have evolved over the years, and GRIT has also evolved quite a bit from its beginnings.
Leilani and Ty have found that the Socratic method is great for getting students to think critically; instead of spoon-feeding answers, teachers ask the students "why" and "how" questions. In GRIT Camps, mentors are there to keep students safe and guide them when needed, but mentors ultimately let students make mistakes and figure things out on their own. Students often make leaky joints when they braze for the first time, but it's their first time holding torches and most of the tools used at GRIT Camp.
Making mistakes is crucial to the learning process. The mistakes we (and the students) make with our own hands also stick with us more than being told how to do a task the right way. Then, when students struggle, we can ask if they want to know a shortcut; they give their mentors permission to show them the right way. This method builds curiosity, and it allows students to get excited about a career in the trades or realize that the trades aren't for them but still walk away with hands-on skills and a newfound respect for the trades.
Many tradespeople take the trade skills they learned as children for granted, as many children nowadays don't develop the same hands-on skills. The GRIT Foundation has a course that teaches mentors to teach students those hands-on skills that already seem like second nature to them. Even so, the course is just a guide, not something that needs to be followed to the letter. Many of the concepts taught in the guide and that mentors use at GRIT Camp also apply to apprentices.
Learn more about the GRIT Foundation at https://www.thegritfoundation.com/.
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