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CORAL HARBOUR
With their family signs mastered and behind them, a number of industrial arts students at Sakku School in Coral Harbour turned their attention to another special project earlier this month.

Bernard Angootealuk works the lathe while creating a custom pen during an industrial arts class at Sakku School in Coral Harbour earlier this month. - photo courtesy of Paul Yanchus

Students in Grade 10 and Grade 11 are learning about manufacturing through the creation of special custom pens in their shop class.

Teacher Paul Yanchus said the students are using a variety of different materials on the project, including natural and acrylic.

He said he buys the actual pen sets for the project, which are the "guts" that go inside the students' creations.

"The blanks can either be wood, antler, bone or (baleen whale mouth plate)," said Yanchus.

"I've got about half a baleen pen completed, but I'm still experimenting with it.

"We'd look at the marketing aspect later on, if the students can make enough pens to sell online or wherever.

"But we're still in its infancy, with one complete pen coming out of the program so far."

Yanchus said as the students see one can do it, then they all can.

He said they tend to be a bit stand-offish until they see something can be done, and then they're OK with it.

"I have two grades working on the project right now, but, eventually, I'm going to show it to all the students from Grade 4 to Grade 12.

"I started with Grade 10 and 11 because I thought those students were ready.

"I showed them some pens I had made, and one said he wanted to try it, and then another and another.

"So they're starting to show some attraction to it, but it's slow going right now."

Yanchus said it only takes students about three hours of class time to complete a pen, if everything is set up for them.

He said the project provides a great opportunity to discover creative talent some students may not know they possess.

"I made a few pens in my spare time to show the kids so they could see the diverse way they can be created.

"They might take that and then come in with something totally different on their own.

"We even take wood from skids and plane it down, and we find some pretty nice hardwood in there.

"So, once they're comfortable with it, the students can get pretty creative with a project like this."

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