Phil Meaney has been teaching Technology Education in the Oswego City School District for eight years. Five of those were spent teaching the “Project Lead the Way” program at Oswego High School and the other three teaching “Introduction to Technology” and “Gateway to Technology” at the middle school.

Meaney has received extensive professional development training certified by “Project Lead the Way” to teach a pre- engineering program at both the high school and middle school levels.

He grew up in Oswego and graduated from Oswego High School in 1981. Phil spent the next 15 years working as a site contractor in the local area. After returning to college in his mid-thirties, Meaney received his Masters degree in Technology Education from Oswego State in 2007.

Beginning in the fall of 2011, Oswego Middle School began offering “Gateway to Technology” (GTT) at the 8th grade level, which he has been trained and currently teaches. GTT was a new program for 2011 that allows students to gain experience and insight into the world of engineering in a fun and exciting way. The focus of this class is on the application of science technology, engineering, and math concepts (STEM). “Gateway to Technology” acts as a feeder program to the high school that offers “Project Lead the Way” at a more advanced level. The course work at the high school level includes “Design and Drawing for Production”, “Computer Integrated Manufacturing”, “Civil Engineering and Architecture”, “Digital electronics and Engineering Design and Development”. These courses prepare students for a career in engineering.

During the most recent school year, students at the middle school were busy learning “Computer Aided Design” (CAD) skills by developing and producing tree ornaments for the classroom holiday tree with Autodesk Inventor software. It is an engaging activity that allows all students to participate in the celebration of their individual holidays. Students are encouraged to be creative and original. Each student created multiple designs to take home for their own decoration, but in return, they had an opportunity to place one of their creations on the classroom tree as a holiday contribution to the class. This activity is a great way to give students hours of practice, developing CAD skills that result in projects that they may take home and give to friends and family as gifts for the holidays. After a student completes a 3D model on Autodesk, the file is exported and sent to the laser cutter in the classroom. The laser cutter is able to cut and etch onto various materials such as plastic, glass, cardboard, stone and tile, fabric and metal. For this project, students use acrylic that has been generously donated by Rob and Peter Raby, of Raby’s Ace Homecenter in Oswego.

Students who have taken courses with Meaney have been given the opportunity to apply scientific concepts, develop mathematical models, and engage in multi-faceted engineering problems using state of the art computer software and machinery. They were given an opportunity to learn about technology and utilize the process of design to create multiple solutions to open-ended problems, much like engineers do in the real world, but at a more basic level. Students are actively engaged in their learning through hands on projects that are built and executed by using “Laser Cutting Technology”, CNC milling machines, Jointed Arm Robotics Technology, Computer Aided Design and Simulation Software packages combined with 21st century equipped fabrication and material processing laboratories.

Oswego City School District is fortunate to have Meaney as he is positive, works well with the students and continues to offer students engaging assignments that support the 21st century skills today’s students need for the future.

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