CapoVelo.com, Mid-Life Cycling - Blogs cover new college bike program

CapoVelo.com: An American College Introduces Degree in Bicycle Design and Fabrication 

According to Minnesota State College, its southeast campus in Red Wing will offer a two-year associates degree program in Bicycle Design and Fabrication in the fall of 2019. 

"Where we live in the Upper Mississippi (River) area is the most engineering- and manufacturing-dense area of the country. It's unbelievable how much high-tech employment there is here," said Travis Thul, MSC Southeast's dean of trade and technology. "And you combine that with a very, very low unemployment rate, and it becomes very difficult to try to reach out to young people and inspire them to get into this unbelievably critical career field, which includes welding, machining, fabrication -- the core, core technical programs that are critical to our long-term viability."

The bicycle program was inspired in part by the college's highly popular Guitar Repair and Building curriculum track, which teaches skills translatable to woodworking and other crafts. But the guitar program does not support the region's economic base in advanced manufacturing, Thul noted. 

Read the full story: http://capovelo.com/an-american-college-introduces-degree-in-bicycle-design-and-fabrication/

Mid-Life Cycling: Making Bikes in Minnesota 

Justine Valinotti, 11/10/18 

Minnesota State College Southeast, in the city of Red Wing, has a guitar repair and building program.  That program has a waiting list.

So, why am I mentioning it in this blog?  

Well, folks at the college realized that the reason why so many students signed up for the program is something every educator knows:  Students will be engaged, work hard and learn well when teachers encourage students to work on something that fits their passions.  

That is a scenario Travis Thul, the college's Dean of Trade and Technology, wanted to replicate in another program he's helping to create.  He says the college was looking for something that has "unique, tangible emotional appeal" while, at the same time, "encompassing the core competencies of mass manufacturing."  

Read the full story: http://midlifecycling.blogspot.com/2018/11/making-bike-in-minnesota.html