Photo courtesy of Copper Country Intermediate School District

HANCOCK – Sparks flew and molten metal poured as local high school students took their manufacturing skills to the collegiate level. Through a trailblazing partnership between the Copper Country Intermediate School District’s (CCISD) Career and Technical Education (CTE) program and Michigan Technological University (MTU), second-year CTE Welding and Manufacturing students recently completed the Spring 2026 Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship and Learning (METAL) Program: Casting Your Future Bootcamp – an immersive, 30-hour deep dive into advanced metallurgical engineering and design.

Collaborative outreach is a significant component of a grant secured by Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Assistant Professor Allie Glover. Led by the MSE outreach team and Peter Murr, CCISD CTE Welding and Manufacturing Instructor, this pilot program was designed to connect local students with university-level metal design and engineering. A dozen second-year CTE students representing high schools across Houghton and Keweenaw counties traveled from the CCISD Career Tech Center in Hancock to MTU’s campus (and further), utilizing the university’s cutting-edge laboratories for a hands-on extension of their standard welding and manufacturing curriculum.

“This partnership with MTU allows our students to take the foundational skills they’ve learned in the CTE Welding and Manufacturing program and apply them in a state-of-the-art university setting,” said Murr. “Giving these second-year students access to university-level engineering concepts and real-world foundry environments is an incredible opportunity for students to connect what they learn even further to the high-demand careers in the trades and manufacturing.”

Throughout the bootcamp, students engaged in a comprehensive curriculum that bridged design, engineering, and manufacturing. Key hands-on activities included:

• Using CAD software to create personalized 3D inserts for campfire pans.

• Utilizing InspireCast to design highly efficient molds and to create personalized match plates.

• Mechanically testing heat-treated and non-heat-treated metal samples.

• Creating mini green sand molds to pour tin METAL logos and finishing brass METAL medallions.

• Assembling Chembond Molds to successfully pour, shake out, and finish their custom campfire pans.

“Working with the CCISD CTE Welding and Manufacturing students was great for our MSE foundry team,” said Peter Jaszczak, MSE lab associate and foundry staff. “They made our job in the foundry easy because the students were engaged and brought prior knowledge and skills with them from welding to produce the best castings.” Participants cast four different metals (aluminum, bronze, iron, and tin) using four different methods.

Izzy Jaszczak, MSE engineer and academic advisor, oversees the program content. She said, “One challenge is modifying the activities from collegiate to a connectable level for participants. I was impressed with their effort and persistence with the casting but also the materials testing and computer simulations.”

The bootcamp concluded with a tour of the Iron Mountain Foundry (formerly Grede) in Kingsford. Students witnessed large-scale manufacturing firsthand, observing 3D resin/sand mold printers, green sand mold lines, molten iron mold fill lines, continuous pour ingot lines, and advanced robotics performing grinding and finishing to precise specifications. For both students and chaperones, the foundry visit was a high point. “No matter how many YouTube videos you’ve watched, to see the glow and feel the heat of a casting done live is huge for those students,” said Izzy.

Corey Soumis, CCISD CTE Director reported that all local school district superintendents and principals were very supportive of the trial run of the METAL program collaboration with MTU and successfully included participation from area high school students enrolled as second-year CTE Welding and Manufacturing students at the CCISD Career Tech Center in Hancock, including: 3 from Hancock High School, 2 from Calumet High School, 2 from Chassell High School, 2 from Jeffers High School, 1 from Dollar Bay High School, 1 from Houghton High School, 1 from Lake Linden-Hubbell High School, and 1 homeschool student.

Following the success of this year’s camp, Soumis said he hopes the collaboration between CTE and MTU will continue with the expansion of the METAL Bootcamp opportunity to include second-year students enrolled in the CCISD CTE Welding and Manufacturing program in Baraga County as well. Two scholarship supported sessions of METAL Bootcamp: Casting Your Future is also offered as part of the Michigan Tech Summer Youth Program.