Bethlehem Votech held its annual open house last recently. The open house is an event held where parents, friends, and anyone else that's interested are allowed to tour the school and see what goes on in the classrooms. Each class gives a little presentation on what their skill is all about and each class does it differently.

For example, the electronics engineering and manufacturing branch set up a stand in the main lobby of the Tech having the students demonstrate the different types of technology they created throughout the year, including robots, magnets, etc. The electrical construction branch did something similar as well, where its members set up a stand in the main lobby and explained to the attendees what they learned in their class and the projects they created, such as the basics of running switches to lights and more complicated topics such as motor control of electric switches. They also showed people pictures of themselves working at different sites with different equipment and had some of the equipment used on display for people to examine hands on for themselves.

The open house also offered stand giving out information on Skills USA which is a sort of contest/festival held every year in which students from all across the country are given an opportunity to compete and display the skills they have learned in their shops against others on a state level. If they are deemed skilled enough and win the competition on a state level, they can advance to nationals in which they will be facing other students from across the country.

"This open house I really great. I learned a lot about all of the different types of trades the students are learning this year," said one person asked what he thought of the open house. If you're interested in finding out what BAVTS is about, perhaps you should come to the annual open house next year and see for yourself.

Students from the Bethlehem Vo-Tech participated in the Emmaus horror film festival this year. The film festival requires students from all over the Lehigh Valley and from middle to high school to create a short horror film for the season of October, and I'm sure you can guess why it's a horror film festival in October. The films had to be six minutes in length and were only allowed to be produced in a three-day time period and had to be submitted at 6 p.m. Oct. 16. Films deemed good enough to reach the finals were shown in the Emmaus Theater Oct. 28 and the winner of the contest received a $225 cash prize. Runners up received a $50 prize as well, and three generously filled gift baskets were given to the winner of the best show awards.