Plains school takes unusual field trip

A few weeks ago, the Plains school took a different kind of field trip.

Where most schools will take their kids to a museum or the zoo, Plains took the opportunity to broaden their students’ horizons by taking them to visit Rocky Mountain twist, located outside of Ronan. On Oct. 3 the company threw a special learning day for several of the area’s schools including Plains, Charlo, and Ronan.

This was all to celebrate the month of October, which is as few know, National Manufacturing Awareness Month. Many plants and companies around the country held similar activities throughout the month of October to influence the next generation to keep in their minds on the opportunities of working in manufacturing and production.

Plains took about 15 students, many from the Career Technical Education classes as well as a few of the Vocational Rehabilitation program students on a day trip to visit the facility. It was an all-day excursion.

Rocky Mountain Twist is responsible for making high standard drill bits for numerous companies, including four of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world. They also produce many of the high-end bits sold at Lowes and Home Depot made by Craftsman and others. They also have a high quality inspection rate.

Last year they produced nearly 2.4 million items and of that only 2,107 were returned. The students from the schools got to not only receive several instructive and detailed presentations covering all aspects of production, but also got to participate in many hands-on activities organized by the facility. Rocky Mountain Twist also provided lunch.

As stated before, the students got to see presentations covering all parts of the manufacturing process from marketing to design testing. The facility did presentations on co-sponsorship, accounting, packaging, purchasing, supplies, production and so much more, giving well thought out and interesting presentations that kept the kids engaged.

Many of the presentations were also given by the people who work throughout the company in the fields presented, meaning that the information was being given by firsthand experience. The facility also, as stated before, did several hands-on activities, one of which explained was meant to show the Rockwell hardness testing that bits need to go through to perform at such a peek level.

Rockwell hardness is the measurement of the toughness of a material. The plant also gave away prizes as well as gifts such as lanyards and ball caps. The students from Plains were supervised by School superintendent Thom Chisholm and Tyrel Allen.