Students at Pennridge High School make guitars and ukuleles in elective class

BUCKS COUNTY (WTXF) - Teachers in Bucks County are trying to get students involved with a unique class.

FOX 29 Photojournalist Bill Rohrer has the story.

The students at Pennridge High School are hard at work and this 40-minute special elective class gives them enough time for their projects to take shape. You see the students are making guitars and ukuleles. Some are making electric guitars while others are making acoustic versions.

This all started two years ago when department head Allen Androkites and Teacher Matt Peitzman needed a way to convince nontraditional tech ed. students to take shop class. They came across the STEM guitar program online, which is a a fun way to teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics to kids.

They adopted the program here and It worked. The class has nearly doubled in attendance and has caught the interest in number of female students.

But the learning goes far beyond the classroom, a team of students meet after class a few times a week and compete in Governor Wolf's STEM competition. They have made it all the way to the state finals by building a guitar to give away to a veteran.

There are many lessons these kids will learn from this class, but their teacher hopes pride is one of them.