Twenty-two Texas high school teachers attended a three-day shortcourse last summer on teaching fabrication skills through the construction of a gooseneck stock trailer. Taught by Dr. Billy Harrell and ag mech students, Robert Cockcroft and Joel Haby, the workshop was held at the Brackett High School Agricultural Science Building. John Paul Schuster, agriscience teacher at Brackett High School, hosted the shortcourse. The Brackettville FFA chapter will use the 16 by 5-foot gooseneck trailer built in the shortcourse. A similar workshop is being planned for the coming summer at Jack C. Hays High School in Buda, Texas. Interested teachers may contact Billy Harrell at (936) 294-1214 for dates and details.

Billy Harrell and Joe Muller cooperated with the John Deere Tech Program faculty at Navarro College to conduct a two-day shortcourse on applied tractor hydraulics. Dr. Steve Thompson, program director at Navarro College, and Brian Crouch and Ron Morning, instructors, hosted the shortcourse. Sixteen teachers attended and had the opportunity to use state-of-the-art test equipment to perform tests on tractor hydraulic systems. An electronics workshop is being planned for next summer.

SHSU has been conducting Agricultural Mechanics Certification Workshops for the Texas Education Agency since the summer of 1981. Over 20 three-week workshops have been conducted since its inception with approximately 400 agriscience teachers from across Texas attaining agricultural mechanics certification at SHSU. This past summer's workshop was the first to be held in the fabrication lab and classroom at the new Agricultural Mechanization and Technology Center.