As most high school students are eager to get behind the steering wheel, a new class offered at West Central Valley High School teaches what’s underneath the hood of a vehicle and more.

This semester is the first for the basic automotive maintenance course, as well as for the teaching career of the new industrial arts instructor Cody Nelson. The elective is open to 9-12th graders and features classroom instruction and lab projects where students will perform oil changes, brake pad replacements, tire rotations, and diagnostic work.

It was time spent in his own high school auto maintenance course and from the mentorship of his teacher that led Nelson to this career, “The goals for this class is just to scratch the surface of what they could get into if they decide to follow this as a career. At the very least if they want nothing to do with this as a career they at least will have the knowledge to change their own oil in their driveway, if they have the gear, if they want to. They can understand the quality of tires, because you hear so much about the horror stories about people getting taken advantage of when they have no knowledge of their vehicle and they don’t know what needs fixed. So hopefully this would prevent that and they can do some work of their own and hopefully save some money if they don’t want to do it professionally.”

The first couple weeks of the class have been focused on textbook instruction and learning safety procedures, but Nelson says the students will soon be working on their own vehicles, those belonging to staff, and anyone else who’s interested at the new shop located in the bus barn. He’s also planning on collaborating with Karl Chevrolet in Stuart and Des Moines Area Community College for field trips and other educational opportunities.