Earning college credit for high school courses has made some students attracted to courses they wouldn’t normally choose to take.

One sophomore at Albert Lea High School, Anna Olson, first took Principles of Engineering because it offered college credits from the University of Minnesota. Her partner in that class, Laura Piper, said she just liked the hands-on projects.

“Even though some are difficult,” Olson chimed in.

Both Olson and Piper are creating a robot made of Fishertechnik construction pieces. The pieces are much like Legos, and the robots are built to sort marbles made of different materials.

“They’re modeling a garbage sorter,” Instructor Mike Sundblad said.

He said much like recycling centers that have robots that separate glass, plastic and other materials, the students’ robots must differentiate materials.

“They’re using sensors to mechanically separate them,” Sundblad said.

Students start out the yearlong course learning about basic physics and looking at different tools and systems. Eventually they made simple projects like conveyer belts that use different features like a wheel, axle, pulley or lever.

Derik DeVries, a senior, was working on a marble separator with John Buringa and Andy Ehrhardt, both sophomores. DeVries said their machine has a light bulb that shines on each marble and senses how much light can shine through. That tells the machine that the marble is black, red or clear, and then it will sort it into different bins.

“We do most of the work ourselves,” DeVries said.

He estimated their group had been working on the project for about two and a half weeks and said they weren’t close to being done yet. One of the biggest parts of the project is creating a computer program that will operate the robot without human interference.

Sundblad said there are three engineering courses at the high school and all qualify for college credit. A student could earn 12 credits just in engineering classes, which could save them a few thousand dollars depending on which college they attend.

Principal Al Root said he’s very happy with the engineering courses and that students are taking the courses to receive college credits.

“It’s an excellent opportunity for students to have challenge and rigor in the classroom,” Root said.

He said he liked that the class uses hands-on and interactive work. Students may see more classes in the future that also offer college credit because of their popularity at the high school. Sundblad said he encourages students to try the engineering courses.

“I do recruiting to classes and to parents,” Sundblad said.

Sundblad also had a graphic design class make posters advertising the engineering classes that are hung in the hallways of ALHS. He also attends Career Day at Southwest Middle School to garner interest in engineering and industrial technology from eighth-graders who will soon choose which classes to take at ALHS.