Spend a day in Jon Heithold’s classes at Lincoln East High School and you will hear dozens of local places mentioned for their design, their history and their purpose. 

It’s an aspect of his computer-aided design classes that brings life to the walls, chairs and machines that his students design.

It’s also an important part of problem-solving, something he believes is a desired skill.

“I think so much of what we hear anymore is putting someone out there in the workforce that is a problem solver,” Heithold said. “You are given parameters, you are given some constraints, given some criteria, and it’s what you do with all that to lead you and your team of people to come up with a solution.

“Usually (students) work from a design brief, of sorts: here’s the scope of the project, here’s the problem at hand, here are the constraints. We try to empathize that the problem is there is not always one answer. With design there is good, and there is better.”

During the latest Teacher’s Perspective video, Heithold talks about marketing the opportunities of his elective field of study to students and others, making the case for an important field of study and the opportunities abound for students pursuing the field as a possible career. 

“There are abounding opportunities in some of these technology areas,” Heithold said. “And there just a ton of opportunities in terms of good careers, viable salaries that can be even after two years of further education beyond high school, they can be gainfully employed working the engineering architectural field. And more than likely they are going back to get that four-year degree, have their employers paying for it. Trying to get that message across is a big part of the day.”