Butler Tech students are running a business that ships products around the world

A classroom full of high school students usually means textbooks, tests, and homework.

At Butler Tech, it can also mean manufacturing equipment, customer orders and products headed for Australia.

WATCH: Butler Tech students in action as they run a global business.

Students in the school's Mechatronics Engineering program are helping run a business that manufactures and sells specialized cast iron chips to customers around the world.

The chips are used by companies, laboratories and researchers to test industrial oils and coolants. By pouring those fluids over the metal, customers can evaluate how well they protect machinery from corrosion.

For the students, making the product is only one part of the job.

They also handle packaging, shipping, inventory, online orders and customer service. Students have taken on more responsibility for the business as the operation has grown, including managing the website and communicating with customers from around the world.

"Here in lab it feels so small, but then when you get an order from Australia, you know, it feels like wow, like this is really like a global scale, you know, it's like kind of mind-blowing almost," said project lead and student Luca Cailotto.

The work comes with real expectations. Customers are paying for a consistent product, and the students know mistakes can affect whether those customers return.

"I've learned like that quality is important and to take pride in your work because if customers are expecting a certain thing and we're not doing the things that are gonna equate to that, then you're gonna have unhappy customers," said machinist and student Lucas Sawvel.

Students use specialized equipment to sort the chips by size and separate the product that meets the company's standards. They also have to troubleshoot when equipment or the manufacturing process doesn't go as planned.

For Dylan Brown, who serves as project manager for the class, that means keeping track of assignments, making sure tasks are completed and helping the operation stay organized.

"I'm project manager of our class, so I make sure, like, those tasks are in. We have a task tracker, so we make sure we know what tasks need to get done, and I make sure they actually get done and marked off," Brown said.

The experience has also changed what she sees herself doing after high school.

"Before this, I was like, engineering. I didn't even know which one, but now it's more like the business side. I think it's really cool to see like the whole process of it," Brown said.

The business grew out of a partnership with TechSolve, a nonprofit manufacturing operations consulting firm. Butler Tech students had previously manufactured the chips for the organization. As TechSolve moved away from that product line, the students took on more of the operation themselves.

For Mechatronics instructor Ray Frank, the business is a way to teach students skills that are difficult to learn from a textbook.

Frank said students are responsible for managing their work, communicating with one another, meeting deadlines and adapting when something goes wrong. A student CEO helps lead morning meetings, where students discuss what needs to get done and divide up responsibilities.

"I try to make everything experiential learning. I don't wanna lecture and talk to them. I wanna give them experience," Frank said.

That means giving students room to make decisions, and trusting them to follow through.

"The more trust that I give them, the more that they show me that they can earn it," Frank said.

The business also has a direct benefit for students outside of the manufacturing operation: the money it brings in helps fund the school's robotics program.

Students design and build robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition, an intensive project that requires them to work together on engineering, manufacturing and problem-solving. The business helps pay for the materials and equipment needed to make those projects possible.

Frank said the program gives students an opportunity to combine technical skills with business experience and hands-on competition.

For Cailotto, the experience has opened doors he might not have considered otherwise.

"I love it here, and I think that, you know, the opportunities that I've been given... they're really good," he said.

The students may still be in high school, but they're already learning what it takes to keep a business running, one order, one customer and one shipment at a time.