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These aren’t yesterday’s budding car mechanics. High school students in the automotive technician programs at Bangor’s United Technologies Center are learning computer software and hardware design, electronic theory, and the diagnosis and repair of systems that weren’t even off the drawing board, let alone under the hood, a few years ago. “It’s incredibly complex,” says Greg Miller, who has been UTC’s director for the past eight years. “Everything in your car is run by computers now, from antilock brakes to traction controls. Everything is based on electronic theory. And it can be very lucrative work.”
But training the auto techs of the future is only one of many things going on inside the large brick complex on the corner of Mount Hope Avenue and Hogan Road.
United Technologies Center is a regional technical high school, one of 26 in the state. Its students come from public and private high schools in 31 communities in the Greater Bangor area that comprise Maine Vocational Region #4. Students attend UTC half-time, in either the morning or the afternoon, and spend the remainder of the day at their regular high school, or “sending school.” While a minority who graduate from UTC go straight into a career, most (75%) go on to a two- or four-year college, often with a money-saving jumpstart: The high school juniors and seniors at UTC can earn college credits at most regional colleges, and certain credits are transferable throughout the University of Maine system.
The high school program serves between 450 and 500 students, offering 18 different academic programs taught by about 20 full-time staff members. While many tech schools are heavily male, enrollment here runs at least one-third female, and there are waiting lists for all programs. Students with scheduling conflicts with their sending school may also attend UTC’s academic centerfor credits in English, algebra, geometry, U.S. and world history, and other subjects.
It’s a hands-on place. There are a few conventional classrooms, but most of the work takes place in interactive settings that look more like places of business than schoolrooms.
Simply walk inside the building and it’s clear: This is not your typical high school. The lobby is lined with wood and glass store facades, salvaged from the Bangor Mall, showcasing everything from school logowear to a mini automotive museum, all rebuilt by faculty and students. “Whenever a store closes at the mall, our faculty and students salvage everything they can,” says Merle Adams, UTC’s dean of students.
Turn left, and you’ll enter a huge automotive and heavy equipment wing, where students work on everything from motorbikes to passenger cars to front-end loaders. In the same building, a group of students is designing a machine to put mustard on a hot dog. Another classroom group sends messages to a robot two rooms away and monitors its progress on a video screen. Culinary arts students are upstairs, preparing a meal for their weekly public lunch (today’s menu features fried calamari). Across the hall in the photonics lab, a wall display connected to the roof’s solar panels gives a constant readout of the energy being absorbed. Downstairs, a team of young carpenters and electricians works on the wiring of what will be a full-sized home.
It’s all part of an approach Adams calls “rigor relevance,” a term coined by reknowned educator William Daggett. Adams explains: “We help students who don’t necessarily learn in a traditional way take the academic rigor of their regular high school courses and apply it to something that’s relevant to them. For instance, when they start building a utility shed, geometry suddenly starts to make sense.”
All the wiring, plumbing, and heating construction in said shed conforms to industry standards, Adams adds. “They’re learning the real thing; we don’t water it down. These students work very hard, and at a much higher level than many of them ever thought they could.” The work pays off: In fields requiring state or federal licensure, most have credentials, such as licensed electrical, before or immediately after graduation.
In the robotics lab, Sam Eaton, a Brewer High School student who plans to enter the U.S. Navy after graduation, sends commands to a mobile robot he can see only on a video screen. This particular robot has been designed to enter weapons storage facilities and remove plutonium canisters. In reality, the robot is no larger than a boom box, the storage facility is an artificially constructed maze in another room, and the containers of plutonium are represented by red plastic cups. But the skills Eaton has learned are real, and have real-world applications. “This sort of combines everything I want to get into—computers, electronics, robotics, and automation,” Eaton says.
The lab is an interesting amalgam of the everyday and the extraordinary. From simple beginnings—a guitar tuner transformed into a two-way radio that can send and receive signals at a range of five miles— students make use of readily available materials to construct smart machines they can command with the touch of a button. “If you bring your lunch in a Tupperware container, watch out, they’ll build it into something,” Adams says.
Something, perhaps, like the UTC Explorer, which traveled to the town of Bishkek, in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan—and was controlled via satellite by students in Bangor.
“We had some middle school students in for a tour, as we frequently do,” Miller explains. “One of them asked how far away they could send a robot and still be able to communicate with it. Our kids thought about it, and said there was no reason the thing couldn’t work halfway around the world. That’s how the idea originated.”
Robotics teacher Ron Canarr contacted his brother Rick, who was serving with the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan, and the wheels were literally set in motion. The robot, created from $200 in parts (including wheels cadged from a baby stroller) is controlled by a $300 used laptop sitting atop its foot-high frame. The unit was shipped overseas earlier this year, where it had to pass through the military’s strict security system. And, like NASA’s space probes, the UTC Explorer has redundancies built in so that if one part fails, the robot will continue to function.
“Just like with NASA’s Mars rovers, once the robot goes over the side, you can’t go out and service it,” Miller says. “The students programmed another laptop with exactly the same configuration, which lets them troubleshoot from here.”
Thirty students worked on the robot, which is equipped with a web camera mounted on a mobile arm. “The robot can converse with the troops,” Miller says. “Students were typing in messages over here, and the robot would speak them over there. It’s pretty amazing.”
That last sentence could apply to the entire UTC complex, which houses, in addition to the school, a thriving continuing education program for adults, the offices for Literacy Volunteers of Bangor, and a state-of-the-art photonics laboratory established with a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. Miller estimates that between 750 and 1,000 adults are enrolled in the continuing education programs annually.
The building’s second-floor auditorium—which students helped construct from four smaller rooms—hosts business conferences and meetings. To one side of the room are several metal sculptures by welding student Cresencio Esparza, made from scraps. A few of the young man’s works have been purchased by art admirers attending meetings there.
The students in the culinary arts program operate an on-site restaurant, called Culinary Delights, which they open one day each week when school is in session to all comers. The students prepare and serve all the food, and run all aspects of the eatery, including cleanup. According to Adams, the restaurant is a big hit with the school’s staff as well as patrons.
Another popular course is Ritchie Palmer’s public safety program, which he describes as a combination of emergency medical services, firefighting, and law enforcement skills. Students must be sponsored by a local public safety department from one of the 31 communities in the region. Palmer says the program saves the towns money and time—and, potentially, lives.
“Eighty-five percent of what firefighters do is rescue,” he says. “These kids are getting state-certifiable training.” Many students, in fact, will graduate with Firefighter 1 certification and are ready to take their state EMT exam.
“In outlying areas,” Palmer says, “where most public safety service is done by volunteers, one of the biggest complaints is that the training takes too much time. These kids will already have this under their belts. The community won’t have to provide that for them.”
Unlike a regular high school, the mix of people is always changing. That’s because of the many adult education programs going on in the same building. “We see the building as a real community resource,” Miller says. “We’re open from six in the morning to nine at night, and there’s always something going on. People are continually surprised at all the stuff we do.”
Continuing education opportunities include: coursework for Maine guide certification, scuba diving, pilot ground school, welding and carpentry, basic home landscaping, pool and spa care, computer technology, and the certified nursing assistant (CNA) program.
Jennifer McBee runs the business software training program at UTC, which helps local businesses by providing inexpensive and effective computer instruction for their employees. From one-day software “boot camps” to specialized classes tailored to a business’s specific needs, the computer lab remains busy throughout the calendar year.
“I love having people from the business community come in during the school day, when the kids can see them,” she says. “It really sends a message that learning is a lifelong process.”
Interaction with local businesses has been one of the keys to UTC’s success, Miller believes. “Successful education and a successful economy are inextricably linked,” he says. “The vast majority of students that attend UTC will be living and working in the Greater Bangor area. They’ll be very much the anchors that hold the community together in the future.”
Many students are already involved in business apprenticeships. “We have students all over the place, at every shop in Bangor,” says George Bergeron, who teaches outdoor power and recreation equipment technology. Bergeron, who owns a marine services business in Milford, stands alongside a row of outboard motors in various stages of disassembly. Motorcycles and chain saws, ATVs and snowmobiles—some whole, others in pieces—surround him. “The students call this the toy store,” he says.
The ability to understand and repair these real-life “toys” translates into career opportunities. Many area auto dealerships, for instance, participate in pre-apprenticeship programs that allow UTC graduates to work part-time and go to college part-time. “The state even picks up part of their tuition,” Merle Adams says.
In Valerie Clapp’s information technology class, students are learning web design and game development, including computer graphics and animation. One group of students designed and created their own video game from scratch. “We’ve had four students go on to Full Sail media school in Florida, which is very prestigious—it’s one of the places where George Lucas and Spielberg go looking for talent,” she says.
And in another part of the building, students get to operate high-definition earth-moving equipment simulators donated by Sargent Corporation. The students then got a chance to operate the real thing, when they worked with Sargent replacing UTC’s front lawn and installing landscaping.
In Dave Berry’s commercial video communication class, students prepare for a statewide contest in which creative teams will have four hours to create a one-minute TV commercial. “The thrust is marketing,” Berry says, “but we’re also doing PSA (public service announcements), and some kids are interested in doing theatrical stuff.” He says it’s a constant challenge to keep up with new innovations. “I teach them how to create the illusion, how to write and produce a video,” he says. “On the technology end of it, the kids are pushing me.”
Academic standards at UTC are high, and qualifying students can earn college credits before they graduate. One recent automotive student, Megan Whittlesey of Winterport, a Hampden Academy 2007 graduate, earned 18 college credits while winning a gold medal in the statewide SkillsUSA competition (see sidebar), before representing Maine in a national competition in Missouri. This fall, she’s attending Central Maine Community College with second-semester standing.
“We’ve tried to create a school climate that contributes to success,” Adams says. “The students are very focused. They’re here because they want to be here. We treat them like adults, because they’re moving into an adult world.”
Miller is quick to credit the school’s “amazing” staff for creating and fostering that climate. “They really care deeply about the students,” he says. “Some of them arrive at five in the morning and are still here at night.”
Adams agrees. “They get the students excited about learning, and that in turn allows the students to develop more confidence in themselves.”
“We’re training people how to become lifelong learners,” Miller says, “and to instill the idea that learning is exciting. Given the rapid pace of technology, if you don’t get updated every year, you’re quickly going to become obsolete.”
Nowhere is this more true, he adds, than under the hoods of the increasingly complicated cars Americans use in their daily lives. “The hybrid technology that seems so cutting-edge today is actually going to be a transitional technology to whatever emerges in the post-fossil fuel era,” he says. “We’re going to need people who can keep up with the changes. People who know how to learn—efficiently, effectively, and enthusiastically.”
But training the auto techs of the future is only one of many things going on inside the large brick complex on the corner of Mount Hope Avenue and Hogan Road.
United Technologies Center is a regional technical high school, one of 26 in the state. Its students come from public and private high schools in 31 communities in the Greater Bangor area that comprise Maine Vocational Region #4. Students attend UTC half-time, in either the morning or the afternoon, and spend the remainder of the day at their regular high school, or “sending school.” While a minority who graduate from UTC go straight into a career, most (75%) go on to a two- or four-year college, often with a money-saving jumpstart: The high school juniors and seniors at UTC can earn college credits at most regional colleges, and certain credits are transferable throughout the University of Maine system.
The high school program serves between 450 and 500 students, offering 18 different academic programs taught by about 20 full-time staff members. While many tech schools are heavily male, enrollment here runs at least one-third female, and there are waiting lists for all programs. Students with scheduling conflicts with their sending school may also attend UTC’s academic centerfor credits in English, algebra, geometry, U.S. and world history, and other subjects.
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It’s a hands-on place. There are a few conventional classrooms, but most of the work takes place in interactive settings that look more like places of business than schoolrooms.
Simply walk inside the building and it’s clear: This is not your typical high school. The lobby is lined with wood and glass store facades, salvaged from the Bangor Mall, showcasing everything from school logowear to a mini automotive museum, all rebuilt by faculty and students. “Whenever a store closes at the mall, our faculty and students salvage everything they can,” says Merle Adams, UTC’s dean of students.
Turn left, and you’ll enter a huge automotive and heavy equipment wing, where students work on everything from motorbikes to passenger cars to front-end loaders. In the same building, a group of students is designing a machine to put mustard on a hot dog. Another classroom group sends messages to a robot two rooms away and monitors its progress on a video screen. Culinary arts students are upstairs, preparing a meal for their weekly public lunch (today’s menu features fried calamari). Across the hall in the photonics lab, a wall display connected to the roof’s solar panels gives a constant readout of the energy being absorbed. Downstairs, a team of young carpenters and electricians works on the wiring of what will be a full-sized home.
It’s all part of an approach Adams calls “rigor relevance,” a term coined by reknowned educator William Daggett. Adams explains: “We help students who don’t necessarily learn in a traditional way take the academic rigor of their regular high school courses and apply it to something that’s relevant to them. For instance, when they start building a utility shed, geometry suddenly starts to make sense.”
All the wiring, plumbing, and heating construction in said shed conforms to industry standards, Adams adds. “They’re learning the real thing; we don’t water it down. These students work very hard, and at a much higher level than many of them ever thought they could.” The work pays off: In fields requiring state or federal licensure, most have credentials, such as licensed electrical, before or immediately after graduation.
In the robotics lab, Sam Eaton, a Brewer High School student who plans to enter the U.S. Navy after graduation, sends commands to a mobile robot he can see only on a video screen. This particular robot has been designed to enter weapons storage facilities and remove plutonium canisters. In reality, the robot is no larger than a boom box, the storage facility is an artificially constructed maze in another room, and the containers of plutonium are represented by red plastic cups. But the skills Eaton has learned are real, and have real-world applications. “This sort of combines everything I want to get into—computers, electronics, robotics, and automation,” Eaton says.
The lab is an interesting amalgam of the everyday and the extraordinary. From simple beginnings—a guitar tuner transformed into a two-way radio that can send and receive signals at a range of five miles— students make use of readily available materials to construct smart machines they can command with the touch of a button. “If you bring your lunch in a Tupperware container, watch out, they’ll build it into something,” Adams says.
Something, perhaps, like the UTC Explorer, which traveled to the town of Bishkek, in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan—and was controlled via satellite by students in Bangor.
“We had some middle school students in for a tour, as we frequently do,” Miller explains. “One of them asked how far away they could send a robot and still be able to communicate with it. Our kids thought about it, and said there was no reason the thing couldn’t work halfway around the world. That’s how the idea originated.”
Robotics teacher Ron Canarr contacted his brother Rick, who was serving with the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan, and the wheels were literally set in motion. The robot, created from $200 in parts (including wheels cadged from a baby stroller) is controlled by a $300 used laptop sitting atop its foot-high frame. The unit was shipped overseas earlier this year, where it had to pass through the military’s strict security system. And, like NASA’s space probes, the UTC Explorer has redundancies built in so that if one part fails, the robot will continue to function.
“Just like with NASA’s Mars rovers, once the robot goes over the side, you can’t go out and service it,” Miller says. “The students programmed another laptop with exactly the same configuration, which lets them troubleshoot from here.”
Thirty students worked on the robot, which is equipped with a web camera mounted on a mobile arm. “The robot can converse with the troops,” Miller says. “Students were typing in messages over here, and the robot would speak them over there. It’s pretty amazing.”
That last sentence could apply to the entire UTC complex, which houses, in addition to the school, a thriving continuing education program for adults, the offices for Literacy Volunteers of Bangor, and a state-of-the-art photonics laboratory established with a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. Miller estimates that between 750 and 1,000 adults are enrolled in the continuing education programs annually.
The building’s second-floor auditorium—which students helped construct from four smaller rooms—hosts business conferences and meetings. To one side of the room are several metal sculptures by welding student Cresencio Esparza, made from scraps. A few of the young man’s works have been purchased by art admirers attending meetings there.
The students in the culinary arts program operate an on-site restaurant, called Culinary Delights, which they open one day each week when school is in session to all comers. The students prepare and serve all the food, and run all aspects of the eatery, including cleanup. According to Adams, the restaurant is a big hit with the school’s staff as well as patrons.
Another popular course is Ritchie Palmer’s public safety program, which he describes as a combination of emergency medical services, firefighting, and law enforcement skills. Students must be sponsored by a local public safety department from one of the 31 communities in the region. Palmer says the program saves the towns money and time—and, potentially, lives.
“Eighty-five percent of what firefighters do is rescue,” he says. “These kids are getting state-certifiable training.” Many students, in fact, will graduate with Firefighter 1 certification and are ready to take their state EMT exam.
“In outlying areas,” Palmer says, “where most public safety service is done by volunteers, one of the biggest complaints is that the training takes too much time. These kids will already have this under their belts. The community won’t have to provide that for them.”
Unlike a regular high school, the mix of people is always changing. That’s because of the many adult education programs going on in the same building. “We see the building as a real community resource,” Miller says. “We’re open from six in the morning to nine at night, and there’s always something going on. People are continually surprised at all the stuff we do.”
Continuing education opportunities include: coursework for Maine guide certification, scuba diving, pilot ground school, welding and carpentry, basic home landscaping, pool and spa care, computer technology, and the certified nursing assistant (CNA) program.
Jennifer McBee runs the business software training program at UTC, which helps local businesses by providing inexpensive and effective computer instruction for their employees. From one-day software “boot camps” to specialized classes tailored to a business’s specific needs, the computer lab remains busy throughout the calendar year.
“I love having people from the business community come in during the school day, when the kids can see them,” she says. “It really sends a message that learning is a lifelong process.”
Interaction with local businesses has been one of the keys to UTC’s success, Miller believes. “Successful education and a successful economy are inextricably linked,” he says. “The vast majority of students that attend UTC will be living and working in the Greater Bangor area. They’ll be very much the anchors that hold the community together in the future.”
Many students are already involved in business apprenticeships. “We have students all over the place, at every shop in Bangor,” says George Bergeron, who teaches outdoor power and recreation equipment technology. Bergeron, who owns a marine services business in Milford, stands alongside a row of outboard motors in various stages of disassembly. Motorcycles and chain saws, ATVs and snowmobiles—some whole, others in pieces—surround him. “The students call this the toy store,” he says.
The ability to understand and repair these real-life “toys” translates into career opportunities. Many area auto dealerships, for instance, participate in pre-apprenticeship programs that allow UTC graduates to work part-time and go to college part-time. “The state even picks up part of their tuition,” Merle Adams says.
In Valerie Clapp’s information technology class, students are learning web design and game development, including computer graphics and animation. One group of students designed and created their own video game from scratch. “We’ve had four students go on to Full Sail media school in Florida, which is very prestigious—it’s one of the places where George Lucas and Spielberg go looking for talent,” she says.
And in another part of the building, students get to operate high-definition earth-moving equipment simulators donated by Sargent Corporation. The students then got a chance to operate the real thing, when they worked with Sargent replacing UTC’s front lawn and installing landscaping.
In Dave Berry’s commercial video communication class, students prepare for a statewide contest in which creative teams will have four hours to create a one-minute TV commercial. “The thrust is marketing,” Berry says, “but we’re also doing PSA (public service announcements), and some kids are interested in doing theatrical stuff.” He says it’s a constant challenge to keep up with new innovations. “I teach them how to create the illusion, how to write and produce a video,” he says. “On the technology end of it, the kids are pushing me.”
Academic standards at UTC are high, and qualifying students can earn college credits before they graduate. One recent automotive student, Megan Whittlesey of Winterport, a Hampden Academy 2007 graduate, earned 18 college credits while winning a gold medal in the statewide SkillsUSA competition (see sidebar), before representing Maine in a national competition in Missouri. This fall, she’s attending Central Maine Community College with second-semester standing.
“We’ve tried to create a school climate that contributes to success,” Adams says. “The students are very focused. They’re here because they want to be here. We treat them like adults, because they’re moving into an adult world.”
Miller is quick to credit the school’s “amazing” staff for creating and fostering that climate. “They really care deeply about the students,” he says. “Some of them arrive at five in the morning and are still here at night.”
Adams agrees. “They get the students excited about learning, and that in turn allows the students to develop more confidence in themselves.”
“We’re training people how to become lifelong learners,” Miller says, “and to instill the idea that learning is exciting. Given the rapid pace of technology, if you don’t get updated every year, you’re quickly going to become obsolete.”
Nowhere is this more true, he adds, than under the hoods of the increasingly complicated cars Americans use in their daily lives. “The hybrid technology that seems so cutting-edge today is actually going to be a transitional technology to whatever emerges in the post-fossil fuel era,” he says. “We’re going to need people who can keep up with the changes. People who know how to learn—efficiently, effectively, and enthusiastically.”
