Published: May 15, 2008 02:01 am         

EDUCATION: Local BOCES students triumph in technology competition

Hands-on education has paid off big-time for Orleans/Niagara BOCES.

Students from Albion and Lockport swept the top three prizes in the cable car division of a top-notch engineering competition in Rochester.

Team spirit, technology and hands-on training did the trick for the local trio. The same skills will likely help the students and their teammates when they go on to college or into the work force.

The competition was at Monroe Community College Engineering Day in Rochester. Students vied against each other in bridge building, sumobots, auto safety car, cable car and a motorcycle build off.

Weight is the enemy in these contests, electricity/electronics teacher Bill Leggett said. The objective is to see how quickly your cable car can make it from one end of the cable to the other and back.

“This is the first year of this competition, and they had 14 competitors,” Leggett said. “I was really excited that they swept the awards.”

Orleans/Niagara BOCES placed third overall in points of the participating schools. Students in each technical vocation program work together collaboratively on designs for the competition, making the victory as much the school’s as it is each individual winner.

“We all had basically the same idea, but we made modifications to it ourselves. All around, what do you think is going to be the fastest (design),” said Chris Fuller, a junior from Lockport, as he explained the designing of the cable cars.

Fuller placed first in the cable car competition while his classmates, Allie Seeloff, also from Lockport, came in second and Marcus Hawkins, a junior from Albion, rounded out the trio of trophies.

“We used aluminum, the lightest possible that we could find,” Fuller said.

Hawkins said while Fuller came up with the basic design for his cable car, he made many of the parts. His overall time, putting him in third, was 8.21 seconds.

With the competition only a little bit behind them, the students are already working on designs for next year’s competition. They will figure out where the glitches are in the current designs, fix them and tweak them in hopes that next year’s times will be faster.

“I think I’m just going to try to get my car at a lighter weight. Use a lighter metal, but use the same design,” Hawkins said. A junior in high school now, Hawkins said he plans to go on to college for either engineering or electronics.

Fuller’s time was 7.28 seconds, giving him the lead over other competitors, and he’s already looking forward to next year’s event when he can try to retain his champion status.

“It was definitely overwhelming. It took a lot of work put into our cable cars overall,” Fuller said. “I’m definitely going to go back next year. I’ve got to defend my title.”

Fuller said he would like to study electrical engineering in college and already has a couple of schools in mind.

Although the day at MCC was fun for all, the students were able to see the science building on campus and also what college is like, to a point. Leggett said the students kind of get that feeling at BOCES while at the high school level “because BOCES is run very much like a college.”

Some of the ways BOCES students use hands-on learning include precision machine technology, electricity/electronics, building trades, multi-occupation and technical exploration programs.

“A lot of schools just don’t have the capabilities (BOCES does) because they don’t have those old machine shops,” Leggett said. “Vocational centers are college level materials. We have a full machine shop. We have access to parts and the time.”

Contact reporter Miranda Vagg at 798-1400, ext. 2225.