Maine Career and Technical Education Portal

LRVC Graduate Wins the GOLD!!!!!!

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:57:38 -0500

LRVC graduate - Ben Rand - 1998 - earns a Gold Medal in ice carving in Vancouver Cultural Olympiad! Read the article below. This is awesome! Ben was involved in our culinary arts program and went on to graduate from the Balsams!!! We're so proud !!!

Photo courtesy of Benjamin Rand.

Benjamin Rand of Jupiter, Fla., left and Aaric Kendall of Argenta, Illinois next to the ice sculpture they carved at the Winter Olympics.

JUPITER — Abacoa resident Benjamin Rand proudly accepted the gold medal that was draped around his neck in front of thousands at the Vancouver Olympics on Sunday.

Despite the honor, you couldn't find Rand's award in any sports section.

That's because ice-sculpting is part of the Cultural Olympiad, the arts and culture part of the Vancouver Olympics. Other events include music, theater, painting, historical-story telling and architecture.

"When I tell other athletes I'm an ice sculptor, they look at me a little funny. They are even more surprised when I tell them I live in Florida," said Rand, 31.

Rand, whose voicemail says "I'm probably in the freezer," won the two-member team gold medal with Aarick Kendal of Argenta, Ill., 32. The two stacked 10 ice blocks, each weighing 300 pounds, nine feet high to make the statue.

Standing in a tent in 50-degree temperature, Rand and Kendal had 12 hours to finish. Called "Spark of Hope," their sculpture shows a 9-foot-tall woman leaping over a star burst. The artists used hand chisels, a chain saw and a flame thrower.

"The flame thrower gives the sculpture a shiny look," said Rand, who also competed in the Cultural Olympiad in Turin, Italy, in the 2006 Olympics. He came in eighth.

Field Day Fun for Health & Wellness

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:06:34 -0500

Recently LRVC staff and students all participated in a day of health and wellness sponsored by the Portland Pirates Hockey Team. While enjoying the game, students got to learn about healthy lifestyles, nutritional wellness, excersize and much more right from the players themselves on the "JumboTron" screen. Portland Civic Center employees were on hand to organize and assiste the multitue of schools that participated in the days events. Tickets to the event were donated by Dr. Dennis Sullivan, Orthopedic Surgon in Portland, and the culinary arts students even packed everyone a healthy brown back lunch! Great fun for a great cause.

LRVC Advisory Team Meeting

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:21:39 -0500

When the LRVC Advisory Team gets together, it's not all serious business. The team took a break from their February brainstorming to participate in a "hands on" project with the culinary arts students. They even got to take their projects home with them!

Student of the Month for January -- Cindi Bent

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:33:03 -0500

January - Cindi Bent.pdf

LRVC SkillsUSA and FairPoint Communications

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:12:36 -0500

Lake Region Vocational Center students, Dylan Dupee and Angelica Beek display cordless telephones donated by FairPoint Communications. The phones will be used as prizes for SkillsUSA medal winners in Prepared Speech and Extemporaneous Speech contests at the state conference in March.

Graphic Arts Student Wins Poster Contest

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:45:35 -0500

Sanford Regional Vocational Center students aren't the only ones being encouraged to further their education. The York County Senior College hosted a contest for Sanford Regional Vocational Center students in the Graphic Arts program to design a promotional poster. The organization encourages seniors to attend classes in post-secondary education.

Caytlinn Strickland beat out 34 of her classmates to win first place. Caytlinn is in the Graphics Arts program at SRVC and attends Noble High School. She won $25 for her poster design.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:00:00 -0500

Please join us for Parent/Teacher Conferences on Thursday March 18 from 3-4 p.m. and 5-7:30 p.m. Schedules will be sent home in the mail to sign up for a time that works best for you.

LRTC gold medal winners advance to state SkillsUSA Competition

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:49:19 -0500

Recently the Lewiston Regional Technical Center (LRTC) wrapped up its local SkillsUSA competition, students competed in more than 30 career and technical skill areas. Competitions focused on career related skills associated with professions such as: accounting, web design, engineering, construction trades, marketing/entrepreneurship and law enforcement, automotive and many others.

Gold medal winners in each category will advance to represent LRTC at the state SkillsUSA competition in Bangor this March. LRTC will be well represented, sending 61 students, it largest student group to date. Winners at the state competition will represent Maine at the National SkillsUSA in Kansas City.

Critical to the continued success of programs like those at LRTC and SkillsUSA, are partnerships between schools and industry. Businesses and trade groups provide information on industry standards, curriculum, financial support and mentoring opportunities. Locally, many area businesses are active at LRTC, Lee Auto, Hebert Construction, TD Bank, WahlcoMetroflex and the Maine State Police lend various types of support.

Mark Gordon, Director of Fixed Operations for Lee Auto Mall was a judge for one of the automotive competitions. “Programs like those offered at LRTC are vital to our industry. Students receive hands on learning; they gain valuable skills and technical training that puts them ahead of others interested in this profession.”

SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations. Nationally, SkillsUSA serves more than 300,000 students and instructors through 13,000 school chapters in 54 state associations.

Chef Michael Gosselin from The Falls restaurant in Auburn was also a guest judge. Being an LRTC graduate, Lewiston Class of 2002, he knows first hand the importance of a career and technical education. “My experience at LRTC really prepared me for this industry. You get a feel for the skills that are needed to be successful and enough practical knowledge to decide if this is a career for me. If it is, the skills are highly transferable to continuing your education and then moving on in the industry.

UTC STUDENTS GET ROBOTIC "LEG UP" ON PHYSICS

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:17:17 -0500

Twenty-four (24) students from a number of area high schools, participating in the one-year Robotics program at the United Technologies Center in Bangor, will soon be leaving for regional competition in Worcester, MA. The team was established four years ago, and by popular vote of its charter members it was dubbed “FATAL ERROR” – a computer technology term. Computers are what “drive” most of what the team does.

In its short existence, the team has traveled to Hartford and Boston, and this year will be at Massachusetts’s Worcester Poly-Tech, competing from March 10th through 13th. The goal this year was to design a totally maneuverable semi-autonomous robot, capable of maneuvering a soccer ball around an arena, over obstacles as high as 14”, and with the ultimate objective of kicking the soccer ball through a target ring into a goal.

UTC’s robot was designed and built entirely by the students, meeting specified operational parameters chosen from a slate of possible actions, all of which have been presented by FIRST Robotics. “FIRST” is an acronym of “For Inspiration (and) Recognition (of) Science (and) Technology”, a program developed by inventor Dean Kamen, co-founder of Deka Research and Development of Manchester, NH. This year, precisely at 10 a.m. on January 9, each team, nation-wide, was assigned the tasks their robot is to perform.   They all found out simultaneously from the Internet, through a NASA satellite link beamed live from Deka’s headquarters in Manchester. Once the assignment is known, the team – which had met for months in anticipation of this event – begins to actually design the robot. It’s a true team effort.

The robot is built from a $6,000 kit of basic components, purchased from Deka, which arrives a huge plastic bin. The actual configuration of the robot is determined by the students – no two robots look or operate alike. In the case of UTC’s robot, built on a rectangular chassis with a wheeled stationary leg at each corner, its most striking component is a series of “Quonset-style” arches – bright blue “loops” built of PEX tubing obtained from UTC’s Plumbing and Heating Technology department – to provide roll-over protection for the computer and mechanical components. The chassis’s perimeter is protected by fabric-covered dark-blue bumpers, constructed from used “pool noodles” which were donated by the Bangor Y.

All through the design and construction process, the UTC students are working with UTC FIRST Robotics alumni – themselves former UTC students who have moved on into Engineering and Technology programs at both the University of Maine and Eastern Maine Community College. This interaction provides the current UTC students valuable exposure to the area’s higher education programs. The robotics program is very heavily “laced” with physics and engineering, and through robotics the students learn a very solid lesson in the application of principles of both disciplines.

The robot ships out of Bangor on February 23rd, in a 4’x4’x6’ crate. The “FATAL ERROR” Team departs for WPI on March 10th.   During the competition, the entire school can watch their team’s achievements on the Internet, via the NASA Satellite link. During the actual competition, the team-built robot is then driven by one student, while a second student operates the robot’s mechanical kicker.

Ron Canarr, of Orrington, has been the FIRST Robotics instructor for the entire four years. When asked how the school became involved in the competition, he replied, “How can we say this? Former (UTC) director Greg Miller ‘persuaded’ me to try it”. Canarr’s father was an engineer, and he followed in his father’s footsteps. He grew up in a “mechanical environment”, exposed to communications and engineering at an early age. His youth experience included controlling studio communication equipment from a remote location. Though his degree is actually in education, his talent is in technology. In Canarr’s life, robotics is coupled with computers and communication. Today, his students mirror his taste for technology.

Two years ago, a UTC robot was sent by Canarr's mother via U.S. Mail to his brother Rick, stationed in Kyrgyzstan with the U.S. Air Force. Canarr noted that one package carrier wanted $1,000, and another wanted $400. The postage was $60. After uncrating and set-up by Rick Canarr, the robot was operated through a series of complex maneuvers by students at UTC in Bangor, and they watched real-time video of its actions through the same satellite link through which the commands were being sent.

Both Fred Woodman, UTC Director, and Merle Adams, Assistant Director, are very enthusiastic about the program, the team, and its achievements. Adams noted that UTC had frequent visits by teams of educators from the Department of Education in the neighboring Canadian province of New Brunswick. The province had let its technical education program “slip away” about 15 years ago. Its absence began to cause increases in high school drop-out rates, and the lack of a skilled labor force was having a negative effect on the provincial economy.    For the last five years, NB educators have visited various technical education programs in both Canada and the U.S, including UTC, to “observe the (program) framework, take it back (to NB) and modify it to meet their needs, and are rebuilding their technical education program”. After that initial round of visits, their focus and repeat visits have been on UTC, and New Brunswick’s program is now heavily based on principles of the “Rigor, Relevance, Relationships, and Reflection” as developed by Dr. Willard "Bill" Daggett and used by UTC.

Outshone by the thrill of robotic competition, the students aren’t focusing on the physics basics they’ve acquired – they’re there to win! In the meantime, they’re doing area high schools proud, and advancing the cause of technical education!

Written by: Mike Gleason, UTC Staff

UTC Main Office: 207.942.5296

Fred Woodman, Director fwoodman.utc@gmail.com
Merle Adams, Dean of Students madams.utc@gmail.com
Ron Canarr, Robotics Instr rcanarr.utc@gmail.com

Capital Area Technical Center Receives Grant for Wind Turbines

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:00 -0500

Installation of wind turbines at CATC

In April of 2009 the Capital Area Technical Center began a community service initiative in collaboration with the Chelsea Montessori School. Both schools were awarded grant monies to purchase, install, and collect data from four wind turbines. A 33 foot turbine and a 50 foot turbine were installed at each school site by a local expert and CATC Plumbing and Heating students. Students from each school are able to use wireless technology to import data from each turbine. The students then export this data to spreadsheets and compute and compare daily and monthly Kwh production at each school. The data below has been collected by CATC students in an effort to provide the community with accurate information regarding the cost effectiveness of small turbine wind power investment in our area. The average home in Kennebec County uses approximately 500Kwh each month in electricity. Click the link below to see the data obtained from the turbines thus far:

Wind turbine table 2.doc

LRTC Accepting Applications for 2010-2011

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:22:17 -0500

Lewiston Regional Technical Center (LRTC), the career and technical center for students at Edward Little, Oak Hill, Leavitt, Lisbon and Lewiston High School
is accepting applications for the 2010-11 school year.

LRTC offers hands on career-oriented education in 27 different programs.  Offerings range from Accounting to Web Design to Pre Engineering, and Construction trades, Marketing/Entrepreneurship and Multi-Media/Video Production.

Rob Callahan, LRTC's director says that February school vacation provides a great opportunity for 9th through 11th grade students and families to learn more about LRTC.  "By spending just a few minutes on our pages, students and families will realize the opportunities  LRTC can provide for both career and post-secondary prep.  By visiting www.lewiston.mainecte.org students can apply on line."


Callahan suggests that for students who don't wish to apply on line, that along with their parents they should put together a list of questions and visit with their advisor or guidance counselor after February break.

MCST Students help raise funds for youth hockey

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:00:00 -0500

The students of the Mid-Coast School of Technology Marine Technology morning program put a united effort into crafting a 11’ Monhegan skiff that brought $1200 at the Fifth Annual Hat Trick Auction, that was held February 5, to benefit Maine Coast Skaters Association Youth Hockey, the Midcoast Ice Cats, and the Camden Hills Regional High School Windjammers. The idea was brought to the attention of Instructor Richard Irving by Kelly Fogg, mother of MCST Marine Tech student and youth hockey player Tyler Fogg. The students decided that even though there was an unfinished skiff in the shop that they could easily have put the final touches on, they wanted to build one from scratch. Tyler and his classmates, Richard Curtis, Sam Cousens, Chris Knight, Brandon Rich, Patrick O’Donnell and Sam Delano worked hard to meet the deadline of January 27, when all auction items needed to be delivered. They got it out the door on January 27th with the varnish on the thwart still wet. “The skiff could not have been completed without teamwork. It was a real learning experience,” said students Tyler and Richard. Mr. Irving was impressed with the final product given that it was the first lay-up (fiberglass composite) for this group of students. The initiative demonstrated by the students to start from scratch and see the project through is something that is fostered at Mid-Coast School of Technology. The curriculum at MCST is primarily project-based and the skills are learned and practiced through many community service projects. This project also shows the dedication the students have for keeping their extracurricular activities alive and funded. The home ice of all three youth hockey organizations is at Midcoast Recreation Center in Rockport, where hockey players from fledgling Atoms to mighty Midgets spend fun-filled winters chasing the puck, building strong teams, and learning good sportsmanship.

Health Science Careers Program to Host Blood Drive on March 12th

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:43:39 -0500

Health Science Careers Program is hosting a blood drive in partnership with the Maine Blood Center and Barbara Bush Childrens Hospital on Friday, March 12, 2010, from 8:00 AM-1:30 PM in room 150. Donors must be 17 years old (16 year olds may donate with prior permission from parent/guardian). Call 874-8165 ext. 6516 to preregister. Please remember to bring a photo ID which is required to donate blood.

Accuplacer Testing

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:05:41 -0500

Portland Arts & Technology High School, in cooperation with Southern Maine Community College, will be administering the Accuplacer April 5th, 7th, and 9th. For questions about the Accuplacer, please speak with Mr. Fallis (PLATO Lab Instructor) or Mr. Marcigliano (Student Services Coordinator).

MCST January Students of the Month

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:00:00 -0500

The faculty at the Mid-Coast School of Technology has recognized two outstanding Students of the Month for January from the Medical Science and Culinary Arts programs. The award is based on demonstration of the characteristics of solid attendance, positive attitude, and excellent work ethic. Selected for the January Medical Science Program honor is Morgan Porter, a senior from Camden Hills Regional High School. Instructor Monique Priebe finds Morgan to bea “ conscientious and hard-working student who demonstrates great leadership skills. She is a team player, working well with her classmates and approaches the class and assigned projects with enthusiasm.” Dan Greiner, a home school student, is honored by the Culinary Arts program. Chef Josh Gamage appreciates Dan’s consistent and reliable focus on tasks in the kitchen. Chef Gamage reports that, “Dan is a model student. He shows initiative and enthusiasm.”

Thinking About a Region 9 Program?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:35:23 -0500

Region 9 staff members will be visiting all three of our high schools to present Region 9 program information to sophomores and juniors. Our first scheduled presentation will be on Friday, February 26th at 10:20am at Telstar Regional High School. Dates for Mountain Valley High School and Dirigo High School will follow.

In addition, the Student Services Coordinator will be available in the guidance office areas every two weeks at each high school. This is an opportunity for students and parents/guardians to meet with a Region 9 representative to discuss the application process or a specific Region 9 program.

Region 9 welcomes the opportunity to give tours of our facility to community members, families or interested students. Please call us at 364-3764 to schedule a tour!

Region 9 School Calendar 2009-2010

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:35:51 -0500

Click on the following link to access the 2009-2010 Region 9 School Calendar: 2009-2010 Calendar PDF.pdf

LRTC Breakfast 02/07/2010

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:23:05 -0500

Students and Staff come together to support Skills USA state wide competition. Over 300 people had breakfast to support students at LRTC. Winners from the local competitions held at LRTC will travel to Bangor to compete against other schools. This year 61 students will represent LRTC in skills competitions that vary from customer service skills to career and technical trade skills.

Student of the Month for December -- Josh Schasel

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:56:55 -0500

December - Josh Schasel.pdf

Student of the Month for November -- Dylan Dupee

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:54:03 -0500

November - Dylan Dupee.pdf