BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Students from six schools with vocational programs faced off in a mechanic skills competition at Northampton Community College on Wednesday.
The students already had done well on a standardized written exam in their industry — which earned them their place in the NCC skills competition.
There were two mechanic students on each school's team. The schools involved were: Wallenpaupack Area High School, Berks Career & Technology Center East, Middle Bucks Institute of Technology, Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School, Tunkhannock Area High School and Warren County Technical School.
The students were competing for a full scholarship to Northampton Community College, as well as a new vehicle for their respective school — but not one for driving. The prize was a GMC Sierra truck, donated by GMC, explicitly for the purposes of learning, and cannot be driven on the road for other purposes.
Stations
The competition involved a series of stations, where a different skill set would be tested at each one. The students had twenty minutes at each station, and were evaluated not only on speed, but on efficiency and accuracy.
At one station, for example, there is a truck that won't start, and the job of the students is to accurately and quickly diagnose the issue.
"That literally means, 'the car won't start, so tell me why,'" said Middle Bucks Institute of Technology teacher Rob Schwarz.
At another station, there is a car that needs to be inspected in order to be street legal in Pennsylvania. The students there have twenty minutes maximum to check everything inside and out, adhering to the actual guidelines a state-authorized mechanic would.
Another station, that some students said was especially hard, was an electrical panel simulator. Wiring identical to what you might see inside a car was laid out on a special easel that connects to electricity, and the students had to troubleshoot an advanced electrical engineering problem.
"We were really scrambling around on that one," said Dylan Cooper, a senior at Middle Bucks Institute of Technology. It turns out one of the gauges used on the NCC electrical panel displayed a different unit of measurement than the one they practiced with at MBIT, so they were thrown a bit of a curveball when it came to converting the units.
"They all have an equation together, to figure out the VF-1 and VF-2, like a algebra problem," Christian Stier, a senior at MBIT said."But the meter was a little different than the one that we're used to at our school."
Results
Cooper and Stier's team from MBIT won last year, the "reigning champions" as their instructor, Rob Schwarz called them. But they did not place this year.
The final results were:
First place: Austin Earl and Lukas McConnel from Wallenpaupack Area High School.
Second place: Caleb Goch and Aidan Malon from Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School.
Third place: Gage Rosengrant and Caiden Grabowski from Tunkhannock Area school.
