Cars, wind turbines, art portfolios, plants, robots, prototypes, and chickens.
It’s just another day at Oakland Schools Technical Campus Northwest, where these items and more are being created, repaired, and/or studied.
Mike Goodsell has been working on making a robot put a golfball into a hole as part of the engineering and emerging technologies program. The Brandon High School senior has been attending the Oakland Schools Tech campus in Clarkston for the past two years.
‘It’s hands-on here and has helped me decide what I’m going to do in college,? said Goodsell, who will attend Western Michigan University in the fall to study engineering. ‘It’s not strictly bookwork. We build things. Hands-on is a better way to learn.?
Goodsell, as well as about 700 other students, mostly juniors and seniors and including 84 from the Brandon School District, spend roughly half of each school day at Oakland Schools Technical Campus Northwest or at businesses that partner with the tech center to give students on-the-job experience.
The tech center, funded through a county-wide vocational millage along with three other campuses in Oakland County, has been in existence for 38 years and is nearing completion of a 2-year long, $65 million renovation project.
A wide variety of specialized cluster programs are offered at the campus, including business management, marketing and technology; visual imaging technology; culinary arts/hospitality; construction technology; engineering/emerging technologies; transportation technology; health sciences; and agriscience and natural resources.
Chuck Locklear, dean of the northwest campus, explains that in Michigan, students complete an educational development plan in middle school and choose a career path and classes to take to follow that path. At the technical campus, they can pursue many of those career options.
‘We provide students with the technical, academic and workplace skills so they can make informed career decisions,? Locklear said. ‘We give them the ability to compete in the 21st century workplace.?
The campus has students at all levels, from those who’ve decided to be engineers and want hands-on experience, to students who need a little more direction, Locklear said. Field study experience is open to students, allowing them to see what people in their cho-