James McCarter, Golden Isles Career Academy, Richard Gerhart, Mercedes-Benz, Pete Snell, Coastal Pines Technical College

“We’re excited about all we have coming to our campus, to our students and to our staff,” McCarter said. “We can’t just look at what is happening now. We need to plan for what will be required of our students in the years ahead. By the time the technology we are teaching our students now to be ready for the work force, it will likely be dated to an extent.

“We need to plan for what the work industry will look like in 2018 and beyond.”

Students and faculty at the career academy have a full range of technology-based tools at the ready as was evident by the large boxes of new tech toys stacked in McCarter’s office last week. They contain instruments students and faculty can look forward to using when school is back in session in August.

Among the new instruments is the Parrot Flower Power. The device monitors and analyzes a plant’s health based on moisture, fertilizer, temperature and sunlight, then connects to wireless cellphones to display the results.

The new tool will be a vital resource for students in horticulture-based courses.

Also new is the Sphero ball, a ball controlled by a smartphone to be used in the school’s robotics class.

In the academy’s east courtyard, which will break ground this summer, a new aquaponics lab will be established. The self-sustaining pond will be built to hold a school of tilapia, and it will be fueled by an arrangement of vegetables and plants in the water system.

The combination of the fish and plants will create ammonia and nitric oxide, which will keep the system recirculating and in motion.

The courtyard also will be outfitted with rain barrels.

“In the east courtyard, we are planning a do-it-yourself system of tools, to not only teach students the science behind how these agriculture processes work, but also so they can teach others how these systems can be used at home,” he said. “This is science in action.”

For the audio/visual department, McCarter has big plans, such as using recently introduced video scribe software. Looking like a traditional white board, the scribe allows users to create a personalized, animated white board, customized to each presentation at the user’s whim.

“We want every department in our academy to have a new tool, a new instrument, that can benefit our students,” McCarter said. “The opportunities to advance students’ experiences in our classrooms are growing every day. This is a very exciting time to experiment with new technology.”

The academy already is outfitted with advanced technology tools, including drones, a 3D printer and a green house with a soil- and fertilizer-free hydroponics gardening system.

“As we’re seeing, some of these new technologies are not only preparing our students for the world after graduation, but, like with the hydroponics system, they can also be money-saving tools,” he said.

Part of the overall success of introducing new mechanisms into the classroom can largely be credited to the school’s faculty, who have embraced new tools and technologies with energy and enthusiasm, McCarter said.

Being willing and able to stray from traditional agendas and inject new ways of thinking into their daily lesson plans have been traits the staff has displayed throughout the school year, he said. The positive attitudes have clearly spilled over to the students, he added.

“This was my first year as principal here and from these last few months, I have seen our staff embrace challenges, be flexible and be willing to change,” McCarter said. “Our teachers are digging into new technology. It can be easy to stay at the status quo, but our faculty are not content to do that. They have taken their students, spearheaded new energy and made the academy the success it has become.”

While technology will play a major part in the lesson plans in coming years, McCarter is also set to work on the soft skills of students. They should not only be prepared to use the new machines and mechanisms in their future careers, but they also need to know how to handle themselves in the workplace.

“We are introducing a new course to our students to teach them about work ethics and about how to handle themselves in a work setting,” McCarter said. “The way our school is set to work is…provide students with cutting edge technology to teach them how to be competitive in the workplace. But we also need to teach them how to dress properly, how to be flexible and how to be a professional.

“All of these are vital for our students finding success in life, which, essentially, is why we all are here doing what we do.”

Reporter Anna Hall writes about education and other local topics. Contact her at ahall@thebrunswicknews.com, on Facebook or at 265-8320, ext. 322.