ROCHESTER — Students in six different shops at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School got some visitors to class on Jan. 27: students studying the same thing at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Boston.

Other Old Colony students in the culinary arts, cosmetology, health careers, business technology, electrical and automotive technology shops traveled to Boston to see what the other school was like.

Some Old Colony instructors used the exchange as a chance to be competitive and show off practical skills. The culinary arts program held a face off in the style of “Chopped,” with Madison Park and Old Colony students teaming up to cook dishes. 

John Allen from Madison Park and Deryn Leandre from Old Colony won.

In the Business Technology program, students went head to head in the Technology Olympics, which challenged students to answer questions about the subject matter.

Marissa Elias, Jack Butler and Megan Pautanauee from Old Colony won the competition.

Other programs were less competitive and more collaborative or experiential in their learning.

The health careers students took a day trip together to the Active Day program in Fairhaven, a daycare for seniors or adults with disabilities.

Students in the program said that the trip taught them about “better communication,” to “have an open mind,” and “it’s better to have more people.” 

“I want to do this more often. It’s awesome,” said Rhonda Amaral, a health careers instructor for Old Colony.

When Cosmetology instructor Tammy Hoyle met with the instructor from Madison Park, she immediately recognized her from a conference that she attended, where the other instructor spoke.

She said that she has since “used what I learned with class,” and was excited to be able to spend the day with the instructor. After icebreakers, students from both schools worked on acrylic dips.

In the automotive shop students got right to work, and found a common language around cars.

Madison Park instructor Charles Carey said that though the two shops do similar things, in that both work on cars from the public, Old Colony’s shop is about half the size of his, and has “nowhere for the students to hide.”

In the electrical program the two groups had a meet and greet, an extensive tour of all the shops that the student-electricians help, and exchanged experiences.

By the end of the day students swapping stories, which was fantastic progress from the beginning of the day, when students were shy and nervous. And it likely helped when the students headed off to lunch together.