Pre-College Archives | Building and Construction Technology

2024 Summer Pre-College Program Announced: BCT’s BuildingLab

February 14, 2024April 17, 2024 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

After successful programs over the last summers, BCT is again offering in 2024 a summer pre-college program for high-schoolers interested in making buildings sustainable! Enroll NOW to save your child's spot in this exciting program! The BCT BuildingLab is a two-week immersive pre-college program for high school students interested in exploring building construction, building science, sustainability, engineering, architecture, technology, and discovering related career paths. Rising 10th – 12th graders get a feel for what college is like while earning two (2) college credits that can be applied towards the Building Construction Technology Program (BCT) at UMass, or others. Students in this program learn about the built environment by doing – they explore and apply building science and sustainability principles in the real-world classroom of the Amherst area (including the UMass Amherst flagship campus and its surrounding college-town area). The BCT BuildingLab course format combines hands-on activities with field trips that may include: Build projects, including the use of our shop Use of emergent technologies (drones, infrared...

BCT CityLab: Blurring the Lines between High School, College, and Industry

October 4, 2022November 27, 2023 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

Using the Boston Metro area as a real-world classroom, the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) this summer launched a new immersive pre-college program – the BCT CityLab – a first-ever offering at the UMass Mount Ida Campus, for high school juniors and seniors interested in exploring building construction, sustainability, engineering, architecture, and technology-related learning and career pathways. The inaugural program attracted students from five states (MA, NJ, CT, UT, IL) and three countries (Honduras, Switzerland, USA). Each participant learned about college life and earned college credits while engaging in construction site tours, hands-on fabrication projects and skills trainings. The innovative program was designed to make learning fun, and to build tangible learning pathways to access Boston’s innovation economy. In the Building Physics Module, students learned about heat transfer and thermodynamics in buildings and how construction, control, and maintenance affect the related thermal processes. Then students applied what they learned in a real-world context – the 72-acre Mount Ida campus located in...

Introducing: BCT’s New Summer “CityLab” Pre-College Program in Newton

February 28, 2022November 27, 2023 by Alexander Schreyer Comment Closed

This summer, BCT is offering an exciting opportunity for high-schoolers in the Boston area to learn about buildings, cities, and the many technologies that are used to create and operate them as part of a two-week summer pre-college program. This program, housed at our beautiful Mount Ida campus in Newton, MA can be attended as a commuter, but a residential option is also available. See below for more information. CityLab The BCT (Building & Construction Technology) CityLab is a two-week immersive pre-college program for high school students interested in exploring building construction, sustainability, engineering, architecture, and technology-related career paths. The BCT CityLab course format includes a series of daily hands-on activities including construction site tours, use of emergent technologies (drones, infrared cameras, air quality testing, AR/VR), software (Fusion 360, SketchUp, Minecraft, AutoCAD), and fabrication tools (specialty 3D printers/lasers, hand/power tools, industrial sewing machines, CNC equipment). Students also conduct science lab experiments and participate in service-learning activities. The learning experience culminates with a design-build...