It's mid-morning in the Technology Education class at Highland Middle School.
Wood dust fills the air.
Today the class is in the middle of a unit on magnetic levitation, the principle that allows the bullet trains of Japan to reach speeds of 310 miles per hour. After a four-minute break, Crane is back at work. Here, students lay hands on every kind of tool-from wrench to wind tunnel, from drill press to data base, from screwdriver to digital camera. Whereas shop was a really valid program at the time, Technology Education is a lot more valid now. Over the last three years, Crane's Tech Ed classes have built up a MagLev vehicle database containing close to 400 entries.