It’s a cliché, but you really have to see it to believe it.

Henry Gillet sits down at the computer, puts on a pair of specialized glasses, hits a few keys and scrolls the mouse around a bit. In seconds, a full-fledged engine — belts, pistons, plugs and the fan all there — comes to life in front of the Westport High School senior, seeming to float perfectly about a foot or so in front of him. It is rendered in perfect 3D.

With a few key clicks and deft mouse work, Gillet rotates the engine in mid-air. He turns it over, flips it around and then over again to take a look at the oil pan. He zooms in. He zooms out. And then he starts pulling components off to see what’s inside.

“You can do everything with this!”

Gillet plans to go into pre-med after high school and isn’t an expert on engines. But he is one of the school’s resident wizards on the school’s 48 ZSpace machines, which the district purchased several years ago with more than $400,000 in grants secured by Sen. Mike Rodrigues and then-Rep. Paul Schmid.

For those who remember the old red and green 3D movie glasses and the headache-inducing 3D effect they created, ZSpace machines will seem like a quantum leap. They use augmented and virtual reality to give students what the company’s sales director said is an educational experience unlike any other, and the various programs that can be run on the computers come with lessons designed to teach students how whatever it is they’re working on actually works.

“It doesn’t require large equipment that the students have to wear,” Kevin Dougherty, zSpace’s sales director, said in an interview. “Students can lift a human heart off the screen, still beating, in perfect proportion and manipulate it right there in front of their eyes.”

Though Gillet was working on an engine one recent morning, there are hundreds of other programs available on the machines, from HVAC to automotive, carpentry, manufacturing, programming, science and medicine, and art and design.

Tip of the iceberg

Westport officials consider the machines a big part of the district’s multi-pronged plan to increase technology-based education to help students identify their passions early.

In many ways, Westport’s move toward ‘neotechnical education” is a marked departure from traditional trade-related instruction, which often requires students to lock themselves into vocational programs that they may realize later aren’t for them. As Westport this year begins to pay off its $7 million obligation to the Diman vocational school project in Fall River, superintendent Thomas Aubin believes the computers and other district initiatives offer a different way to introduce kids to career paths without forcing them to put all their eggs in one basket.

“The idea behind this is that you start honing in on what you’re interested in,” Aubin said. “It really allows students to get a taste and see if they like it.”

While nothing replaces the real thing, Gillet is all in. He believes the computers now implemented in classes throughout the school have a huge upside, though even he wasn’t sure at first.

“Then I realized how accessible it is, and how easy it is to use,” he said, noting that he used the automotive program to help him fix his car.

“I was surprised.”

What else?

The ZSpace machines are just a portion of the district’s ongoing efforts to teach in the 21st century, and develop ‘personalized pathways’ for its students. Away from the ZSpace computers, Aubin said the district is working on other tracks as well:

• Educators are working with the state to develop two ‘innovation career pathways,’ one in advanced manufacturing and one in healthcare and social assistance.

•They are working with General Dynamics/Electric Boat to offer students 18-hour training opportunities in shipfitting, pipefitting, welding, plumbing and other trade-related skills.

• And grant funding from the Greater Fall River Development Corporation has allowed the district to not only purchase additional software for the ZSpace machines, but also beef up its STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) programming by purchasing robotics, drones, a laser cutter and other manufacturing equipment, while transforming the school’s media center into a ‘neo-technical learning center.’

“We’re innovating here,” said Aubin. “This technology has so much potential” to help kids find their passion, and turn it into a career.