Shop class looks different in Philadelphia – a new school is expanding the curriculum to encompass new technology like working on hybrid electric cars, not only will the students be engaged the students will also greatly improve their chances for succeeding outside the classroom.
Electric Car Schools Reach Students That Classrooms Can’t
Michael Coren
fastcoexist.com
A new school in Philadelphia is being built around designing electric vehicles and finding other energy-use solutions. It’s just part of a new trend of getting students out of the classroom, and into the shop–with excellent results
America spends more dollars per student than any developed country except Switzerland while earning, at best, mediocre results. A recent report card from the OCED found American 15-year-olds were 25th among 34 countries in math, and only ranked average in science and reading. Our national response, embodied by recent laws such as the No Child Left Behind Act, has been to tighten teaching standards, increase testing, and expand the curriculum. But a crowd of new teaching initiatives are looking for other, more innovative ways. One unlikely path to success is building hybrid electric cars, and it’s proven so successful that a school based entirely around EV engineering is going to open soon in Philadelphia.
Simon Hauger, a Philadelphia-born and schooled engineer, made a career U-turn 14 years that landed him in one of his hometown’s toughest schools: West Philadelphia High School. A humbling first year teaching math, science, and engineering to inner-city students opened his eyes to the fact that the academic system–tests, memorization, and abstract problem solving–that he was trained in was never going to reach many of his own students. He needed something practical, like a car.
“School should be about kids solving real problems,” says Hauger during a 2010 talk given at the PopTech conference in Camden, Maine. “I was amazed. These [students] were brilliant, smarter than engineers at GE. But when we sat in classroom they were ready to pull their eyeballs out. Stick them in the shop, and they were ready to solve very complex problems.”
Read the complete article – HERE
