A high school teacher gives his students projects that offer opportunities to help others. He found that these projects generated a lot of enthusiasm in the classroom.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
One powerful way to engage students is to have them create real-world products that help other people. Students in a technology class at a high school in suburban Denver do just that. It’s called Empathy Engineering and it was visited by Jenny Brundin of Colorado Public Radio.
JENNY BRUNDIN, BYLINE: What you’re about to hear from 17-year-old Bey Ingels is music to a teacher’s ears.
BEA INGELS: This is the best project I’ve ever worked on.
BRUNDIN: The project redesigns the classic board game Code Breakers. The reason why it’s so cool? Ingalls says it’s a genuine request from a client, a nonprofit that makes educational products for people who are blind and visually impaired.
INGELS: It’s like I get to work on something that will positively impact someone who needs it. Like, this is not a fun project because my mom wanted a table. These kids can’t have access to these resources because if any other company made it, it would cost $100.
BRUNDIN: The students are now waiting for feedback on the 10 prototypes they sent to American Printing House. It distributes them to schools for the blind across the country for testing. Students fine-tune the design before a local manufacturer takes over.
BRIAN JERNIGAN: Hey, it’s your turn now. So that’s how it is. In the real world, you throw yourself in. You have to get the product out the door. Divide and rule. I’m here for you.
BRUNDIN: Teacher Brian Jernigan starts class and the juniors jump in. Today they are building a prototype.
ANDREW HONEA: So imagine this whole top circular area, and then just imagine if it was a shape on top.
JERNIGAN: Okay.
HONEA: Suggestions?
JERNIGAN: Would you like to keep the ring bit down as well?
HONEA: Yes.
BRUNDIN: Jernigan sold himself years ago by injecting empathy into student projects. The University of Colorado approached him with a federal grant to research three D prints to help visually impaired children read. The shift in his high school student designs was immediate.
JERNIGAN: Suddenly 100% of the kids give me 100% of what they had. Everyone was really trying because they were like, oh, my time matters. And that was the magical moment I saw.
BRUNDIN: Fast forward more than ten years.
JERNIGAN: You have lasers. You have quality woodworking equipment. You have 3D scanners. You have high end computers that work.
BRUNDIN: Jernigan secured another grant to convert an old workshop into a modern design lab. But hey – these kids have a deadline.
HONEA: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #1: All the original measurements and what are our final measurements…
BRUNDIN: Let’s get back to it. For those unfamiliar with Code Breakers, someone guesses the order of a series of colored pegs. Student Andrew Honea explains to visually impaired children that paint won’t work.
HONEA: So our biggest focus is on making everything tactile.
BRUNDIN: They increase the size of the pins, add ridges, number the rows.
(BEEP SOUND)
BRUNDIN: To the novice, the laboratory looks like controlled chaos. Everyone works on a piece of the puzzle. Massimo Ayes(ph) has an idea.
MASSIMO AYES: A little bit on this triangle because it has jagged edges.
INGELS: We have five pegs. Another problem is that I think you’re overestimating how complicated I can make them.
BRUNDIN: They compromised.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: I agree with just making it out of a texture like a cone or like a circle.
BRUNDIN: When something doesn’t work, students turn around quickly.
INGELS: The way I proposed it wouldn’t actually work incredibly well. It would be really hard to identify anyone else.
BRUNDIN: American Printing House is excited that the project is helping train future designers to build accessibility into their work.
JERNIGAN: So these kids – what they’re getting is an opportunity to put something on their resume that’s real, that’s relevant, and that’s going to be for the rest of their lives.
BRUNDIN: But Code Breakers isn’t the only project available that students are working on. Still others propose personal innovations.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #3: So I’m designing a wooden satellite that will burn up on re-entry into the atmosphere.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #4: It’s an arm brace to ensure that the arms maintain and/or regain stability.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #5: It’s a clip that shortens the bottom of the pants without having to hem them.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #6: I’m trying to design a toy where the packaging is built in and doesn’t come off, so…
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #7: I’m making a climate monitoring system to monitor conditions in pika habitats. And it will be, as it were, self-propelled, and it has – as it were, disguised as a stone.
BRUNDIN: Here at the school, the speech therapist asked for a teaching aid for users of speech devices. Neo Crooks designed 96 color-coded basic word blocks.
NEO CROOKS: This is a product that could definitely turn into money. I don’t care. The fact that it’s going to have an impact that could be national — that’s a great thing and it’s something you can take with you.
BRUNDIN: Jernigan says after teaching the kids basic skills, he’ll back off.
JERNIGAN: It’s not easy. It is not clear. It’s not black and white. It’s not, hey, how do I get an A on a test? It’s dirty. It’s messy. It’s – it takes time. There are failures. There are failures. And you know, that’s life. That’s life, isn’t it? And then we put a little bit of empathy on top of that and it just – you know, that’s what drives them and it drives me.
BRUNDIN: Before the kids leave, Jernigan asks for a one-word summary of the class.
JERNIGAN: Learn.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #8: Innovative.
JERNIGAN: Innovative.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #9: Impressed.
JERNIGAN: Engaging.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #10: Great.
JERNIGAN: Great. i love it
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #11: Fun.
JERNIGAN: Fun.
BRUNDIN: For NPR News, I’m Jenny Brundin in Littleton, Colorado.
SIMON: (SOUND BITE OF EL TEN ELEVEN “MY ONLY QUESTION”)
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