What do you want to make today?
-T8 MakerSpace Motto
If there is one thing I have learned through my 20+ years teaching University and Rincon High School students, it is that they can meet and exceed any task you set before them. The creativity and ingenuity of my students has never ceased to amaze me. This was certainly obvious during my years teaching math and physics, but was never more apparent than in the Engineering102 course that I’ve taught dual-enrolled with the University of Arizona since 2010. Teaching engineering to these students has made me realize the areas in which these students truly excel, and those that can still be improved.
The most obvious realization as I began teaching the project-based engineering course was students’ desire and passion for hands-on applications of the math and science they were learning in their curricular classes. For those first few years, I simply didn’t know what I was doing, and would often set goals far beyond those that an experienced engineering teacher would give a group of high school students. However, in those early years of the program, I also learned that my students would rise to the occasion, meeting or exceeding even my most unrealistic goals.
“Build a balsa wood bridge that Mr. Schmidt can walk across?!?”
NO PROBLEM!!!
“Create a biomimetic hand that we can control with a glove?!?”
WE CAN DO IT!!!
“Build wooden catapults that are MORE accurate than the ones U of A bought?!?”
