Student Ingenuity Outlasts the Assignment

The assignment was for the students to find a problem on campus and design a solution for it. I have always been an advocate of inquiry-based learning and this assignment was completely aligned with that. When students started reporting what problems they wanted to solve on campus, I noticed many of the same ideas. The need for more sidewalks on campus, moving the student parking closer to the school, and adding a stoplight at the closest intersection to the back of the school were among the most cited. Then Steven asked if he could redesign the baseball field, if you could call it that, to address a few issues and seek a grant for the redesign. I was all ears.

Steven went on to explain how the field had no accessible water – potable or otherwise – bleachers, canopies for shade, dugouts or way to bring equipment to the field other than by foot. I told him that his group would have their work cut out for them, and they began their research. His team originally consisted of 3 other classmates, but in the 2 weeks they had to develop their solutions, the group dwindled to just Steven and one other student, who was added to the class the day before the presentation.

Steven and his partner had created a detailed design that included all of the following: old pallet materials to make a roof structure that would be fastened to the existing fenced-in benches, a rain collection system that included roof drains into barrels and a water runoff collection point with a perforated pipe running along the sloped visitor side with a small cistern with a manual pump, and an entrance to the field created by using old playground rubber chips that would be wide enough for a car to drive on to move some donated bleachers to the field.

His presentation included: a budget for materials and labor, a construction timeline, both a virtual 3D model and a 3D printed model and the start of an application for a grant through a local non-profit. After Steven finished his presentation, which was the first one of the day, the other teams asked for more time to work on theirs. He had not only succeeded in solving this problem in an ingenuous way but he also raised the bar for the rest of the students in the class.

I later used Steven’s presentation as a marketing tool for middle schoolers choosing what school they want to attend. So, in a way, he is still solving problems many years after his graduation because his creative designs are laying a path for future students to follow.

By Adam Guidry, Lead Teacher, Academy of Environmental and Urban Planning, Glencliff High School, Nashville, TN