Earlier this month, my principal, Brandon Garland, and I drove 16 Johnston County Early College Academy freshmen to the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in RTP to compete in the NC New Schools Innovation Challenge at their annual STEM Conference. The challenge asked for student teams to create a new solution to the problem of healthy food availability or toward the encouragement of healthy eating in students’ communities.

Out of the eight groups competing on the day from across North Carolina, we were bringing four — and our kids were primed and focused. Even when we had them vote on where we’d eat lunch, they chose Subway, as it seemed to them to be the more healthy option of all the fast food choices available. They were clearly educated on their subject matter.

In the end, all eight of the student groups were amazing. They were poised, practiced and professional. I was especially proud of our four teams. They had worked together in their groups for several months conducting research, collaborating on their innovations, troubleshooting technology issues, and revising their persuasive pitches, and their learning stretch was evident.

All of our ninth grade students benefited from the New Schools Innovation Challenge. Students are easily engaged in project/problem based learning because they see the real world relevance of classroom work. My students were particularly driven by the promise that NC New Schools’ corporate partners would help fund the winning proposal — a $2,000 first prize sponsored by Cisco. I suggested a framework from which to begin, but that was all. The project was entirely student-centered and student-generated.

One of our teams’ innovations, The Grotesque Grocer, won 1st place at the competition. The aim of Grotesque Grocer is to work with normal food distributors and local farmers to sell perfectly edible but irregular produce at discounted prices.

 

Two weeks after the competition, I’ve already started to receive emails from NC New School’s corporate partners ready to set the Grotesque Grocer in motion. At the same time, The Grotesque Grocer’s team members have been emailing me, ready for the next step. One wrote saying, “I spoke to a cardiologist interest[ed] in funding and supporting our idea and he wants to meet with the group.” This is what extending learning beyond the traditional classroom can look like.

I am excited and daunted by my students’ next step toward action. It’s clear that my school has entered in to a new arena of community based learning — and the students will not be the only ones with a learning stretch.

Amanda Rowland has worked as a teacher for Johnston County Schools for seventeen years. She has taught history and English at Johnston County Early College Academy since the school opened seven years ago.