While thousands of students in Chattanooga are wrapping up the end of the year with finals and graduation ceremonies, a small group of high schoolers at one school are heading into the summer with a few major projects under their belts.
Early this semester, the combined brainpower of Red Bank High School’s STEM and Science Research classes set out to answer a question: “How can we harness solar power and use it to make a real impact on the community?”
Leah Keith-Houle works with students as senior Alex Chanbers, right, and others participate in a GIS mapping class at Red Bank High School on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014.With 37 students involved, that question elicited a lot of answers, and just a few months later, the results are impressive.
“When you present a large problem and turn students loose, they come up with ideas we never would have thought of,” said Keri Randolph, assistant superintendent for the Hamilton County Department of Education.
By the end of the year, students had created a solar-powered informational kiosk, an online video game and even a 3-D-printed solution to indoor lighting problems in the developing world.