Dive Brief:

• High school career academy students in Maryland’s Howard County Public Schools have customized miniature cars to improve mobility for the district’s preschoolers with physical disabilities.
• District Administration reports the students started by analyzing the needs of individual students and then choosing a car style and fine-tuning it to be safer and more maneuverable based on those students’ abilities.
• One car had a sensor to automatically power off if it comes close to an obstacle, a mini-motorcycle helped a child with delayed motor skills stand and move forward, and the vehicles had tailored padding and finger, foot or head switches to give students more control than a simple steering wheel might.

Dive Insight:

A unified school district has a lot of potential collaboration activities within its own schools. Many districts have given high schoolers real-world opportunities by pairing them with elementary students. Future teachers have the chance to lead elementary classrooms in subjects in which they’re especially skilled, high school mentors can help keep middle schoolers on track, and students interested in early childhood development can be paired with preschool programs run by the district.

As schools figure out ways to better prepare students for college and career, these projects hold important potential. Especially when students are asked to problem-solve for their younger counterparts, they can be engaged by the possibility of having a real impact — all while learning valuable skills that will make them more competitive no matter what they do after high school.