World-class STEM Courseware from MIT-BWSI to Boston Public School
Tomorrow’s job landscape will not look like today’s! As educators, we must provide students with the career skills these new jobs will require. Project based, hands-on STEM education is key, with classes tied to tomorrow’s technologies.
Students who are comfortable with those technologies will be able to navigate the roads of economic change; those who are mystified and unsure will be lost. This hard reality applies to kids from underserved communities with life-altering consequences. Limited access to computer technology already puts them at a disadvantage and they are vulnerable to being left farther behind as future technologies emerge.
Autonomous Vehicles Are the Next Wave
Autonomous vehicles will be a major factor in the future economy, driving transformations that are just beginning but will impact virtually every industry. Some of today’s jobs will disappear, but new ones will be created
Experts disagree about the speed of this change but all acknowledge that in 25 years (or less) the job openings for a truck driver will be equivalent to those for a blacksmith. We must give students the skills to work with autonomous vehicles, because the old jobs will be gone.
Future-focused Education
Unsurprisingly, MIT stepped up to meet this education need with the Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) for selected high school students. BWSI teaches STEM skills using a hands-on approach, where students work together in small groups developing their own solutions to design challenges.
In the first BWSI course, RACECAR, students program small robotic cars to autonomously navigate a racetrack. It has proven to be an extremely effective way to teach complex engineering concepts. Students who complete the course are comfortable with all the technology components used by an autonomous vehicle, from sensors to software.
Adapting Courseware for Boston Public Schools
In 2020, The Sproul Company (TSC) collaborated with BWSI to roll out a program called “Cardinal Works”, bringing RACECAR to public high schools. At Madison Park TVHS in Roxbury, teachers were trained by the BWSI experts, then began using the courseware in a Saturday School program. When COVID intervened, they continued the Saturday program as remote learning. The culmination was an outdoor event last summer, where the student-programmed model car successfully navigated itself through a track, achieving a tremendous victory over a host of COVID challenges.
Autonomous model cars are programmed by students
Student enthusiasm was terrific. “It was so cool when the car we programmed really drove itself all the way through the track.” Said one student. “Our team worked really hard and finally all the pieces came together. I was so excited.”
Building on the Saturday School success, Madison Park incorporated RACECAR into an elective course, Introduction to Computer Science, using BWSI’s car simulation software.
Teachers Love the Flexibility
A key RACECAR feature is flexibility. “We try to keep the pace one step ahead of the student’s skills,” said Michael Berger, co-teacher of the Madison Park program. “Sometimes an idea just clicks. When it does, we add that component to the project and move on. The next topic may be more of a challenge, so we stick with it for a while until it is really clear how it works.”
RACECAR simulation software
We Will Help You Bring RACECAR to Your School.
BWSI, TSC, and the Madison Park faculty all want to help bring the Cardinal Works RACECAR Program to more students in Boston and beyond. TSC is currently working with three other Boston Public Schools to implement RACECAR. Support includes teacher training, printed and electronic media, simulation software, and fully equipped model cars. Because it comes as a complete package, RACECAR puts few demands on already strained school resources.
For more details, reach out to any of the authors. We’d enjoy discussing your specific needs and how RACECAR can help your students prepare for tomorrow.
Kevin McCaskill Royal Bolling James Sproul
Executive Director Co-founder Co-founder
Madison Park Technical Vocational HS Cardinal Works Cardinal Works
kmccaskill@bostonpublicschools.com royalbolling@yahoo.com jsproul@sproulco.com
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