By Northeast YES! Coordinator Jim DeVries
School is a time for young people to spend learning, learning, and learning. Seldom do we think that school should be a place for students to be teachers. Teaching is a profession where a college educated person will impart the lessons and help to raise the collective IQ of our entire student body. Well that is all well and good, however the tables are turning with the YES! teams in the Northeast region of MN.
Four out of eight YES! teams have taken on the task of teaching
lessons on the environment and sustainability to the younger generation in their school districts and beyond. I for one find this to be very refreshing and inspiring. Educational philosophy tells us that when a student takes on the role of teaching their peers or younger students they are forced to grasp the concepts at much deeper level of understanding. For the YES! teams to develop lessons and present them to others, they are required to research, understand and synthesize information well enough to be able to teach others.
Other news from the NE include the first successful test drive for the electric go-kart designed and built by the Cherry High School YES! team. The kart handled as well or better than the team expected. Reports of speed were good and all things seemed good. Near the end of the test run a few of the switches in the control system started malfunctioning, so it’s back to the drawing board to solve a problem.
Learning is taking on some very non-traditional methods, but YES! teams in the NE are putting their heads together to push the boundaries of traditional education and are gaining valuable lessons along the way. So proud of the work the NE YES! teams are doing.
