Engineering brightness: Using STEM to brighten hearts and minds

摘要

Students designed and built lights for global students who did not have access to reliable clean light and as a result, could not study after sunset. UNESCO estimates 1.5B people worldwide do not have access to clean light and that has major negative ramifications towards the Millennial Goals for Education. School could be used to educate not only the students who are receiving lights, but also the students who are engineering the lights. Primary, middle and high school students from Colorado, Canada and the UK, collaborated in the designing process and produced different light designs to solve real problems for real people. The Colorado Lantern was a 3D printed plug-in rechargeable light designed by Preston Middle School. The Riverview High School Podium and Clam lights were 3D printed table top solar rechargeable lights. The Pheasey Park Elementary and RHS collaboration yielded a few versions of a wearable light. Engineering Brightness, Philanthropic Engineering's (http://p-e.io) flagship project, aims to deliberately engineer brightness on many different fronts including: · in the rooms of studying students all over the world who otherwise do not have access to clean light. · in the minds of students who bring many skills and aptitudes to bear in the design and production of lights. · in the hearts of students who use their learning to impact the lives of others. The project provided novel motivation for studying. If the work was mediocre, it was much more devastating than a poor mark, as someone else's life was negatively impacted. The work superseded a grade and survived being thrown out at the end of the semester. We are proud to be leaving a legacy, and plan to keep participating, even after we move on to another school. Our work has been featured in a documentary, numerous television news articles, the front page of NSTA and we have been asked to present at WeDay-Alberta. As students, we would like to present the design evolution, our- current prototypes, the impact we are making in nine countries and our future plans to recruit more schools to help engineer brightness around the world.