Economic Innovation

About two weeks ago I asked the question..."How are we going to kick-start the Michigan economy?" Using my class website and other technological resources the students were to present a 12-15 minute proposal complete with a Social Studies proposal paper & professional brochure.

I became a computer lab hog. I signed up for projectors and lap tops. It was all consuming. Last year when I would take my students to the computer lab it wouldn't fail that at least 5 students would end up playing an internet game or "Halo" before the end of the hour. After five days in the lab not a single game was played...

The ideas these young minds have are amazing. The "Whirlmill Company" designed and manufactured small, efficient, environmentally friendly hydroelectric generators using the old water mill technology of centuries past. Another team, "AutoTracks", designed a Grand Rapids subway system complete with data on cost analysis, jobs created, & gross domestic product effects. "Grand Rapids Energy Entrepreneurs" decided to use Finevera AquaBuoy technology along the Lake Michigan coastline to power cities like Grand Haven, Saugatuck, & Ludington thus reducing carbon emissions and cutting electricity costs. They were using small business, alternative engergy, health care, revival of the auto industry, and mass transit as modes of operation. If only our political and social leaders were as bold and imaginative. The students, without much direction, saw two things...A planet in peril and an economy become a wasteland. Unlike their adult counterparts, they actually seemed concerned that nothing was being done about either.

Within the classroom and community my politics remain hidden save this fact (one that I remind my students of often): On either side of the aisle, why are we concerned with millionaire baseball players and their steroid use? Why did it take a year to finalize a state budget? Why are we more concerned with what is going on in Iraq than with what is going on in our schools? Why are we eliminating physical education in schools and placing pop machines in the hallways when the childhood obesity rate is sky-rocketing? The ineptitude my students see is clear. They are poised and ready to solve these problems.

In front of a panel of judges and their classmates the student presented movies, powerpoints, slide shows, brochures, data, and concept technology. To say I was both exhausted and impressed is an understatement. However, the learning and growing that took place during the last two weeks in undeniable. I have a more efficient, engaged, self-advocating body of students in class where once there were deer in the headlights and dust-collecting text books.