A Noble effort
NOBLE — A team of 12 eighth-graders from Curtis Inge Middle School worked with a University of Oklahoma Engage Learning project to imagine, design and build a solar-powered recharging station for mobile devices.
The students, using about a dozen "free Fridays" during the school year, worked with coaches from OU's Innovation Hub and Fabrication Lab to complete the project.
The students recently presented the solar-powered recharging station to the Noble Public Library.
Bart Keeton, founder and director of Engage Learning, started the program last year as a nonprofit to offer breakthrough learning experiences for middle school students in and around Norman.
"This team of Noble eighth-graders is a remarkable group who chose to do something intellectually challenging with their 'free Fridays,' "Keeton said.
The project was creative, complex and civicminded, he said.
Oklahoma Engage Learning provided the design challenge and worked with the students through the design and fabrication process, Keeton said.
"The students owned the project from the very first day — their accomplishments, as well as the failures — while Engage and Curtis Inge Middle School coaches Codee Becknel and Kate Colwell helped the students figure out whatever they needed to know to move the project forward," Keeton said.
Noble Schools Superintendent Frank Solomon said the experiences of those involved in the project would be more meaningful than anything they would or could do during their regular school days.
Students participating were Kinsey Matlock, Jenna Watson, Anna Dominey, Adie Soell, Ella Bryant, Haley Taffe, Elliot Freeman, Ashlyn Clark, Sophia Fitz, Nathan Dinwiddie, Blake Carey and Brandon Cartwright.