HURON COUNTY, Mich. - High school students in Huron County are learning engineering and computer science skills as they plan projects intended to help their local communities, according to a report in the Huron Daily Tribune.
The students and their teachers are part of a Purdue University-based program called Engineering Projects in Community Service. Working with a community partner, team members from each school design a public improvement project, the Daily Tribune reported.
In Caseville Public Schools, for example, students are designing a way to use discarded rinse water from the Department of Public Works to irrigate ball fields or school gardens, according to the Tribune. Harbor Beach Community Schools students are developing computer programs that would link food banks in the area for better communication and inventory control.
The projects can take several years to complete, from planning to design to implementation, the Tribune reported. Huron County's local partner is the Square One Education Network, which provided a matching grant to cover the cost of county school participation, according to The Tribune.
SOURCE:
Huron Daily Tribune, "EPICS
joining student creativity with community service," Nov. 23, 2009
FURTHER READING:
Michigan Education Report, "It's hard, but it's fun," July
15, 2008
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