MISSOULA - This week's One Class at a Time winner is Scott Edge from CS Porter Middle School in Missoula, who teaches engineering classes.
While a lot of people consider the middle school years to be rough, Edge teaches that what you get out of middle school is all about what you "input".
“You know getting to know them, building those great relationships with the kids, teaching them that design process and watching them go through that year after year, and then leaving here in eighth grade pretty well prepared to hit the high school and if they do decide to do engineering in high school they can continue with it, and if not, at least they’ve got that background of working through and solving problems," Edge said.
With his grant of $250, Mr. Edge will use his $250 grant to purchase each of his students a microbit that they can use to engineer their own safe.
“So they take a shoebox and they put something valuable in it and then they use various inputs and outputs to protect that valuable item that’s inside the shoebox," Edge explained.
In the process of creating the safe, students get to learn about different types of engineering, such as mechanical and electrical, but they also get to learn what Edge thinks is most important — occasional failure.
“Kids are going to fail and it’s what they do with those failures that really helps them be more successful," Edge explained.