Grant helping integrate hands-on engineering at Lexington High

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent

A grant provided by the Lexington Education Foundation is helping freshmen at Lexington High School build scaled down versions of renewable energy devices as part of a new hands-on engineering program.

The $2,700 grant has helped teachers at the high school develop earth science renewable energy curriculum and is partially an initiative of Superintendent Paul Ash to integrate more engineering and technology into the classroom, said Charlie Mixer, an earth science teacher at the school.

Mixer said the program is designed to make learning more hands on for students and more relevant in the real world. Instead of just reading assignments, students are now being asked to build scaled down versions of cisterns, water and air heaters and solar-powered evaporative coolers in his class. The projects require research and problem solving, he said.

“I think they initially don’t appreciate the challenge that it truly is to apply [what they’ve read] and make something work,” Mixer said. “The learning that goes along with it is awesome.”

The Lexington Education Foundation raised $377,705 through contributions and awarded $308,585 during Fiscal Year 2010, including the $2,700 grant for the renewable energy curriculum at the high school, said Paula Antonevich, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit organization.