COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- At Carmel Middle School students participate in the 21st Century Learning Program.
"What we are trying to do is teach the kids what they need to know and be able to do 15 or 30 years from now, try to teach kids how to solve problems that do not yet exist," Rick Freehling said.
Freehling is a teacher at Carmel. He said the school encourages students to think critically when solving problems.
"In the hopes that when they reach a problem that arises in the future, that there has never been a precedent set before on that problem, that they will be able to solve those types of problems," Freehling said.
All the students are given laptops with remote wireless access to begin. Classes they take include information literacy, critical thinking, economics and globalization, and Chinese.
"When we work on problem solving we work on real world problems, current event problems, things that are happening now. For example, we will get started on solving the Somali pirate crisis," Freehling said.
Recently the students worked on a cross-curriculum project called "Building Best Bridges." Not only did they have to design and build their bridge, but they had to market it and sell it.
"The interconnectivity of the classes that we teach, it is very easy to integrate cross-circular activities with our program," Freehling said.
Many of the students said they enjoy the program.
"You get to have hands-on work instead of the teachers just telling you what to do," Deaijah Paulk said.
"It is like more higher level on a grade, so we are learning about ninth grade stuff, so it is preparing us to be more ahead," Marquis Best said.
"It teaches us things we need for the future and teaches us a step ahead so in ninth grade we already know it," Shequeeta Hazard said.
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