the students developed.
In 29 high schools across Illinois, the
education and business communities
have partnered to create compelling
scenarios like this that require students
to solve real-life problems. The Illinois
Innovation Talent Pilot Project united
these groups around the common
purpose of piloting this program
during the 2008–09 school year. An
advisory board of key business and
education entities strategically designed
the program to stimulate innovation
and creativity.
This project is a replic-able model that transforms
the teaching and learning
environment into a meaningful and collaborative
community in which
students engage in solving
real problems and teachers
function as coaches and
facilitators. (For ideas on
how education leaders can
initiate or join a similar
project in their own
districts, see Four Steps to
Connecting the Classroom
and the Business Community on p. 73.)
Standard 1: Creativity and Innovation
To fulfill Standard 1, students must use
technology to develop innovative products. The Illinois Department of Transportation challenged students on a
robotics team at Rolling Meadows High
School in suburban Chicago to develop
a plan to use robotics to increase the efficiency and safety of the inspections of
the nearly 8,000 bridges in Illinois.
Students used computer animation to
simulate a robot about the size of a
shoebox that could be attached to cables
these disciplines led students to design a
roof that changes color with heat. The
team presented its proposal to a builder
who intends to help the students patent
that idea.
Standard 2: Communication
and Collaboration
PHOTO COURTESY OF ILLINOIS MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE ACADEMY
Lindbloom Math and Science Academy students from Chicago
explain the prototype of a pediatric dialysis machine.
stretching across the length of a bridge.
An inspector could control the robot and
cameras from a safe location on land.
Department officials will share the
students’ ideas with their operations staff
for future implementation.
At O’Fallon High School, in a Metro-East suburb of St. Louis, teachers in four
subject areas (art, environmental science,
geometry, and industrial technology)
collaborated to guide students in
converting a stalled building project into
a marketable green subdivision for the
Standard 2 requires students to use
digital media to communicate and
collaborate. Students working on each of
the 29 problems used wikis, blogs, and
other networking tools, as well as e-mail,
Google Docs, and similar
work tools, to collaborate
and communicate with
other members of their
group; with their business,
community, and government
partners; and with experts
who could help them solve
the problems.
Some projects focused
specifically on communica-
tion. For example, the
Chautauqua Wildlife Refuge
requested that students at
Astoria High School in rural
West Central Illinois help
them market their facility by
developing a brochure with
trail maps and information. Those
students expanded on their solution by
finding a way to reach out to multiple
audiences through a series of short
videos about the refuge that they plan to
post on You Tube once they receive
approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, which oversees the wildlife
refuge.
City of O’Fallon. Students built models,
identified green design elements,
planned for low-impact landscaping and
recycling, and designed a marketing
campaign. The collaboration among
The Problems
The curriculum used a problem-based
approach in which each student group
developed solutions to problems posed
by their business and community partners. Students learned curricular
content that was embedded in the
problems while developing habits of
mind that inspire lifelong learning.
Each problem was aligned with at least
one of the International Society for
Technology in Education’s six National
Education Technology Standards for
Students ( www.iste.org/Content
/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents
/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students
_2007.htm).
Standard 3: Research and
Information Fluency
Using technology for research was a
central feature of several problems.
Students at Christopher High School in
rural Southern Illinois learned about
history, businesses, and services in their
community as they used the Internet to
