Students Get a Taste of Think Tank

November 8, 2017

A small selection of Susquehannock students were invited to try a test run of a potential new course on Friday, October 27.

Think Tank members meet after school on a half day to discuss ways to better the school. Photo courtesy of: @Graphicgi on Twitter.

Photography teacher Wade Bowers and business teacher Kellin McCullough are planning to start a year long course next year called Think Tank.

Think Tank is a course that allows students to create problems and think about answers or solutions on their own.

“Going into the project, Mrs. McCullough and I had that final answer. I think as humans we just want to fix things, like we want to kinda have an answer, and I think her and I went into this already having a solution to a problem and really this course, what it is designed to do, is really do the opposite of that. It’s let’s think about some of the problems out there, but then how can we look through the eyes of other people, have that empathy aspect where we see an answer to a particular problem, but what does another person, who might be affected by that problem, how would they see the solution to the problem?” said Bowers.

Members of the Think Tank gather for a group picture. Photo courtesy of: @McCulloughBiz on Twitter.

During the half-day test run, students performed many activities involving teamwork, such as raising a large wooden stick using only their index fingers.

Students also worked on coming up with their ideal high school based off their dreams and gripes and came together in groups to focus on certain ideas they wanted to tackle whether structural, curricular or spiritual.

Senior Reese Jackson was one of the selected students that participated in the trial lesson.

“We walked around the school, we had note cards, and we had to write stuff down about what we would change or what would needed to be changed or what we thought could be better,” said Jackson.

Junior Greyson Daviau was another student that participated in the test run.

“I really like it. I think it is awesome to have a student voice in these ideas, and I like the concept of it. It is almost real world activities in class, so I like that,” said Daviau.

The course has been approved for next school year, according to Bowers.