News 15 March 2018

Iowa BIG North "hackathon" held in Charles City

A new weight room … kids spending too much time on “screens” … school lunches … not enough activities available outside of school … parking lot problems … bullying … too few class options … making sports safer … more art in school.
A wide range of concerns garnered student interest at an Iowa BIG North “hackathon” held last week in Charles City. Many of the concerns dealt with issues that are part of the students’ daily lives.
Iowa BIG North brings together students from different schools to work on initiatives they are passionate about. 
The hackathon last week was designed to see where some of those passions lie, and to give prospective IBN students a chance to see if the program interests them, said Mike Kuennen, an Iowa BIG North facilitator and CTE teacher at New Hampton High School.
“They’re coming up with something that, it bothers them so much that when we talk about them working on it, it wouldn't matter if it were at 8 o’clock at night, or if it was on a Saturday, “ Kuennen said.
Later, addressing the entire group of about 100 students, he told them, “From here on out you need to disregard your peer group. You have to forget about ‘I want to do something with my friends,’ because if that's what your focus is, then the traditional school setting will be fine. That will work for you.

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For more of this article, see Tuesday's Tribune.
 

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