By Ethan Beer
Going to school has stopped, but creating in E2 hasn’t!
The Engineering and Entrepreneurship (E2) class in The Leffell School High School focuses on working with others creating a company and a product to then pitch and build throughout the year. Many students enrolled in the course were left wondering what they will do without their products, without seeing their team in person. At first, the department spent a couple classes learning skills such as pitching and making kickstarter videos. However, it eventually became clear that, in the event of a longtime closure, a more permanent solution would need to be implemented. The E2 department set up a town hall meeting for anyone who was interested in brainstorming for the future of the program for this year. The brainstorming video call focused on how to keep up teamwork, learning of different skills, and assessing of students while being under distance learning. After hearing different opinions from students and administration, the E2 department decided on a two-three week skill based learning program. Students will choose to learn on one of various programs, such as Adobe programs like Photoshop and Python, a coding language.
As a student in the program, sophomore Avi Katzen said, “I was at the town hall and so I was excited to have the opportunity to learn something new…. Something I really enjoy.” Katzen also mentioned that while class is mostly individual learning at this point, if a students needs assistance, the teachers are still available to provide it.
Sophomore Spencer Dittelman, another student taking the course, spoke about his experience in the program during remote learning. “I much prefer working as a company, but I think what we are doing now can enhance our future when we come back to school in E2,” said Dittleman. He is learning Python, a simple coding language used by many programmers, and he mentioned that, without the current situation, he probably would have never learned Python.
During the E2 online learning experience, a ‘discussion board’ is used, where students can share their experiences with their given skill and can offer help to one another.
Even during these unprecedented times, E2 is still finding ways to teach students new skills that they can use in their future engineering careers.
