FEBRUARY 7, 2020 – The annual inclusive engineering design project continues to provide unique learning experiences for our students.  92 students from the Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) classes at Shakopee High School met with 10 younger students, also known as “clients”, in special education programs to learn how their physical needs impact their school day. This is the 5th year the students have collaborated on the project.

In an effort to assure all students can access multiple learning environments in their school, home, and/or community settings, student engineers created a tangible product for the clients. Thanks to students from the IED classes, clients, case managers, related service providers, and parents, the project created meaningful collaboration between students and special education while also demonstrating communication, advocacy, and disability awareness skills.
 

Students participating in the project learn about disabilities and how it impacts individuals across multiple settings, apply real-world problem solving strategies by researching, planning, and designing a prototype, demonstrate communication skills within their target group to evaluate and modify prototype, and develop a final product for a real-life client. The clients, with the help of parents and case managers, apply self-advocacy and disability awareness skills to describe their physical impairments, engage in the planning and development of the product, practice communication skills to discuss pros and cons of the product prototypes, as well as utilize the final product during their classroom, home, and community activities.