“Umm yeah, I want to be on a robotics team.”Through the North Rowan High school’s rookie competitive robotics team participating in the FIRST NC program ,I had an opportunity to recruit students from various backgrounds to come on the journey. In the process of creating this rookie team and mentoring the members, I learned more about authentic engagement and authentic work creation than from any book or workshop. This is mostly because I was engaged with the students myself giving me an opportunity to reflect on our collective experience to see what works, what authentic work is, and why authentic work is the future of education. ![]()
“I don’t belong here.”It’s a sentiment we have all felt and that students often feel daily but do not express aloud. These are still the words that resonate with me the most after an incredible journey this year into challenge-based learning and our goal of authentic engagement at North Rowan High School. On our second trip to Charlotte to visit our robotics team’s mentor team location, where our team members and mentors could work with other veteran teams and make use of their tools, mentors, and team members’ experience, I took a larger group typical to most classes at North Rowan High School with different abilities, experiences, and socioeconomic struggles. The first words of a student as he entered the large bustling warehouse, where other teams’ members and mentors were working diligently and having spirited discussions, were “I don’t belong here.” Students are often reluctant when they enter a new classroom, and feelings of not belonging are not uncommon when the content of the course is outside their comfort zone. ![]()
In the first hours this student ended up in a vacant room lying on the floor, expressing that there were nothing but “nerds” here, that he couldn’t contribute and just wanted to lay down. “We have an idea.”Why do those words and this day resonate with me so much when I reflect on authentic work and authentic work creation? Finding a student lying on the floor of a dark room initially had me wanting to lecture him on how he made a commitment to the team and should help out any way he wanted, but instead I thought maybe he just needed a minute to adjust and accept that were there. I was not planning on letting him sleep away the day in this room though. ![]()
The story doesn’t end with a student napping on the floor of a room in a warehouse in Charlotte. A second student meandered into that room to get some quiet time to think and ended up using his napping peer as someone to bounce ideas off of. Sometime after the two had been together talking, I came back to check on the students and realized they were having a productive discussion on the mechanism for our robot and how it may work. The students, upon my return, expecting me to ask them how much longer they may be in the dark room, said without even a glance in my direction, “Get out. We have an idea.” ![]()
I gave them space with the intention to check on them again later, but I didn’t need to. Shortly after that second visit, they both came out and put their idea to work. In the process of their work they asked for help, got clarification, but also asked for space. This established the new normal for robotics as the napping student suddenly became a leader in the team encouraging discussion, work, and later at events, collaboration and social outreach. ![]()
“What is authentic work creation?”Recently I was told to reflect on the competitive robotics team and my classroom challenges to help define the term Authentic Work Creation. I remember a colleague stopping me in the hall shortly after being given the assignment and asking me “what is authentic work creation?” The answer is very complicated and yet also very simple and since I am often told to “KISS”, Keep It Simple Stupid, I will do just that. Authentic work creation is the process from authentic engagement to the production of some product. It requires research, collaboration, prototyping, analysis, and synthesis within parameters set by the teacher. The product may anything from a presentation to a working competitive robot. In my chemistry classes I used challenges to engage students in authentic work creation by setting up a goal and limitations for them and allowing them freedom within those parameters to create, complete, and report through a lab experiment in a Mythbusters type video.
Analysis and SynthesisThere is no magic bullet, no surefire way to engage students authentically to make sure they all do authentic work all the time. I did learn a few things this first year that I will further refine and take into my next year of teaching.
Which brings us back to…![]()
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AuthorMeredith Williams served as principal at NRHS from 2016 - 2022. Mrs. Williams now serves as Assistant Professor of Instructional Design at Catawba College. Archives
June 2019
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