Second graders solve carpool bottleneck
| June 5, 2011 | Posted by admin under envoronmentalists, what's right with kids today? Rena Reese, whats right with kids today, WRWKT |
We have often heard it said that if you have a problem that baffles adults, ask some children to solve it. Concord Hill School students did just that. This group of second graders from Chevy Chase, MD entered and won Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, solving their school’s “environmental problem.” This small group of 13 second graders figured out that about 60 cars were burning gasoline at about six gallons per hour while waiting in the carpool lane. Not only did they land first place in the competition and collect a $5,000 prize for their school, they solved the carpool problem too.
The competition which was sponsored by both Siemens and Discovery Communications. The second graders used beans to act out the afternoon carpool routine. They realized that “the cars that came first waited the longest, and the cars that came last waited the shortest,” explained 8 year old “researcher”, Eli Brotman. Student’s further noticed that most cars came to pickup their students at the same time, creating a bottleneck. Second graders decided on a plan to try and improve the situation. Deciding to stagger the drop off times over a twenty minute window yielded dramatic results. As a matter-of-fact, the improvement was so significant that the school director Denise Gershowitz instituted drop-off times by alphabetical order (with flexibilty for unique schedules and needs) for the school and the families love it. One parent explained that it now takes her just one minute to go through the carpool lane when it used to take 15.
Read more about these dynamic kids at the Concord Hill site and the feature written about them in the Washington Post’s Kid’s Post.
Way to go Concord Hill Second Graders!
All the best!
Rena M. Reese
Sponsor, Whats Right With Kids Today
Founder, Soul Salon International
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