Students across the county worked together in teams solving clues and riddles using the latest technology to “Escape the Bus,” an interactive experience of the iSchool Initiative that was created by former Whitewater High student Travis Allen.
The bus is currently traveling around the country showing students and teachers how technology can be used in the classroom to help solve problems. Teachers take a back seat on the bus, allowing students to do self-guided learning as they work together to find clues and solve problems that will crack the code to escape the bus, all within 30 minutes.
The bus was in Fayette County for two days with stops at Sandy Creek High and Whitewater High. Schools throughout the system were invited to bring students to the bus for one of the nine sessions held at each stop.
A group of seventh grade STEM team students from Flat Rock Middle visited the bus while it was parked at Sandy Creek High. They put their collaboration and critical thinking skills to work and ended up finding and solving seven of the nine riddles hidden on the bus. However, at the end of 30 minutes, they were unable to crack the code to escape the bus.
The Flat Rock students are not alone; only about 25 to 30 percent of groups have been successful at escaping the bus, according to bus tour operator Nick Gividen, also a graduate of Whitewater High.
Gividen told the students that just because they did not break the code did not mean that they failed. They successfully worked as team to find and solve seven of the nine clues, and that determination to do better is what they need to continue succeeding. He used his Whitewater High School classmate and iSchool Initiative founder Travis Allen as an example.
“I knew Travis in high school. He was not a genius; he did not test off the charts. He was not extraordinary except that he had determination. He was determined to show teachers and students how technology could facilitate learning in the classroom. It was that determination that lead him to build a company that has helped more than 150,000 teachers and students implement technology into learning, changing the culture of hundreds of schools,” Gividen said.
