‘Instant Design Challenge’ Instills Collaboration and Focus in Collins Middle School Scholars

Grade 6-8 scholars challenged by Medtronic, Verizon to solve real-world problems

SALEM (Dec. 30, 2024) – Medtronic, the healthcare technology giant, needs the help of Collins Middle School students to design surgical 3D glasses to fit surgeons comfortably for long robotic surgical procedures.

Telecommunications behemoth Verizon also needs CMS students’ help to both decrease the deluge of help tickets and streamline customer quote requests.

Students have been given very little notice to find solutions. And they’re on the clock.

The Dec. 12 lesson was organized by One8, which provides schools with access to and support for learning programs that build the knowledge and skills students need to succeed. Medtronic and Verizon, educational partners of One8, are two of six businesses – joining Alnylam, National Grid, Philips, and Sanofi,– which offered challenges for students statewide.

It is consistent with the model of learning for Salem Public Schools middle school students: real-life problems which require collaboration, focus and deviation from comfort zones.

On a given school day, students never spend more than an hour on a certain subject before moving on to another, such as music, gym or recess.

On this day, scholars focused on their tasks from 9-12:30, missing recess and working through lunch. More than 40 CMS scholars, selected by science educators Greg Beach and Karl Muench, took part in the Challenge. 

“For me the best part of it was seeing students from all three grades working together,” said Mr. Beach. “That’s what we’re trying to do here at Collins Middle School and at Salem High School. It was great to see the sixth graders watching the older kids work and the older kids seeing the younger ones excited.”

Perhaps the next best element for Mr. Beach and Mr. Muench was watching the students adhere to the strict process to solve their problem – which largely made up their grade. 

• At 9 a.m. sharp, students were assigned their problems and given 45 minutes to brainstorm privately and ask any clarifying questions. 
• At 9:45, students formed groups, decided on group names, and briefly compared ideas and possible solutions. 
• At 10:00, students were introduced to their assigned industry mentors (an expert representative from each company), collectively logged as many ideas as possible, and decided on the top three.
• At 10:30, teams began research to develop their three ideas using their Decision Matrix Tool, which measures ideas in relation to solutions.
  • It was also during this time students met with their mentors via Zoom, then decided on one idea and logged it on the submission form.
  • After teams drafted their submissions, they met with their mentors a second and final time to ask up to three final specific questions.
• By 12:15, teams submitted their solutions to the One8 portal.

It wasn’t the solution on which the students were graded, but how meticulously they followed the process to find a solution. Watching the students work took a bit of discipline, said Mr. Muench.

“There is a lot going on in the room,” he noted. “I resisted suggesting things to them, which was really hard.

“They got a good feeling that what they were doing was real, not just a school assignment, but a real-world problem,” Mr. Muench added, which underscores the District’s 2023-26 Strategic Plan as well as the shift to project-based learning for all middle school students effective this year. “The mentors were excited that there are kids genuinely interested in their field.”

Each of the designs were impressive in their own right. 

Sixth-grader Jabriel Bencosme and his team designed a headset, thus nullifying the strain of the weight of eyewear from the nose and ears. It also had inner and outer lenses to ease eye strain.

“I was really happy with it,” said Mr, Bencosme, who said his passion is 3D printing. “It was really fun.” 

Another team proposed using lighter materials and padding for pressure spots while a separate team suggested developing glasses that used artificial intelligence via eye and voice tracking when surgeons experienced discomfort. Rather than focusing on eyewear, another team designed a more comfortable chair while another created a customizable pull-out panel with controls to the surgical robot.

Students assigned to help Verizon emerged with several novel ideas. Among them, the use of chatbots to communicate with customers and redirect them to a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to find solutions. This particular group also suggested incentivizing the self-help process with a raffle or merchandise as a reward.

Another group suggested a framework in which customers identified their issues via their phone keypad – for example, No. 1 for payment issues and No. 9 for network support – only then to be transferred to a live representative.

A third group suggested redirecting customers to a ‘self help’ page on the Verizon website where the most common issues would appear with videos of solutions.

“To see them sitting and working on one problem for three hours and finding out what the process is like was amazing,” said Mr. Beach.

“They just fell into the flow and channeled everything into smaller tasks,” added Mr. Muench. 

Mr. Bencosme, who has a passion for 3D printing, was uncertain he would be selected for the challenge. Though still in sixth grade, he’s thinking about pursuing engineering.

“Since I got picked for this I realized I can do way more stuff and not just be a normal student,” he said.

About Salem Public Schools

Salem Public Schools is an urban public school district in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem is a small, diverse city with a proud maritime and immigrant history. Our leaders and our teachers are all passionate about education and understand the urgency of improving student achievement with equity and social-emotional needs as the lens we view all of our work through. We respect and value the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of our students and their families, and have a strong commitment to the Salem community. Salem Public Schools staff serve all of our students, regardless of ability or language. Salem Public Schools enrolls approximately 4,000 students across its eleven schools.