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Pilot Program Teaches Philadelphia Students To Solve Real World Problems

By Cherri Gregg

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A pilot education program takes high school seniors out of the classroom and teaches them to solve real world problems. The new approach to education has helped the students test the their imagination.

Instead of traditional classes, the Sustainability Workshop brings together 26 students from three area high schools. Each day, the group gathers at a small white house on the Navy Yard to complete a variety of projects. On Friday, the group tested catapults, designed and built by the students.

Seventeen-year-old Rasheed Bonds says the students competed to see whose catapult works best.

"We calculated the score by the distance of how far the ball was going to go, the mass of the ball and weight of the catapult itself," Bonds says.

The students have also designed an electric go-kart, an energy efficient light bulb and other environmental conscious contraptions.

"We worry about real world problems, instead of how we are going to do on a test."

The workshop's organizers are hoping to expand the program next year. For more info, go to workshopschool.org.

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