“Learning By Doing”
In connection with Crazy Horse Racing, 7th and 8th grade students at Oxford Hills Middle School in South Paris, ME, continue a journey towards building an ACT Legal Car to be raced at Oxford Plains Speedway for the 2013 season.
On Thursday, March 15th, 2012 a number of the students involved with the Aspire Higher ACT race car build met with Maine's Governor, Paul LePage, at Crazy Horse Racing in South Paris, Maine during his "Capitol for a Day" tour. He later visited the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School where he told about 250 residents that, "...students must come first."
Recent articles and videos of our students in the news: Advertiser Democrat 3/22/12,
Sun Journal 3/22/12,
Sun Journal 3/23/12
Students on the Experiential Learning Team are currently working on building The Oxford Hills Middle School “ASPIRE HIGHER” ACT Late Model Race Car. The class is working with professional builder Mitch Green of Crazy Horse Racing, who is donating his time and expertise to help us be successful. This 2-year, self-sustaining project will be completed in 2013, with the end goal of the car being driven by a Sprint Cup Driver in the Oxford 250. Once completed the 2013 car will be sold - to then fund a 2015 project car.
This race car project is based around four hands-on learning teams. These teams include: public relations, media/web design, finance and marketing, and the engineering/ building team. By using math, science, engineering, literacy and teamwork, our goal is to build a car that will race at the Oxford 250 in 2013. To our knowledge, no other middle school in the United States is building a race car.
The Aspire Higher Race Car has increased our aspirations for our high school graduation. Already this year, our program has seen the following positive changes:
- Attendance has improved compared to last year.
8th graders (2011/2012) = 216 days absent - 1404.0 educational hours lost
Result = 526.5 educational hours gained
7th graders (2010/2011) = 181 days absent - 1176.5 educational hours lost
7th graders (2011/2012) = 159 days absent - 1033.5 educational hours lost
Result = 143.0 educational hours gained
- All 19 eighth graders earned passing grades as compared to their previous year.
(The current group of seventh graders were not graded on the same scale):
Mathematics - 74%, Language Arts - 83%, Science - 65%, Social Studies - 37% and Health - 65%
2011 percentage of passing grades in the following areas:
Mathematics - 100%, Language Arts - 100%, Science - 100%, Social Studies - 100% and Health - 100%
- 90% of our students have improved their yearly academic assessments in math, writing and science.
- Read more on the Aspire Higher Program for the Oxford Hills School District here.