CHICAGO — Students at John Hancock College Prep will be back at school soon, but come January, those enrolled in engineering courses will have to get acclimated all over again.
That’s because Hancock is one of seven Chicago Public Schools getting an overhaul for its engineering classes, funded by various corporate partners.
Hancock has partnered with Dyson, the English vacuum giant, to help modernize both the engineering facilities and the curriculum at the school.
Dyson will spend $50,000 at each of the three schools the company has sponsored. The money will go toward buying new technology and supplies for the classroom, as well as a curriculum overhaul and professional development for teachers.
Other companies teaming up with CPS high schools include Siemens, HNTB and Paschen.
Dyson is currently working with Hancock, 4034 W. 56th St., to learn its specific needs with the goal of having newly designed classrooms and courses by January, said Jenna Blanton, head of the James Dyson Foundation in the United States.
“We’re very excited,” Blanton said. “We feel very strongly about Chicago kids. This is our home. It's important to us to give back to our community.”
Dyson entered the U.S. market in 2002 and established its headquarters in Chicago. The U.S. arm of the Dyson foundation opened in 2011, and is now seeking to bring a program that has so far proved successful in the United Kingdom, Blanton said.
“We aim to support young people to think differently, make mistakes and invent,” she said.
She said the foundation keeps records to see how the new technology and courses impact kids. So far, there has been a 150 percent increase in the number of girls taking engineering courses in the U.K. program, she said.
Now she said the foundation is ready to replicate its success in Chicago.
Kids will have access to the latest engineering technology like 3-D printers, but the support will go beyond equipment. The foundation hopes to teach students a core skill that engineers need: problem solving within a team environment.
“One of my huge goals is to get our teachers in the U.K. talking to our teachers in Chicago to work together and create a global network,” Blanton said.
This way, classwork might more closely resemble the work of a multinational organization, Blanton said. So kids at Hancock might design a product, then students in the U.K. will workshop it and eventually build it.
“We want them to think like engineers and show them what [engineering] is, that it is really rooted in everyday life,” Blanton said.
Dyson is just one of five companies sponsoring the project, although they are the only one sponsoring more than one school.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office announced the program last week, saying that new technology and courses will help prepare students for the future.
“We are providing our students with the tools and resources necessary to succeed in a 21st century highly-specialized, technology-oriented economy,” Emanuel said in a press release.
In addition to Hancock, here are the participating schools and the companies sponsoring them:
• Amundsen High School, 5010 N. Damen Ave. (Dyson)
• Bowen High School, 2710 E. 89th St. (Siemens & Accurate Engineering)
• Disney II High School, 3900 N. Lawndale Ave. (Dyson)
• Hancock College Prep (Dyson)
• Jones College Prep, 700 S. State St., (Thornton Tomasetti, a New York City engineering firm)
• King College Prep, 4445 S. Drexel Blvd., (HNTB, a Chicago engineering firm)
• Westinghouse College Prep, 3223 W. Franklin Blvd., (Paschen, a Chicago construction firm)
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