Platte County High School is now offering a course to students called "Cyber Crew," where they can work on tech issues brought into them by fellow students and staff.
Around 40 students are enrolled in the course this year, including freshman Isaac Cook.
"I just like working with technology and being able to fix other students' computers," he explained.
The course is offered throughout the school day, and the students are challenged to find solutions to tech problems brought into the classroom.
"This one person spilt coffee on her computer, so we had to replace the motherboard," explained Cook. "If it's something serious, like If something broken comes up, I'd be helping to take it apart and replace what's broken."
Much of the issues presented to the "Cyber Crew" revolve around Google Chromebooks, which were given out this school year for the first time to students in the district.
"We actually helped with the Chromebook rollout for each student at the beginning of the year and now we are in the process of just fixing them as they come in," said Sarah Larson, who is teaching the new course.
The "Cyber Crew" students have already tackled a number of issues this year, from cracked screens to dead batteries.
By working together and finding solutions to tech problems, Larson said the students are building valuable skills they can use later on in life.
"I think anybody who is culturally responsive as an educational institution has to have a class like this in order to service the tools," she explained.
Larson said the lessons learned in "Cyber Crew" will end up reaching far beyond the classroom.
"They're real world issues that companies are asking for," she explained. "Collaboration, communication, innovation. Those are skills I'm not sure we send kids into the world with."
With the course still in its infancy, Platte County High School staff said curriculum may expand going into the future.
Plans are being discussed to allow students to work on software and household electronics, as well as projects with teachers.
After seven weeks of taking the course, Cook said he planned to continue enrolling in "Cyber Crew" while in high school.
He hopes to possibly work in a tech field one day using the lessons learned in the course.
"I think I'll be able to take what I learn here and definitely apply it in my life," he said.
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Tom Dempsey can be reached at Tom.Dempsey@KSHB.com.
