March 6, 2018
Rutherford County Schools
Jake King recently visited with STEM Design and Modeling students at Christiana Middle School.
King, who lives with cerebral palsy, is a quality assurance surveyor with the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Development Disabilities and spoke with students in Dawn Powell’s class about improving their designs.
“This speaker brought more than just suggestions,” Powell said. “He was a great inspiration on how to overcome adversity and persevere.”
King was the most recent connection STEM students made with the professional world from outside of their classroom.
“He was invited to help these students see and talk to someone who experiences the mobility problems associated with (his) disorder,” Powell said. “These students are working through the engineering design process through a challenge that requires them to design an ankle foot orthosis with specific criteria and constraints.”
PHOTOS / DAWN POWELL