“There are no answer booklets to flip through when you have a job,” New Jersey 8th grader Chrissy Long sagely explains, so students need to learn how to cull through data to find the right answers. And that’s what a “21st century skills initiative” recently implemented in the Ramsey school district in northern New Jersey aims to teach, according to the Waldwick Suburban News.

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Three months into the program, designed to teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills, it’s already meeting its goals, teachers and students from the Eric S. Smith Middle School told a recent school board meeting. Eighth graders in the Introduction to Physical Sciences course are learning how to formulate hypotheses on their own, create slide presentations and encourage further discussion via a blog on a website set up by science teacher Brandis Stracuzzi.

In one experiment, students had to explain the movement of dry ice and why it converts from a solid to a gas when placed in liquid. Students are expected to question assumptions, validate evidence and communicate with one another — skills that will come in handy in both higher education and the workplace.

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