Four high school skilled trades students from Green Mountain High School in Colorado, along with their two prizewinning teachers, presented a workshop titled “Hands-On Learning in the Age of AI” at the Aspen Ideas Festival this past June. The Aspen Ideas Festival brings together global leaders, scientists, artists, and innovators to discuss critical issues shaping the future. The students guided attendees through interactive learning activities including building a staircase and manufacturing a t-shirt – demonstrating the power of hands-on learning that blends the skilled trades with algebra and geometry.
The students confidently led more than 40 Aspen Ideas Festival workshop attendees through mini-versions of “Geometry in Construction” and “AMPED on Algebra” — revolutionary classes taught in hundreds of U.S. high schools over the last two decades. But while AI can’t build a staircase or manufacture a t-shirt, the enthusiastic group of attendees did! K’Shawn Washington, a soon-to-be 12th grader, said, “Teaching adults here has been a great experience, because Buke and Adkisson have shown us that teaching others can teach you how to grow and be better as a person.” Maddy Sellars, also a rising 12th grader, added, “It’s such an amazing opportunity to get to come to an event like this, with so many CEOs and businesspeople sharing their ideas, as a high school student, which I know is really rare.”
Harbor Freight Tools for Schools involvement in the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival was designed to raise an important question – what if the solution to our country’s workforce demands and the recipe for meaningful learning in high school were one and the same? The students and teachers made the case in Aspen that this is an exciting possibility.
