I recently wrote a story about employee wellness programs and I talked to one district that offered onsite health screenings on their school buses. How clever I thought. Well, it seems there are lots of clever people in the education arena. I just read about a pilot program in Arkansas, where the long bus rides students endure are being transformed into teachable moments, thanks to the latest technologies.

Called the Aspirnaut Initiative, the project is a venture of Nashville’s Vanderbilt University which aims to advance science and math in rural school systems, through a variety of innovative strategies, like utilizing school bus commutes as instructional time.

Last year, students in Arkansas’ Sheridan School District, a rural system covering 600 square miles, were given iPods and laptops, enabling them to take online math and science courses on their bus rides, which can take up to two hours each way on some routes.

Student learning is bolstered by weekend and summer visits to Vanderbilt and other local universities, where they get an opportunity to talk with some of the greatest minds in the science and math field.

The program has worked so well, there is interest in expanding the program statewide in Arkansas.

While I can’t believe there are students who have to travel so far to get to school, it’s exciting to see programs that try to work within the challenges and realities of providing education in rural America.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor