CIJE x Go Baby Go

When Barbara Sehgal, CIJE STEAM mentor, first learned about Go Baby Go, she saw an opportunity to transform how students think about inclusion and design.

 

Traditional workshops bring people together to build and distribute cars in a single day. CIJE wondered: what if this became a six-week curriculum in which students not only modify motorized cars but also learn design thinking: understanding users, prototyping solutions, and iterating based on real needs?

 

“Workshops provide a helpful introduction, but they only scratch the surface,” Sehgal explains. “As educators, our goal is to help students move beyond simple acts of kindness to a deeper understanding of acceptance and inclusion. Building a car and handing it to a child may feel rewarding, but the real learning happens when students recognize the meaningful impact their work has on another person’s independence and daily life.”

 

This year, CIJE launched something unprecedented: the first national Jewish day school collaboration with Go Baby Go, and the first extended curriculum that transforms a single-day workshop into a comprehensive design-thinking journey.