It was already 4:30, two hours after school was out, and students were still there. One of their fathers, a contractor, was assisting them with their project – a floating pet kennel and waterproof document holder designed for floods. I asked them to shut the lights off in my room when they were done.  It was another one of those projects at Tri-County Early College (TCEC) that had students so engaged that they stayed for hours after school just to work with their groups.