Everyone Has a Story: Student Led Documentaries
October 28, 2008 by Reaching Heights
One hundred tenth-grade American History and Literature students will make documentaries telling the war stories of local citizens. Funds will pay for audio equipment.
Year: 2008 – 2009
Subject: Technology; Arts & Music; Interdisciplinary
Writing; Amount: $1500
Project Manager: Jeff Glass
School: PRIDE, Heights High
Weather Monitoring Station
October 9, 2008 by James Krouse
Students with repeated school failure used a computer based weather station to solve real life problems as a way to encourage greater engagement in math. Project manager: Al DeGennaro
| Year: | 1996 – 1997 |
| Subject: | Math |
| Amount: | $1,500 |
| Project Manager: | Al DeGennaro |
| School: | Cleveland Heights High School |
Video: MIT’s Media Lab Extends Musical Expression to Everyone
October 1, 2008 by James Krouse
Tod Machover of MIT’s Media Lab is devoted to extending musical expression to everyone, from virtuosos to amateurs, and in the most diverse forms, from opera to video games. He and composer Dan Ellsey shed light on what’s next.
A resident of Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts, Dan Ellsey has cerebral palsy and does not walk or speak. He does, however, write and play his own music, and mentor others, through a groundbreaking music system developed by MIT’s and his team, including grad student . Working closely with this team, Ellsey helped to develop and fine-tune a head-mounted interface, tweaked to respond to his movements, that allows him to compose music and to conduct nuanced performances of his work. software helps Ellsey notate his musical ideas.
Ellsey’s work has been performed at MIT, on the radio and at workshops around the Boston area. The Lowell Symphony Orchestra performed his piece “Our Musically” at a 2004 concert for residents of — many of whom count Ellsey as a mentor in their own musical education.
Tod Machover is head of the MIT Media Lab’s Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group. He has composed five operas and helped to develop many groundbeaking musical technologies — including , a technology that augments musical expression for both virtuosi (from Yo-Yo Ma to Prince) and amateurs, and , software that allows anyone to create sophisticated, original music by using lines and colors. Many of Machover’s principles about “active participation” in music are exemplified in , which grew out of his lab.
Among his current projects is a new opera, , complete with a musical chandelier, animatronic walls, and an army of robots. premieres in Monaco in September 2009.
A recent focus of Machover’s group has been on , which marshals the power of music to promote well-being. Working with long-term patients at facilities such as Tewksbury Hospital, north of Boston, the group’s goal is to develop personal musical activities that adapt to the particular skills and needs of each individual. In this way, the path to health becomes as rewarding as learning an instrument, composing a symphony, or premiering at Carnegie Hall.
Eggers on Community Involvement in Schools
October 1, 2008 by James Krouse
Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED community to personally, creatively engage with local public schools. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to open simmliar tutoring centers. His idea of selling pirate supplies appeals to kids and got the group around zoning regulations for retail. Cool stuff!
What’s interesting is that this project wasn’t an immediate success. He combines a great idea with the real grassroots effort needed to make it happen. When they do finally get kids going to the store it’s an exciting atmosphere that combines publishing and learning.
Dave Eggers’ first book, , was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Since then he’s written two more novels and launched an independent publishing house, which publishes books, a quarterly literary journal (), a DVD-based review of short films (), a monthly magazine () and the project.
Meanwhile, Eggers has established himself as a philanthropist and teacher-at-large. In 1998 he launched , a San Francisco-based writing and tutoring lab for young people, which has since opened six more chapters across the United States. He has extended his advocacy of students by supporting their educators, instituting a monthly grant for exceptional Bay Area teachers. His TED Prize wish is for more poeple to follow him into getting involved in your local school — and talk about it — through the website .
“Many writers, having written a first best-seller, might see it as a nice way to start a career. He started a movement instead.” Time
School Lunch Reform from Ann Cooper
October 1, 2008 by James Krouse
In this video, Ann Cooper talks about school lunches. She talks about how learning and food are related.
Ann Cooper has a frontline view of the daily battle to keep kids healthy — and of the enemy, the processed-foods industries that, it sometimes seems, want to wrap every single thing that children eat in a fried coating and then a plastic bag. As the director of nutrition services for the Berkeley (California) Unified School District, she’s an outspoken activist for serving fresh, sustainable food to kids. Her lively website, , rounds up recipes, links, and resources for food activism.
Cooper’s influential program in Berkeley involves kids in every stage of the food they eat, from growing to disposing of it. And along the way, eating some delicious cafeteria lunches.
She’s the author of , including , an examination of the food chain, and her latest, .