STEM and GEM!

Exciting work has been going on at PAST and all of our buildings as we explore what 2012 has to offer. In December we were generously awarded a grant from the Women's Fund of Central Ohio (check out their site and see all of the 2012 projects they support: http://www.womensfundcentralohio.org/) to fund our Girls Empowerment Mural(GEM) Program. This program will have students design and manage a community based mural program within the Linden Area. To kick off our introduction to murals and community based art The Ohio State University Art Education Department generously offered to invite Mural Artist and Educator Olivia Gude to help share her expertise and experience with our teachers and community partners. We came together at the newly renovated Linden McKinley STEM Academy on Saturday February 3, 2012 to explore the space as well as begin possible mural ideas to share with our schools and the Linden community. This was a phenomenal experience as we heard Gude speak to the notion "Teachers who instruct...through collaborative public art projects understand that, while it is true that people are shaped by their environments, it is also true that people have the capacity to alter and change environments, and thus to be reshaped themselves." It was a wonderful day and a great catalyst in brainstorming ways to share with our students that they can be agents of change in their communities through thoughtful creation of space!

Teachers and community members came together to brainstorm and share ideas on beginning our collaborative mural program.

Roller Coasters!!!

Roller Coaster Challenge 2012 was a huge success and an amazing opportunity to see students from Columbus and China come together in the spirit of friendly competition. Teams from Linden McKinley STEM Academy, METRO School, and New Bridge International School from Beijing, China joined us at COSI to pit their designs and ideas against one another! Lisa, Walker, Maria, Laura, and I were the PAST folks that got to watch all of the excitement and see all of the students hard work come to life in their model roller coasters, marketing presentations, and scientific posters. The artist in me has to appreciate that 9th grade teachers that gave their students spray paint to decorate their final creations! Also, major points to the team with a zombie themed coaster titled "House of the Dead". The students got to have center stage on February 1st, 2012 as we were generously given the Atrium in COSI to house the coaster competition. It was a huge win for everyone involved and a wonderful day, that our students aren't going to forget anytime soon!

One of our Chinese teams putting finishing touches on their coaster before the last test cycle! (They won the coveted Golden Ticket and took home 1st Place!)

Linden McKinley teams showcase their winning coasters and posters in their front entrance way! Congrats to all what an amazing day!

Bonesteel, South Dakota. February 1, 2012

Hi, Diana Wolterman here. Since I am currently on my inaugural STEM trip with PAST, I have been asked to record my impressions of today as a "guest blogger".   Early morning found me and Annalies and Sheli heading south and west (barely missing the border of Nebraska) on our way to Bonesteel and the South Central School District.  We spent the morning meeting with teachers in various stages of transforming their teaching methods to problem- based learning. Sheli worked her magic on the slightly reluctant ones and even they could clearly read the look in her eye: "I'm going to win you over and resistance is futile." Others were obviously already converts and gleefully recounted the exciting projects their students have been working on. Annalies and Sheli shared ideas about how next year will be even stronger due to collaboration across the innovation lab schools.

For lunch, we swapped war stories with Sam Shaw from the SD Dept. of Ed. over burgers and onion chips at Bonesteel's renowned "TeePee Cafe".  He seems very pleased with PAST's work in South Dakota.

Afterward we visited some classrooms to see the kids in action. Our favorite of the day was Mrs. Johnson's kindergarten class, where they are currently learning about the rain forest by coloring and hanging tropical animals under an improvised palm tree made from a beach umbrella. We met Baronn, who proudly told us he lives in Fairfax and it is 4 whole miles away! After the class finishes the rain forest they will tackle "Kindergardenville" and they all invited us to come back and see their completed neighborhood.




On our trip home, we saw a sign for a lookout point over the Missouri River at the Ft. Randall Dam and since we haven't refused an opportunity to have an adventure yet, we said "Heck yeah!" we were rewarded with a picturesque vista and got several photos that reflect what a beautiful sunny day it's been in South Dakota. This rookie is having a great time!

by Guest Blogger, Diana Wolterman, 2012