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Exxopolis (Architects of Air, Nottingham, UK), part of the Pittsburgh International Children's Festi
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Assemble for a party (and learn about biodiversity while you're at it)

Thursday, April 11, 2013
Just as with any party, you're invited to drop by or stay for the entire Biodiversity Learning Party at Assemble in Garfield on April 10, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
 
Unlike most parties, however, you'll likely come away with less gossip but more brain cells, and it's an evening for all ages.
 
"It's almost like a science fair," says Assemble founder Nina Marie Barbuto, "where we have different experts presenting their expertise and offering hands-on activities."
 
These experts include everyone from college students talking about their academic concentrations to representatives of local companies and "straight-up geeks whose expertise has nothing to do with their jobs," Barbuto says. The biodiversity party will feature presenters from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Tree Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh biology department. Also manning and womanning tables at the event will be reps from Digital Dream Labs, which teaches computer programming to children by using play to link physical and digital spaces, and Tara Rockaway and Heather Mallak, whose Digital Salad mixes art, tech, and education about farming to create educational experiences that are both interactive and edible.
 
Learning party themes this year have been mapping and music/sound, and future ones will be centered on robots and energy.
 
"It's our goal to provide access to knowledge" -- and to make it "attainable and digestible," Barbuto says. "It should be real fun, and we always have free healthy snacks."
 
Her hopes for the party, she says, "start with just having the word 'biodiversity' as part of your vocabulary and seeing how this affects the world around you." Ideally, she adds, the younger attendees will emerge thinking, "I'm interested in nutrition but I never knew this had to do with biodiversity," or "Maybe I can be a scientist."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Nina Marie Barbuto, Assemble

Cooking School heats up as healthy school cafeteria effort

Thursday, April 11, 2013
When famed chef Jamie Oliver came to Pittsburgh last fall to start his 10,000 Tables program, aimed at getting more families to enjoy the benefits of home-cooked, television-free meals, Bobby Fry, one of the creators of Bar Marco in the Strip, asked him what local business owners and chefs could do.
 
"Your role is to inspire and empower people," Oliver answered, as Fry recalls.
 
"I likened it to the analogy of young musicians inspired by rock stars and taught by their music teachers," Fry says. So he decided: "Somebody in the community had to be supporting schools and school cafeterias."
 
Fry gathered other local organizations and teamed with Kelsey Weisgerber, food service director at the Environmental Charter School, to start the Cooking School movement. Their goals: "Find a group of kids, give them the tools, knowledge and experience and let them have higher standards for food, and that will change the system" toward healthier school lunches.
 
The group first approached Pittsburgh Obama 6-12. Fry knew the school had its own kitchen, but he found a dormant home-economics classroom. The group cleaned it, bought each student his or her own carving knife, sharpener and cutting board and brought in 120 cookbooks from Bar Marco's kitchen for them to choose among.
 
Lots of kids picked breakfast cookbooks, Fry says. "We realized breakfast is a problem for lots of these kids," who have to leave home too early to get it and pass nowhere along the way even worth shopping for breakfast foods.
 
Fry has been inspired by the level of interest in healthy eating that he found at the school. "I thought I'd have to go in and get the kids excited about cooking. Same with the administration. They were already really on board. Everybody is ready to change school lunches."
 
"We've got to get them skills here that will get them a job," he adds about the Cooking School effort. "For working in a professional kitchen, all you need to start are the proper cutting skills" -- but those are the hardest skills to master, too.
 
Now the Cooking School teaches at the Obama school every Tuesday afternoon and brings a new chef every week. The program is being aided by Andrew T. Stephen, assistant professor of business administration and Katz Fellow in Marketing in Pitt's Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, whose MBA students are preparing a video promoting it. Their early work is viewable here. Kids from other schools can submit proposals for the Cooking School to teach elsewhere. If applicant schools don't have a kitchen, perhaps the program will try to raise money to install one, Fry says.
 
You can help the Cooking School raise funds for cooking utensils and local produce through crowdrise and a current Facebook fundraiser.
 
Do Good:
Looking for additional ways to find out about local, healthier eating and bring the movement to your community. Check out the programs of Farm to Table Pittsburgh.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Bobby Fry, The Cooking School

If your kid is sick of (or at) school, it may just be the building

Thursday, April 11, 2013
"Asthma hospitalizations triple when schools start up again in the fall," reports Andrew Ellsworth of the new Healthy Schools Collaboration; that's partly due to paints, sealants, duct work and other maintenance performed over the summer and still leaking fumes and other materials into the air.
 
"If we can do something to minimize that impact and not see that bump in the fall," says Ellsworth, the Collaboration will be doing its job.
 
The program, funded by The Heinz Endowments, will help school districts institute new cleaning and maintenance practices, teaming and training teachers, staff, kids and the community to become educated on the issue and providing some materials and expert advice.
 
The pilot effort targets the McKeesport Area and Allegheny Valley school districts. "We wanted to serve districts that had fewer resources," Ellsworth explains. "They are the ones who tend to have more challenges with environmental health issues," thanks to a shrinking student population and tax base that does not allow for some of the needed building renovation and maintenance to avoid health risks like moisture and mold.
 
McKeesport, for instance, as a former mill town was a "booming metropolis, in a sense, prior to the collapse of the steel industry," he says, so the city has to manage lots of infrastructure. Allegheny Valley encompasses Springdale and Cheswick, which still have major manufacturing. "They are home to a number of facilities, including a coal-fired power plant that is literally next to the high school … and another power plant up the river," Ellsworth point out. "And those are a factor for student health issues."
 
Healthy Schools Collaboration will help each district identify what can be done with a low investment, such as:
  • Substituting green housekeeping products for the myriad chemical floor cleaners, hand soaps and disinfectants schools employ. "They can have a large impact, because there is such a large quantity of them applied daily," he says.
  • Creating better chemical maintenance to prevent potential spills and to keep students from getting access to the supplies.
  • Reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides in the building and substituting less toxic substances.
  • Preventing vehicle exhaust from coming into school buildings and reducing the idling of diesel buses outside the school as children exit schools at the end of the day.
All of this may have a negligible increase in initial costs for a district but will reduce the amount of supplies they need to buy, those shrinking their costs overall.
 
The initial phase of the Collaboration will last through the end of this school year. "We're really excited that these schools have stepped forward to tackle these issues," concludes Ellsworth. "We want them to be able to implement policies for how they're going to create a safer and healthier environment."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Andrew Ellsworth of the new Healthy Schools Collaboration

Kids' environmental ideas compete for $2,500 prizes via New Voices of Youth/Breathe Project

Thursday, April 11, 2013
For the past two years, New Voices of Youth has helped local young people get their ideas heard on issues important to them. Now this Pittsburgh Foundation program is teaming with the Heinz Endowment's Breathe Project to encourage young people to create new clean air-related science, art, performance or service projects that will encourage their peers to make a change in this area. They may also submit ideas for projects that raise awareness about Pittsburgh's air-quality problems or that improve the air quality. They can even submit projects that they have already begun at school.
 
The Web-based contest is open to students in grades 7-12. Submissions become eligible to receive grant funds of up to $2,500.
 
"Our air quality is among the worst for cities in the United States," says Marily Nixon, Breathe Project coordinator, "especially for particulate matter," as well as ozone levels and levels of toxics. "People who have been living in Pittsburgh for a long time remember when Pittsburgh was the Smoky City. Unfortunately, we still aren't at a level where the air is healthy to breath for all of us all the time." And these remaining forms of troubling pollution are relatively invisible to the naked eye, so unlike the sooty air of mid-century, "it is out of sight and out of mind," she says. "We believe healthy air goes along with a healthy economy where people want to be raising their kids."
 
What sorts of projects might be funded? Nixon points to youth-led efforts to give informational "tickets" to idling trucks about the pollution they create, and a flash mob last summer in Market Square whose participatns suddenly pretended to have breathing difficulties, then delivered a clean-air message to the lunch-time crowd.
 
"We do want to convey that the sky is really the limit," she adds. "Students could submit a song they wrote relating to air quality. They could submit a photo essay that captures an aspect of air quality or its effect on people. They could come up with a clean-air walking tour of Pittsburgh or a clean-air program to implement in their school. They could propose a science project that would help develop information about air pollution in their neighborhood. We really hope students will use their limitless creativity to propose projects that will speak to other students, and the community at large, about what clean air means to them."
 
Breathe and New Voices will work to partner students with adult mentors, which might include representaties of a nonprofit focused on clean air issues, to help them undertake their project. A Student Advisory Council will judge the contest and suggest their own ideas for projects.
 
"We hope to see fresh ideas, excitement, creativity and imagination coming from the students, because they are affected by this pollution and they are going to be living with the air for a long time," Nixon concludes. "They can take a new leadership role, advocating for change and creating change in this area."
           
The deadline for submissions has been extended to May 8.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Marily Nixon, The Breath Project

Form a band, write songs, perform in one week: Girls Rock! hits Burgh kids this summer

Thursday, April 11, 2013
"I don't think young girls are encouraged to form a rock band as boys are," says Angela Stich. "Even when I wanted to play an instrument, my mom bought me a flute!"
 
Thanks to Stich, local girls starting this summer will have Girls Rock! Pittsburgh, a weeklong day camp to help them form bands, write songs and learn to play an instrument -- maybe even in that order.
 
Stich is co-directing the effort with Hannah Shaw, who has run a rock and roll camp for girls in North Carolina for the past several years that attracted more than 200 participants and now includes a school-year program. The first Pittsburgh camp for girls ages 8-16 will take place Aug. 5-9 at Shadyside's The Ellis School, with a performance showcase Aug. 9 at The Roboto Project in Friendship.
 
"I'm eager to see what kind of material 8-year-old girls will come up with," Stich says of the music-writing efforts, which will be one of the camp's main emphases. "I'm pretty excited about that. Some of them might not have the inhibitions others have to write whatever they want."
 
As for learning to play an instrument in one week: "It's something some of the parents have trouble grasping," she admits. "Some [girls] might just learn a few chords and write music that way." Others may learn to play a single song confidently after their camp experience. For those who already play a rock-band-worthy instrument, the week may offer them new licks and riffs. "We're trying to get away from an emphasis on expertise, or having to have formal, conservatory-type lessons. Maybe they'll leave camp wanting to learn that way, but that's not what our emphasis is on."
 
Girls Rock! is partnering with the youth staff of the Andy Warhol Museum on some art projects -- perhaps band t-shirt and button designs, Stich says. The week also includes workshops on zine making, deejaying and self-defense. The camp is seeking local volunteer musicians, artists, activists and mentors to participate.
 
The idea is apparently popular; the original group of 20 campers is already expanding to 30, due to demand, Stich reports.
 
Seeing girls in a band, "can be a very empowering experience for girls in the audience alone," not to mention the campers, she concludes. The girls in their new bands stand to gain self-confidence, and learn how to work on a team. Increasing the visibility of girls in the arts is another goal, she says, along with "creating an increased community for girls in music. There's always room for making those spaces safe for girls."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Angela Stich, Girls Rock! Pittsburgh

Get your kid's school to sign up for free school supplies

Thursday, April 11, 2013
The Education Partnership's three-year effort to give school supplies to schools where students lack even the basics is more necessary than ever.
 
"We're seeing kids coming to school with nothing," says the Partnership's Program Manager Andrea Zimmer, who oversees the free school-supply application process. "It's really setting them apart from their peers [socially] and putting them at a disadvantage compared to their peers."
 
From pens, pencils, glue sticks and notebooks and to reams of copy paper, the free-supply list is large, and it can be replenished once during the year. At schools' requests, the Partnership has also supplied such things as tee shirts, granola bars (with the help of General Mills and Giant Eagle) and incentive items for students, such as art supplies.
 
"At the end of this year's program, we'll have distributed 150,000 pencils," notes Zimmer. "I think that shows both the impact of this program and the need in the schools."
 
Applications for the 2013-14 school year are now available here. Schools in Allegheny and four surrounding counties -- Beaver, Butler, Washington, Westmoreland -- are eligible if at least 70 percent of their students receive a free or reduced-price lunch. That covers 100 schools in the five-county region, Zimmer says. Previous recipients are still eligible, but they must apply again. The deadline is midnight on March 22.
 
The Partnership will notify 20 selected schools in June and distribute the student supplies during an in-school distribution event in December.
 
"If a student's parent cannot afford to provide a lunch, it's unlikely that they will be able to provide all the school supplies that are necessary," Zimmer adds. Teachers on average spend $1,200 a year to supply their own classrooms and students, but that's an unsustainable situation. "We're trying to step in there and fill in that gap. And we're hearing very great results."  Children can concentrate on schoolwork without wondering how they can correct their notes or a test answer without an eraser, she says.
 
She urges schools that aren't familiar with the program to stop in to the Partnership office to learn more, or to call her at 412-922-6500. The group accepts donations, too, she adds.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Andrea Zimmer, The Education Partnership

Kids new to tech build their own touch-screen at Hilltop Computer Center

Thursday, April 11, 2013
Hilltop Computer Center in Knoxville was less than a year old last summer when Program Director Nicolas Jaramillo realized it didn't have enough activities for its youngest patrons. Kids 8-14 were coming in to use their computers, but just to watch Youtube videos.
 
"They'd use the computers as TVs, basically," Jaramillo says. Figuring the kids had "too much energy" for more classes after school, he decided instead to start a different sort of project, "so they'd be able to learn at their own pace and not realize they were learning."
 
They built a touch-screen computer kiosk from scratch.
           
"We didn't know how to build it" before conceiving the project, Jaramillo admits. "As one of the lead designers on the project said, 'It demonstrates the power of the Internet. All you need is access to the knowledge, and the power of the will to do it.'"
 
The kiosk is about five feet tall, with a 28 x 36-inch screen. The screen is ringed by LED lights along its perimeter. Their glow travels through an acrylic material and disperses across the screen. A camera tracks the light and registers where the light field is broken by a touch. The entire apparatus is run by open-source software.
 
It took the group of 15 kids the entire summer to build the hardware. The software took longer to calibrate. "It's been up for public use in our computer center for almost a month now as a beta test," Jaramillo says. The older kids, who stuck with the project longest, are now designing games and apps for the screen, starting with one that lets people tell their stories. Eventually, they'll add a videocamera to record people answering questions about their neighborhoods. Hilltop has also received interest from UPMC in having the group develop health-related apps.
 
Next, the kiosk will be housed in the Carnegie Library in Knoxville, but the future of the group, and of Hilltop, is uncertain. "It's a transient population, so it's been difficult to stay on track with the group," Jaramillo says. "We're still reaching out to people." And he has had to start an indiegogo campaign (Tinyurl.com/savethehcc) just to continue to operate as a center.
 
"We don't know how long we're going to be able to continue to be open," he says. Yet he still has plans for another group of kids. Next time, he says, they'll build a three-D printer. Concludes Jaramillo: "We're dreaming big, at this point."
 
Hilltop is supported by Google Pittsburgh, the Neighborhood Learning Alliance and the Thelma Lovette YMCA, and serves Allentown, Arlington, Arlington Heights, Beltzhoover, Bon Air, Carrick, Knoxville, Mount Oliver and Saint Clair.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Nicolas Jaramillo, Hilltop Computer Center

STARTup SOMETHING to get 'littles' going on tech careers in a big way

Thursday, April 11, 2013
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh (BBBS) has long connected "littles," many of whom come from low-income, single-parent families missing a strong guardian for the child, with "bigs" who are willing to act as that older mentor. The organization's motto is "Start Something," which is why “STARTup SOMETHING” seemed like a great title for a new BBBS program that aims to introduce littles to entrepreneurship, technology careers and more.
 
"Both a startup and our littles are at the same place in the life cycle," says Stephanie Adamczyk, executive operations manager for BBBS. "Both are budding and both rely on mentorship to thrive and succeed."
 
The new program "exposes our littles to a workforce they may never have been exposed to," Adamczyk notes. And, like BBBS as a whole, it also teaches resiliency, "going on and finding something new," she says -- the idea that in this economy people are more often creating their own jobs.
 
Local tech incubators IdeaFoundry and ThrillMill are already on board as partners for the program, which will launch at the end of this summer. BBBS envisions six littles and their bigs joining for each STARTup session. First, an entrepreneur will meet with the group to describe his or her background and ideas, inspiring the kids. Next, the kids will be able to engage in a hands-on activity based on the entrepreneur's field -- creating a design for a graphic designer, for instance, or building a robot for a local tech entrepreneur.
 
Finally, they'll be able to pitch their ideas to the group, as if they were pitching to investors. BBBS is also partnering with TechShop in East Liberty's Bakery Square development to let the littles and bigs work on projects there. "We don't want their interest to fall flat after this is over," Adamczyk says.
 
BBBS is piloting the program in early August and looking for an advisory board.
 
"We like that this gives the startups the chance to give back to the community," she says.
"They don't have to wait until they have the financing. We hope our littles inspire them to keep going."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Stephanie Adamczyk, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh

A first for Pittsburgh: The Mom Con

Thursday, April 11, 2013
Lawyer Natalie Kovacic attended a conference for women entrepreneurs last fall, hoping to improve her own business as a financial advisor and estate planner.
 
Then she realized the conference she really wanted to attend: one for moms.
 
That's why the Lawrenceville resident is organizing Pittsburgh's first Mom Con for May 23 in Greentree.
 
"There are so many conferences held for women and for women entrepreneurs," she says. "A lot of us work for ourselves or we work [outside the home] but they don't talk about the other issues: How do I figure out how to be a good mom for my kids but still pursue my own passions and my goals for my life?
 
"Being a mom who works, there are two things that I struggled with, that I thought other women would benefit from having a conference about," she adds. First came the question of how to balance work, husband and kids. Second, as a young mom, she felt isolated. She was just weeks beyond passing the Pennsylvania bar exam at 23 when she and her husband discovered she was pregnant with their son.
 
"I didn't know any moms in Pittsburgh who had kids, nor did I know of any of the resources that were available," she says. "I had to figure it out on my own."
 
The Mom Con intends to help with both issues. Among the sessions are:
 
  • Going Beyond “Balance”: Creating the Life You Want by national commentator and life coach Jenn Lee.
 
  • Resilience for Moms and Kids: Raising People We Can Respect and Admire Without Losing Our Minds by local family physician Deborah Gilboa, whose Ask Doctor G blog has been featured in Kidsburgh.
 
  • From Superwoman to SuperYOU! by Janelle Buchheit, author of Lunch Box Lessons: Snack Size Skills for Mind, Body and Soul.
 
  • Junk Foods & Moods for the Busy Mom by Lindsey Smith, known as the "food mood girl."
 
  • Owning Your Story by Jessica Strong, founder of Strong Trainings consultants, who often speaks about behavioral health.
 
In addition, there will be a parenting roundtable, networking and other events, including massages and color and image consultations during lunch.
 
The Mom Con will also connect attendees by geographic area, so neighboring moms can get together later.
 
"I would encourage moms to take the day for themselves and take time to regroup," Kovacic says. "I don't think enough moms do that."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Natalie Kovacic, The Mom Con

Get involved in the Month of the Young Child: Here's how

Thursday, April 11, 2013
The Month of the Young Child, celebrated every April, is unique to Pittsburgh: other cities in the U.S. only have a Week of the Young Child this month. Here's a guide to just a few of the ways you can get involved during the rest of this month:
 
All Aboard the PA Early Learning Train: April 15, 6-8:15 p.m., Glenshaw Valley Presbyterian Church
Experience the Imagination Playground, learn about financial literacy for preschoolers and relax while learning yoga for kids from PBS's Hooper. This event is open to the North Hills, Northgate, Pine-Richland, North Allegheny, Shaler, Hampton and Fox Chapel school district residents as well as to early childhood centers and providers in the North Hills. Teachers can get Act 48 credits. To register, email here.
 
Annual Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC) Celebration Dinner, April 16, 4:30-8 p.m., Carnegie Museum of Art
This event honors the vital work of early childhood care and education providers. Keynote speaker is Jerlean Daniel, executive director of the national group NAEYC. Participants will meet Lynn Zelevansky, director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, who will talk about the new Carnegie International Exhibit, with its focus on 'play and playgrounds' (see below), as well as other museum opportunities for early childhood educators and young children. Hors d'oeuvres, dinner, drinks and dessert will be provided, and parking is free. Cost: $9/PAEYC members; $14/non-members.
 
Action Day, April 23, for all Early Childhood, School-Age, and Out of School Time Educators and Providers
Get on the bus and speak up for the children in your care: call Molly in the PAEYC office at 412-421-3889 or email her here to join hundreds of early childhood advocates, school-age and out of school time educators/child care providers, parents and caregivers in Harrisburg to advocate for quality early childhood education. The group will gather at Pine Street Church (310 North 3rd Street, Harrisburg, across from the Capitol's main entrance) to check in, network, get materials and mentoring, and participate in professional development opportunities throughout the day, then walk over to the Pennsylvania Capitol Building to visit with state legislators, participate in a group rally in the Capitol Rotunda at 1:30 p.m., and watch the state legislature in action. Registration is required.
 
Play Day at the Carnegie Museums, April 27
The Carnegie International gathers the best in contemporary art from around the world, some of which is bought for the Carnegie Museum of Art's permanent collection.
 
Now the event is held about once every four years, and this year the three curators "collectively are inspired by the concept of play," says Marilyn M. Russell, the museum's curator of education. "They are very conscious of how important this kind of thinking is for artists, but really for all of us. We're interested in showcasing this from before people even enter the building."
 
Being constructed right now along the museum's Forbes Avenue entrance is the Lozziwurm, a play structure that is a brightly colored twist of tubes designed by Swiss artist Yvan Pestalozzi. Appearing for the first time in the U.S., it will be available for free play during the museum's regular hours beginning April 27.
 
Everyone can enjoy the chance to play on and in the Lozziwurm "and invent where you are," Russell says. "Are we climbing through outer space, or are we climbing through the underground like a squirrel or chipmunk, or are we making up our own place?
 
"Play is a really valuable and critical part of kids' and adults' lives as well," she adds. "Having these kinds of places that are places that kids can imaginatively and creatively play, that are free form and there aren't any rules to follow, allowing you to think of places that are outside your daily experiences, that are places where you can take risks … these are all the kinds of things we think are not important, but we join with PAEYC in saying these are intrinsically important things for kids to get a better sense of themselves. We hope these things will be better understood as critical parts of child development."
 
On April 27, the museums will also be free for kids 12 and the exhibitions will have additional features to aid in play and learning, such as the chance to experience puppet shows, invent stories and work with scientists, as well as lots of intergenerational art making.
 
Also joining with PAEYC in the summer, fall and through the end of the International, in spring 2014, the Carnegie is planning professional development for teachers, parents and others in the early childhood education environment, to help play become adopted throughout one's life. "It's fundamental to the art-making process and we think it is a way of thinking that adults should be open to throughout their lives," Russell says.
           
On June 8, the Playground Project will also open in the Carnegie's architectural hall. It's an exhibition about the history of playground design from the 1930s through the 1970s -- its heyday. "By making play experiences for kids completely predictable and safe, we eliminate the ability of kids to take little steps toward what it means to try something new," she says. This exhibit will show what it was like in a more innocent and perhaps less litigious time for playground design. Kids will even be able to design their own playgrounds, play spaces and objects in the Carnegie's summer camps this year.

iPads, babies and free apps: winning therapy from the Early Learning Institute

Thursday, January 31, 2013
It's hard to imagine an eight-month-old baby doing more than drooling and banging on an iPad, but The Early Learning Institute has discovered that kids this young can benefit from app-based therapies -- and so can their parents.
 
The Institute got a grant from the Verizon Foundation to buy 10 iPads to pilot a study of occupational, physical, speech and developmental therapies used with the 1,100 kids in their Early Intervention Program, which treats children experiencing developmental delays from birth to three in Allegheny and Washington counties. The idea is to help them achieve normal developmental milestones.
 
As a result, says Kara Rutowski, executive director of The Early Learning Institute, the kids have increased their vocabularies, learned to take turns, improved their balance, learned to make good decisions, increased their attention spans and expanded their abilities to express and understand language.
 
They've also to follow directions, match items, answer yes or no questions and identify family members, objects, colors and pictures. The eight-month-old is learning fine motor skills, to improve grasping and the use one finger at a time and other skills that will prepare this child to write, color, cut and perform other pre-school tasks.
 
The program uses mostly free apps so that each child's parents can use them at home to reinforce a kid's goals. Parents can also take their own smart phone or iPad in to the Institute between sessions to practice with the therapists. In addition, the Institute uses iPad learning for babies and toddlers in its socialization group, the Social Butterflies program.
 
"It's never too early to work on these skills," Rutowski says. "The beauty of it is, children are having fun. They don't realize they are working while they are using these things."
 
Do Good:
Searching for additional ways to help kids with special learning needs? Volunteer at the Children's Institute.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kara Rutowski, The Early Learning Institute

Jeremiah's Place closer to opening as crisis nursery, sets 'Art of Love' fundraiser

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Pittsburgh's first crisis nursery, Jeremiah's Place, is on track to open in 2013 as a way for families with the youngest children to find relief when their lives give them with nowhere else to turn.
 
Jeremiah's Place, which is still looking for a home, will offer respite care for kids up to 6 years old. Parents may drop off children without notice to relieve the severe stresses life gives to too many families: homelessness, job loss, or merely a single night when the mother is too ill, or delivering another child, and has nowhere safe and trustworthy to leave her other children.
 
"We have made some great strides," reports spokesperson Eileen Sharbaugh, part of the 22-person team organizing this effort, founded by Dr. Lynne Williams of East Liberty Family Health Care Center and Dr. Tammy Murdock of the Family Life Fund of the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Team members have met with other local nonprofits that work with children and parents, gathering more support, as well as county officials in the County's Office of Children, Youth and Families and area foundations.
 
All have been encouraging to their effort, Sharbaugh says, which is designed to take away one of the major risk factors for child abuse: "Parents really are trying to do their very best but sometimes the odds are so far against them. We're offering them something that is truly preventative. When the parent thinks they are about to lose it, there is somebody who will be there, in a very nonjudgmental way, to relieve their stress."
 
At the suggestion of the Forbes Foundation, the group has shifted their focus from buying a potential location to teaming with other local nonprofits with a similar clientele, where Jeremiah's Place could rent space for a pilot program of 18 to 24 months. In the meantime, they are conducting a public awareness campaign and holding initial fundraisers. The first has been dubbed "The Art of Love!"?
 
Set for 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 13 at the Pittsburgh Public Market (on Smallman between 16th and 17th streets in the Strip), it will offer art for sale that counters the negative images children are exposed to every day. Twenty-seven pieces by 24 artists -- weavings, photos, oils, acrylics, jewelry and others -- valued at $20-300 will be on sale, along with raffle items. As a bonus, some of the regular Public Market booths will stay open for the event.
 
For National Child Abuse Awareness Month next April, Jeremiah's Place has already scheduled a 5K run through North Park on April 27, 2013.
 
Do Good:
Looking for even more ways to help parents and kids? Aid them through the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh or UPMC’s Re:solve Crisis Network.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Eileen Sharbaugh, Jeremiah's Place

ASSET brings statewide STEM expertise to free conference here

Thursday, January 31, 2013
ASSET STEM Education, the South Side nonprofit that has helped school districts across the state implement hands-on curricula for science, technology, engineering and math learning, is holding its first, free STEM conference downtown on Feb. 18. Its aim, says ASSET Executive Director Cynthia Pulkowski, "is really to help people identify where their school districts are on the STEM continuum and decide where they want to go to. They'll be able to discover resources and practices to improve the STEM education at their schools."
 
With 75 school districts and universities already signed up -- not to mention representatives from nonprofit agencies, businesses, state government and elsewhere -- there's not much room left to register for spots, she says.
 
ASSET is teaming with the Norwin School District to bring the conference to the Convention Center, featuring keynote speakers David Burns, director of STEM innovation networks for the Columbus, Ohio R & D company Battelle and Dewayne Rideout, vice president of human resources for All-Clad Metalcrafters in Canonsburg. Burns will offer a national perspective on STEM education, while Rideoout will speak about teaming with several school districts' students to work on new products for the company.
 
Among the 22 breakout sessions are:
  • Charting Your Course to a Successful STEM School/Program, with four ASSET officials describing the best practices of a model STEM program using a national rubric;
  • Several sessions focusing on STEAM, which incorporates the arts into STEM, with representatives from Propel Schools and the Pine-Richland School District;
  • Next Generation Science Standards and STEM, led by representatives of the Math and Science Collaborative at Allegheny Intermediate Unit; and
  • Supporting STEM Education through Common Core, focusing on new, more rigorous state standards now being required of students.
"Teachers need to identify where the possibilities lie for their students in careers," says Pulkowski. To help, ASSET is also creating a STEM career database for schools to investigate possibilities for internships, mentoring programs and classroom visitors.
 
Conference-goers, she says, "will walk away with pieces they can go ahead and apply in their schools. I hope they can say, 'OK, I have a place to start.' I just want them to have some actual resources and some good planning."
 
Do Good:
Looking for additional ways to help local education? Contribute to the work of The Education Partnership in supplying classrooms with needed materials.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Cynthia Pulkowski, ASSET STEM Education

Why aren't anti-bullying programs working for all kids? First Safe Schools Summit seeks answer

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Betty Hill has been puzzled when local schools and foundations report that their anti-bullying programs are working, yet she still hears so often from LGBT students that they're being bullied.
 
"There's something wrong here," says Hill, director of Persad, which runs many programs for LGBT youth. "There's a disconnect that [schools] are not seeing. We want to get people involved and we want to get solutions. We can't just leave behind this whole group of LGBT kids who are not benefitting" from local anti-bullying efforts.
 
That's why Persad is teaming with local chapters of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) and other organizations to hold a Safe Schools Summit -- the first of a three-part effort to bring local resources to bear on this continuing problem. The summit will be held in the Lexus Club at PNC Park on Jan. 16.
 
Nationally, GLSEN has been studying the school climate for LGBT kids for two decades. Their latest survey from 2011, just released, found that 90 percent of LGBT students say they have been verbally harassed, 39 percent physically harassed and 18 percent assaulted in the previous year due to their sexual orientation. Sixty percent report that they feel unsafe in school.
 
Bringing local experts on LGBT issues together with educators will attempt to bridge the gap between general anti-bullying approaches and the needs of LGBT youth. Part of the effort will include conducting the first comprehensive research on the local school climate.
 
The summit will feature national speakers from the Trevor Project (an LGBT youth suicide-prevention hotline), GLSEN, and PFLAG, as well as local school bullying research findings presented by Laura Crothers and Jered Kolbert of Duquesne University.
 
Apparently, says Hill, "kids do not label the negative things done against gay kids as bullying. So they don't use their anti-bullying skills because they don't see the anti-gay things as bullying." Finding out why this goes on, and what to do about it, is the goal of the Summit, whose third part she expects to be later this year. It will include a series of a focus groups with area students, parents, educators, and LGBT community-service groups to discuss local research and ways to proceed from here.
 
Do Good:
Looking for another way to help LGBT youth? Volunteer at the local Gay and Lesbian Community Center.
 
Writer: Marty Levine 
Source: Betty Hill, Persad

Jeremiah's Place closer to opening as crisis nursery, sets 'Art of Love' fundraiser

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Pittsburgh's first crisis nursery, Jeremiah's Place, is on track to open in 2013 as a way for families with the youngest children to find relief when their lives give them with nowhere else to turn.
 
Jeremiah's Place, which is still looking for a home, will offer respite care for kids up to 6 years old. Parents may drop off children without notice to relieve the severe stresses life gives to too many families: homelessness, job loss, or merely a single night when the mother is too ill, or delivering another child, and has nowhere safe and trustworthy to leave her other children.
 
"We have made some great strides," reports spokesperson Eileen Sharbaugh, part of the 22-person team organizing this effort, founded by Dr. Lynne Williams of East Liberty Family Health Care Center and Dr. Tammy Murdock of the Family Life Fund of the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Team members have met with other local nonprofits that work with children and parents, gathering more support, as well as county officials in the County's Office of Children, Youth and Families and area foundations.
 
All have been encouraging to their effort, Sharbaugh says, which is designed to take away one of the major risk factors for child abuse: "Parents really are trying to do their very best but sometimes the odds are so far against them. We're offering them something that is truly preventative. When the parent thinks they are about to lose it, there is somebody who will be there, in a very nonjudgmental way, to relieve their stress."
 
At the suggestion of the Forbes Foundation, the group has shifted their focus from buying a potential location to teaming with other local nonprofits with a similar clientele, where Jeremiah's Place could rent space for a pilot program of 18 to 24 months. In the meantime, they are conducting a public awareness campaign and holding initial fundraisers. The first has been dubbed "The Art of Love!"?
 
Set for 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 13 at the Pittsburgh Public Market (on Smallman between 16th and 17th streets in the Strip), it will offer art for sale that counters the negative images children are exposed to every day. Twenty-seven pieces by 24 artists -- weavings, photos, oils, acrylics, jewelry and others -- valued at $20-300 will be on sale, along with raffle items. As a bonus, some of the regular Public Market booths will stay open for the event.
 
For National Child Abuse Awareness Month next April, Jeremiah's Place has already scheduled a 5K run through North Park on April 27, 2013.
 
Do Good:
Looking for even more ways to help parents and kids? Aid them through the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh or UPMC’s Re:solve Crisis Network.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Eileen Sharbaugh, Jeremiah's Place

iPads, babies and free apps: winning therapy from the Early Learning Institute

Thursday, January 31, 2013
It's hard to imagine an eight-month-old baby doing more than drooling and banging on an iPad, but The Early Learning Institute has discovered that kids this young can benefit from app-based therapies -- and so can their parents.
 
The Institute got a grant from the Verizon Foundation to buy 10 iPads to pilot a study of occupational, physical, speech and developmental therapies used with the 1,100 kids in their Early Intervention Program, which treats children experiencing developmental delays from birth to three in Allegheny and Washington counties. The idea is to help them achieve normal developmental milestones.
 
As a result, says Kara Rutowski, executive director of The Early Learning Institute, the kids have increased their vocabularies, learned to take turns, improved their balance, learned to make good decisions, increased their attention spans and expanded their abilities to express and understand language.
 
They've also to follow directions, match items, answer yes or no questions and identify family members, objects, colors and pictures. The eight-month-old is learning fine motor skills, to improve grasping and the use one finger at a time and other skills that will prepare this child to write, color, cut and perform other pre-school tasks.
 
The program uses mostly free apps so that each child's parents can use them at home to reinforce a kid's goals. Parents can also take their own smart phone or iPad in to the Institute between sessions to practice with the therapists. In addition, the Institute uses iPad learning for babies and toddlers in its socialization group, the Social Butterflies program.
 
"It's never too early to work on these skills," Rutowski says. "The beauty of it is, children are having fun. They don't realize they are working while they are using these things."
 
Do Good:
Searching for additional ways to help kids with special learning needs? Volunteer at the Children's Institute.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kara Rutowski, The Early Learning Institute

Pittsburgh girl is finalist in world kids' video contest

Thursday, January 31, 2013
When Dawnell Davis-White was filming her one-minute video Future Newscaster as part of a Children's Museum of Pittsburgh video workshop this past summer, no one knew she would end up in the hospital that night. But it didn't stop her from completing her video.
 
Dawnell has sickle cell anemia, says JuWanda Thurmond, the Children's Museum's youth program manager, and she shouldn't overheat. On one particular workshop day in July, says Thurmond, "she filmed all morning long -- we had a great day." But Dawnell hid from everyone that she had not been feeling well all day, Thurmond says. "She hadn't wanted to tell us -- she was having such a good time."
 
So Dawnell's videographer -- the kids worked in pairs -- went to the hospital to help her add audio. And now Dawnell's video is a finalist in the "oneminutesjr" video contest created by the One Minutes Foundation and UNICEF. Dawnell and her mother will be headed for Amsterdam for the Nov. 24 prize announcement, flying with funds the Museum secured in a grant.
 
Dawnell was one of 14 kids who attended the fourth annual summer video workshop at the Museum put on by two videographers from New York and two from Amsterdam, sponsored by UNICEF and One Minutes. It teaches the kids, from 13 to 17 years old, how to capture subjects and bring them to life, and how to add sound and special effects. Although One Minutes does such workshops all over the world, Pittsburgh and New York City are the only two U.S. locations. All the Pittsburgh videos can be seen on YouTube.
 
This year's theme was "Who am I?" which the kids story-boarded and then filmed. One acted as videographer and producer while another was the director for each video.
 
Concludes Thurmond: "We just feel that, because we deal with a lot of at-risk youth, there was an opportunity to do something different and something they might not do otherwise. It made for a rich experience."
 
Writer: Marty Levine

Ellis rules the region in Scholastic arts competition

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Visual arts students in the Ellis School took home more than 10 percent of the recent regional Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards -- and art department Chair Sara Sturdevant is not surprised.

"We're lucky," she says. "The school was really supportive of the program. I feel like the school does a great job of treating the arts like a regular subject. The arts are integrated with the school. Kids are encouraged to take part in it, whether they are 'arty' or not. "
 
Ellis has 171 students in grades 7 through 12, who were eligible to enter the annual contest, and 60 submitted works, resulting in 100 awards. They submitted sketches and paintings, clay sculptures, digital and black and white photography and digital videos.
 
Scholastic received 2,000 entries from 952 students across the region, and awarded Silver and Gold Key Awards, honorable mentions and their American Visions Award, which goes to the best work in any single category or age group. One Ellis student, Sophia Sterling-Angus in grade 10, was nominated for one of only five American Visions honors for her short video. She was nominated for a work of art last year as well.
 
Of the 524 honorable mentions, Ellis students earned 41. Thirty-seven of the 376 Silver Keys went to Ellis, and 22 of the 242 Gold Keys. All Gold and Vision awardees will be competing in the national competition in New York City in March, and those winners will be displayed in a May show in that city.
 
"We're just a little school, so we're mighty proud of that," says Sturdevant.
 
These Ellis regional winners will be honored at a Feb. 24 ceremony and exhibition at LaRoche College:
 
Claire Akers, grade 10, Honorable Mention
Laila Al-Soulaiman, grade 12, 3 Honorable Mentions
Camille Allen, grade 11, Silver Key
Lauren Baker, grade 10, Honorable Mention
Emma Bisello, grade 7, 2 Honorable Mentions
Noori Chishti, grade 12, Honorable Mentions
Evie Clark, grade 11, Silver Key
Marie Concilus, grade 11, Silver Key
Eleni Contis, grade 11, 2 Silver Keys, 2 Honorable Mentions
Abby Cox, grade 11, Honorable Mention
Lucille Crelli, grade 12, 4 Silver Keys, Honorable Mention
Houston Curtis, grade 10, Gold Key
Karina Dandashi, grade 11, Honorable Mention
Nadia Dandashi, grade 8, Gold Key, Honorable Mention  
Julia DiPietro, grade 11, Honorable Mention
Lauren Drake, grade 9, Gold Key, Silver Key  
Ana Eberts, grade 9, Gold Key
Alainna Edwards, grade 12, Silver Key
Brittany Ellis, grade 10, 2 Gold Keys
Alexandra Foster, grade 10, Silver Key
Kate Foster, grade 8, Silver Key
Carley Fritsch, grade 11, Honorable Mention
Evely Geroulakos, grade 7, Honorable Mention
Annie Gordon, grade 10, 2 Silver Keys, Honorable Mention
Mackenzie Haney, grade 10, Silver Key
Heather Harrington, grade 10, 2 Gold Keys, 2 Silver Keys
Eliza Jimenez, grade 11, Silver Key
Madison Kalson Kalson, grade 12, Honorable Mention
Suzanne Kazar, grade 10, Gold Key
Breatrice King, grade 10, 2 Honorable Mentions
Shae LaPlace, grade 12, Silver Key
Talia Leshko, grade 9, Gold Key
Mary Lynch, grade 11, Silver Key, Honorable Mention
Carolyn Manuck, grade 11, 2 Gold Keys, Silver Key  
Maeve McAllister, grade 11, Silver Key
Zoe Merrell, grade 10, 2 Gold Keys, Silver Key  
Pallavi Muluk, grade 8, Silver Key
Sruthi Muluk, grade 10, Silver Key
Caroline Muse, grade 12, Gold Key, Silver Key  
Olivia Muse, grade 9, Silver Key
Emily Oblak, grade 12, Gold Key, 3 Silver Keys,  3 Honorable Mentions
Claire Priore, grade 10, Gold Key
Korryn Resetar, grade 10, Silver Key
Anna Elaine Rosengart, grade 8, Honorable Mention
Dayna Rouse, grade 9, Silver Key
Shauna Runco, grade 7, Honorable Mention
Lizzie Shackney, grade 12, Honorable Mention
Ashna Shome, grade 11, Gold Key, 2 Silver Keys
Andrea Stepney, grade 12, Honorable Mention
Sophia Sterling-Angus, grade 10, Gold Key, Silver Key , 2 Honorable Mentions, American Visions Nominee
Helena Sturdevant, grade 7, Honorable Mention
Sarah Thornton, grade 12, Honorable Mention
Olivia Turer, grade 11, Silver Key, Honorable Mention
Natalia Valdes, grade 11, Honorable Mention
Emily Walczak, grade 11, Honorable Mention
Jaisa Watkins, grade 12, Honorable Mention
Emily West, grade 10, Gold Key
Erin West, grade 12, Honorable Mention
Emily Wolfe, grade 9, Gold Key, Honorable Mention  
Yiqing Zhang, grade 10, Honorable Mention
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Sara Sturdevant, The Ellis School

Woodland Hills school is national Title 1 'Distinguished School'

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Three teachers and the principal from Woodland Hills' Dickson Elementary have led their fourth graders to multi-year science score improvements on the state's standard test. As a result, they were invited to represent Pennsylvania this year as a Title 1 Distinguished School, one of two from the state sent to the Title 1 National Conference in Nashville, Jan. 21-24, out of 113 qualifying schools in the Commonwealth.
 
The improvements have been dramatic. In 2010, only 35 percent of the school's 4th-grade science students were proficient or advanced on the state's PSSA test. The next year, 58 percent achieved those levels, and by 2012 it was up to 87 percent, with no student rating below basic. The Title 1 Association recognizes overall growth in scores as well as schools that are closing the achievement gap.
 
The three teachers leading the effort are Lori McDowell, instructional coach, and two fourth-grade teachers, Mary Margaret Gleason and Laurie DelRosso, working under principal Allison Kline. On Jan. 28, they also attended the Title I Improving School Performance Convention at Station Square, presenting their methods for drastically improving scores.
 
"It wasn't a new curriculum," says Kline. "I gave the teachers collaboration time with the coach [and] everything was hands-on experiments. They used a lot of Bill Nye, the Science Guy videos. They made rhymes and songs, for instance, to learn the phases of the moon.
 
"And the other thing," she adds: "They used leveled readers. The kids all read about the same concepts but they got it at their reading levels."
 
Title 1 schools are those with a higher percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, which describes 83 percent of Dickson kids. In fact, Woodland Hills is a Title 1 District.
 
"There's a push district-wide for hands-on and more real-world performance tasks," she says. The improvements at Dickson under Kline also helped her students overall. "Their science scores went up, but they also had the highest increase in their reading scores too. So it trickled down to other subjects.
 
"I have a plan," she concludes. Her student will begin learning subjects relevant to the Common Core, to which state testing standards are shifting. "I've already added extra collaboration time to our fifth-grade reading teachers," she says.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Allison Kline, Dickson

'My Soul and I': A winning high-school essay from MLK contest

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Introduction: "There's such a range of how writers interpret the idea of diversity in their own lives," says Jim Daniels, Carnegie Mellon University English professor who oversees the Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Awards for high school and college students. "I thought we had a diverse group of winners."
 
Kidsburgh is pleased to print one of the winning essays here, a first-place high-school winner by Sarah Ryan called "My Soul and I."
 
"We're trying to extend the reach of the awards beyond Martin Luther King Day," Daniels says. The annual contest is also trying to reach more schools and more of the community with the winners' prose and poetry. Recently, two of the winning poems were used in the Emanuel Episcopal Church's Sunday evening jazz service themed on race and difference, held at their North Side facility. On July 11, Daniels is hoping that award winnings essays will be read at the Chautauqua Institute in New York.
 
"It is high-school kids wrestling with a subject our society still wrestles with every day," he says. However, he adds, "there've been more students writing about being gay or sexual differences and more students writing about being mixed race. A lot of times, they have the support of the kids' families in dealing with some of these issues, in taking a risk in writing about this delicate subject."
 
The collection of all current winners' work is online here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
 
 
'My Soul and I'
 
By Sarah Ryan
 
She looked at me and said, “You’re black.”
 
Then she turned to my soul and said, “You’re black.”
 
“Yeah, I know” I said.
 
My soul nodded, “yeah,” it said, “I know.”
 
My soul and I had stumbled over what to fill out on the application in the ethnicity category. There was no category for half black-half white. I didn’t want to be the pedantic kid who checked other, refusing to define herself as one ethnicity, righteously protesting categorization. Because I don’t care. I know I’m black; when you mix two colors together, the darker one wins out.
 
My soul, however, tried to mask its surprise. It didn’t know it was black. But why? It wasn’t that it thought it was white. It thought it was self. It thought it was special, different, unique, indefinable. Obviously not. It was black. How could it go this long without knowing?
 
I had grown up in a very diverse environment. Everyone had labels like, black, white, Hispanic, Indian or Asian. On our first day of school we had tags to tell people our names. My sticker said, “Hello, My name is Sarah.” My skin said, “Hello, I’m black.” We didn’t wear our name tags the second day and everyone forgot, but we kept our ethnicity on, so that no one would have to ask. I knew people saw that I was black and because of it, knew things about me. They knew my ancestors we slaves. They knew they struggled and fought for freedom. They also assumed things about me. At first, the assumptions could shove me down. I would trip, their words like gravel, tearing into my palms and knees and peeling my skin back until it began to sting and foam blood. Eventually I grew calluses, hardly feeling it at all.
 
My soul never grew calluses. It did not know that everything being said applied to it. Not that everything was offensive, but it meant that people would rather group all black souls together than get to know my soul personally. Up until now, my soul thought it was being judged on merit. My soul wondered why the application readers needed to know it at all. The application had sections for grades, extracurricular activities, recommendations, a personal statement, and finances, for aid, but what would race tell it? How do skin color and heritage weigh in to the decision? These were neither accomplished nor earned.

Marking down black on an application could be to my advantage when I apply to college. If there are two students with identical applications applying they will often go with the minority, or so I’m told. I do see that there is some unfairness to this, but when I apply to school I will do anything to make myself look better. If they pick me to boost their minority numbers, that’s fine. I can show schools my talents once I am already there.

My soul does not like to ask for help or to be given an unfair advantage. When its fortitude and determination pay off, my soul is reassured of its abilities and feels talented. Thinking that it did not earn all of its opportunities crushes it. Did people see its talent? Its hard work? All its life my soul had thought it was given opportunities because of its effort. My soul lost confidence.
 
I saw my soul on the ground nursing its skinned knee, sipping air, trying to keep composure. I helped it up. I told it that time heals all wounds; my soul just needed some time to adjust to its new label, to being defined. After all, my soul and I live in a very diverse and accepting community. On my dad’s side I have first cousins that are red haired Irish and others that are half Korean. We all look alike still with the same nose and face shape. We are family. In my life it is rare that my ethnicity is ever even discussed, except, of course, on applications. However, I am occasionally confronted by prejudiced people and remarks. When this happens, I use my thicker skin to protect myself. I’ve gotten strong. My soul would learn eventually, but right then, in that moment, my soul could only think about how it was not going to cry.
 
I checked the box labeled African-American nonetheless. I can’t protect my soul’s feelings forever. At some point it has to learn how the world works. My soul will have to grow calluses too.

Kids+Creativity releases a highlight reel

Thursday, January 31, 2013
The last Kids+Creativity network gathering was great enough to merit a highlight reel, put together by The Sprout Fund/Spark and available here.
 
This local movement is all about meeting and collaborating with innovators in learning and creativity. The next Kids+Creativity event, a "Primer" on Feb. 8 at Carnegie Mellon University is sold out.
 
However, as those in charge of the movement have written: "Whether you're a superintendent, principal, or teacher; a librarian, museum director, or exhibit designer; a roboticist, technologist, or gamer; an early learning educator, afterschool director, or summer learning teacher; or an artist, entrepreneur, or multimedia producer -- if you care about connecting with local kids and youth in ways that ignite their passion for learning -- you'll want to be there" -- at least for the next Kids+Creativity event.
 
In the meantime, you can connect with the network here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine

New school-climate theme and interactive story kiosks set for Hear Me

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Hear Me, the CMU project that gathers kids' stories to get them public notice and prompt action on kids' issues, will debut new, more interactive public story kiosks in April, and until then will be gathering stories based on a single theme: school climate.
 
The idea to focus on school climate -- whether students feel safe and engaged in their classrooms -- was driven by community activist groups that have made the issue one of their emphases, says Project Manager Jessica Kaminsky. A new partnership with the Education Law Center will help Hear Me create an audience for student stories among policymakers and local, state and federal government officials.
 
The new kiosks, Kaminsky says, will be "a way to bring that theme out into the community and get people talking about what our students are talking about."
 
Hear Me has been using a can-on-a-string design for its public kiosks, which people can turn over to hear a story. Now they have partnered with local design studios Visionary Effects and Laser Lab Studios to take the can phones and build a more attractive kiosk around them. Illustrated with different cartoon kids, in bright colors, the kiosks also now feature slots that give out and re-collect index cards for listeners to jot down their own stories on school climate, after they've listened to the recorded stories.
 
Another part of the index cards will give listeners an idea for getting involved in the theme issue. If the theme were environment, then perhaps they would be notified of a debate about Marcellus Shale or a cleanup at a local park, says Ryan Hoffman, project coordinator. Hear Me will scan the stories listeners write on the cards and place them on Hear Me's website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.
 
The kiosks will also have a scannable QR Code for people seeking more information.
 
Hear Me will be soliciting school-climate stories from local schools and community groups from now through May. "It's something everyone should be interested in," says Kaminsky. "We are looking for any group of students who want to share their stories on school climate."
 
A few demonstration kiosks are available now at Biddle's Escape in Wilkinsburg, Espresso a Mano in Lawrenceville and Carnegie libraries, currently featuring non-school climate stories.
 
Hear Me is hoping people or groups will sponsor some of the kiosks that will appear in the future, at $100 a kiosk, which will give each sponsor the chance to pick stories to feature in their kiosk. The sponsor will also be recognized on the kiosk. The official launch party for the new kiosks will take place in April at Big Dog Coffee on the South Side.
 
Hoffman hopes some of the new school-climate stories will lead to public policy changes. Says Hoffman: "It's going to be a great way to start community dialog on issues kids are actually concerned about."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Ryan Hoffman, Jessica Kaminsky

What all the cool kids are into now: Genetically engineered machine contest here

Thursday, November 01, 2012
At last year's international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition, one group of college students entered the contest with a bit of synthetic biology that broke down glutens into sugars in the stomach, potentially defeating their harm to the gluten-intolerant. Then the project came to the attention of a pharmaceutical company.
 
"They looked at the students' project and decided it was better than the product they had spent millions of dollars developing," reports Tom Richard; the students' project has since become part of the company's research protocol.
 
That's the great potential of these synthetic biology creations, says Richard, a Penn State professor of biological engineering who led a team, and helped organize, the eastern North American regionals of iGEM at Duquesne University on Oct. 13 and 14. Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pennsylvania and more than 35 other teams with 275 undergraduate students from Canada and the U.S. also competed.
 
Richard has seen undergraduate team projects with practical applications in medicine, nutrition, energy and the environment, plus games and puzzles. Biological mechanisms can map the most efficient route among stores for deliveries more easily than can computer programs. His PSU team developed a test device that signals whether the body's normal response to oxygen shortage -- creation of more lactic acid -- had started properly or not.
 
Ideally, more projects will turn into ideas businesses can use, he adds. iGEM has just started an entrepreneurial division to match venture capital with students' projects.
 
"The biology is something that has taken our civilization a long time to figure out," says Richard, "but once we figured it out, it's not so complicated." In fact, iGEM has also just begun a high-school division. About 40 high-school students from seven high schools in the Pittsburgh region and across the state attended the competition.
 
"Hopefully some of these schools will have teams competing next spring," he says. "It's a fantastic hands-on science and engineering project for high school students. Most high schools don't teach engineering. Engineering is about design and making things. We're really excited to be able to push science into high schools. We know that in our society, to be successful over the next 100 years, we have to create more people excited by science, technology, engineering and math subjects."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Tom Richard, international Genetically Engineered Machine Competition

Pittsburgh Youth Media report on One Young World

Pittsburgh Youth Media Thursday, November 01, 2012
A group of 36 Pittsburgh high school students underwent journalism boot camp training to better report on numerous stories from the four day One Young World summit. See the Pop City story about Pittsburgh Youth Media here.

See all their stories here.

Youth philanthropists challenge youth entrepreneurs: start Hill District businesses

Thursday, November 01, 2012
"There's a lot of negativity displayed in the media toward the Hill District youth, and I wanted to give Hill District youth a chance to be better than the stereotype," says 17-year-old Dynae Shaw, leader of a group of 12 high-school students who together form the first Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI).
 
YPI participants, ages 13-18, come from the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation’s School 2 Career Program and are looking for young entrepreneurs to support in the Hill, Uptown and West Oakland. The group raised $614 this summer and program co-sponsor McAuley Ministries, part of the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, matched it 5 to 1.
 
"When I found out about the money I was really excited," says Shaw, a Garfield resident and senior at Pittsburgh Obama, "because I really wanted to help the Hill District. Youth should be decision makers. We wanted to make sure it was for bettering the Hill District, so we want little projects that can turn into something big." She envisions youth with artistic talent teaching classes in inexpensive or donated spaces, "or a lawn business to make the Hill District look more appealing," she says.
 
Grants of $500 or $1,000 will be given to applicants, who must attend a two-hour workshop on Oct. 27, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Hill House Association. The workshop, run by Hill-based UrbanInnovation21, will help hopefuls devise their business plans and learn to run a thriving business. Applications will be due on Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. via the POISE Foundation.
 
YPI members spent the summer getting acquainted with the grant-making process and are learning now how to evaluate applicants' presentations.
 
"I hope that it will inspire other youth to stand up and follow their dreams," Shaw says about the YPI program. "This will give them not only the chance to do something they haven't been able to do without the money, but to tell them that people care about their community." Shaw hopes YPI will be done again in the future, and that perhaps it will expand to East Liberty and other neighborhoods.
 
"We're not looking at overnight change," she adds, "but we hope people will look at the businesses and say, 'I can do that.' We hope they will look for other grants or say they can volunteer in their community. We also hope to inspire other businesses and other foundations to give youth a chance."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Dynae Shaw, Youth Philanthropy Initiative

Ellis students celebrate International Day of the Girl in this unscripted video

You Tube Thursday, November 01, 2012
In honor of the United Nation's international Day of the Girl, the students of The Ellis School were asked, "What do you wish that adults would work for to make the world a better place for girls?"  See thee range of responses in this unscripted video then help share their message. What will you do to make the world a better place for girls and young women? 

Click here to view the video.

More than 3,800 Promise scholarships later, seeking more students to serve

Thursday, November 01, 2012
The Pittsburgh Promise has completed its fourth year of awarding scholarships to Pittsburgh Public high-school graduates with a clear sense of accomplishment and "a ton more to do," says Executive Director Saleem Ghubril.
 
PPS now has a completion rate of 71 percent, up from 63 percent in 2007 (the year before the Promise began). The immediate goal remains to graduate 85 percent, which would exceed the national rate of 70.5 percent, and Pennsylvania's 79 percent average -- although Ghubril cautions that high schools across the state are only now standardizing how they count graduation rates. Some previously weren't counting those who left in 9th, 10th or 11th grade, for instance, but only those who started and completed their senior years.
 
So far, 59 percent of the scholarships have gone to girls and 41 percent to boys, while whites have received 53 percent while blacks have received 41 percent, with the remainder going to others. The Promise announced an effort to further diversify the recipient pool by attracting more Latino families to a city notoriously low in diversity. Immigrant-focused VibrantPittsburgh is leading this effort, with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development promoting the local jobs picture and the Urban Redevelopment Authority offering a guide to local affordable housing. Another new initiative to promote the $40,000 Promise scholarship is adding informative placards to area homes' "For Sale" signs, cluing non-city residents in to the opportunity that comes with moving here.
 
The Promise also introduced its first class of Executive Scholarship recipients. These scholarships for the highest-achieving high-schoolers come with the sponsorship of local corporations and nonprofits, representing an effort to connect students with prominent local organizations to increase student access to jobs and community involvement.
 
The Promise also reported that it helped increase retention rates 9 to 18 percent in schools with Promise Scholars, according to researchers from the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center.
 
Overall, the Promise, say Ghubril, is "bearing fruit [although] we were building the plane as we were flying it. I feel remarkably good about [being] four years into it. I can, with integrity, say we are fulfilling the Promise."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Saleem Ghubril, Pittsburgh Promise

Mad Science Supply & Surplus: new pop-up shop for the kid in everyone

Thursday, November 01, 2012
The merchandise says it all. At the new Mad Science Supply & Surplus pop-up shop at Assemble in Garfield, you can buy make-your-own-monster kits, stuffed kittens with detachable heads (mix and match 'em!), Emergency Eureka, "I [brain] PGH" buttons, magnets, and t-shirts, Terror-ariums, Perpspectacles, Skulls N' At, Thought Bubbles, Robot Intestines and Nut Cases.
 
But the new shop is also part of a slightly more serious endeavor, The Literary Arts Boom (or The LAB), a pilot project created by Paula Levin for kids 6-18, which aims to show that writing is both a creative and a practical pursuit. All of its projects -- including the store -- combine fun and literacy training.
 
In November, for instance, 5th and 6th graders at the LAB will be participating in National Novel Writing Month, adapted as an after-school activity. "Next week we will be setting our word-count goals … and we'll have a celebration on Nov. 30," says Levin -- after which the kids' efforts will be published later as chapbooks. The LAB also recently started Tuesday drop-in homework help from 3 to 6 p.m.  -- snacks included -- that offers homework mentors and games. Its Thursday workshops are just concluding a series on comics. One week, the kids played Frieze, for which some of them struck a pose to be drawn, while others had to figure out a narrative that went with it. For Portrait, they drew people and their alter egos, signified by a change in facial expressions or props, then imagined in writing a meeting between the two.
 
The Mad Science store, Levin says, "is a really cool opportunity to enhance the space, draw people in and down the line have artists involved -- have them doing portraits and storefront [art] to display the quirky, mad scientist aspect of it."
 
MAYA Design created many pieces for the shop, and the grand opening was itself a typical LAB lesson, including letting kids "Einsteinify" themselves by making mustaches, eyebrows and safety goggles out of felt and paper. Levin hopes the store will be open once a week, maybe during Assembly's Saturday Crafternoons. It will definitely be accessible for the December and January Unblurreds, she says.
 
"Even when we're not open, folks can see it" when they're in Assemble, she notes -- and that's a good thing. It's all about "connecting people to the program who might not find out about the program."
 
Writer: Marty Levine

Pittsburgh girl is finalist in world kids' video contest

Thursday, November 01, 2012
When Dawnell Davis-White was filming her one-minute video Future Newscaster as part of a Children's Museum of Pittsburgh (CMOP) video workshop this past summer, no one knew she would end up in the hospital that night. But it didn't stop her from completing her video.
 
Dawnell has sickle cell anemia, says JuWanda Thurmond, CMOP's youth program manager, and she shouldn't overheat. On one particular workshop day in July, says Thurmond, "she filmed all morning long -- we had a great day." But Dawnell hid from everyone that she had not been feeling well all day, Thurmond says. "She hadn't wanted to tell us -- she was having such a good time."
 
So Dawnell's videographer -- the kids worked in pairs -- went to the hospital to help her add audio. And now Dawnell's video is a finalist in the "oneminutesjr" video contest created by the One Minutes Foundation and UNICEF. Dawnell and her mother will be headed for Amsterdam for the Nov. 24 prize announcement, flying with funds CMOP secured in a grant.
 
Dawnell was one of 14 kids who attended the fourth annual summer video workshop at CMOP put on by two videographers from New York and two from Amsterdam, sponsored by UNICEF and One Minutes. It teaches the kids, from 13 to 17 years old, how to capture subjects and bring them to life, and how to add sound and special effects. Although One Minutes does such workshops all over the world, Pittsburgh and New York City are the only two U.S. locations. All the Pittsburgh videos can be seen on YouTube.
 
This year's theme was "Who am I?" which the kids story-boarded and then filmed. One acted as videographer and producer while another was the director for each video.
 
Concludes Thurmond: "We just feel that, because we deal with a lot of at-risk youth, there was an opportunity to do something different and something they might not do otherwise. It made for a rich experience."
 
Writer: Marty Levine

The Labs@CLP have a full winter of workshops lined up

Thursday, November 01, 2012
Teens are still getting used to what is available at TheLabs@CLP (digital media labs at four Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branches), says Corey Wittig, the Labs' digital learning coordinator -- and that's understandable, he adds.
 
At the main library branch in Oakland, where the Labs opened at the end of September and maintain their most extensive hours, "I think there's a little bit of a warm-up period where we become familiar faces," he explains. "It's important for teens to get familiar with new staff."
 
That includes two new part-time mentors for the kids: Molly Dickerson, who has a background in photography and a University of Pittsburgh library degree, and Andre Costello, a local musician who studied graphic design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
 
The other Labs are housed at the Allegheny, East Liberty and South Side branches. All offer computer equipment to help teens undertake filmmaking, photography, graphic design, music and animation projects. 
 
The Labs' October workshops focused on making videos, with a scary movie challenge for which teens wrote a scene and created trailers. In November, workshops will center on music and audio recording, including podcasts and other projects. December's "Holiday .Gif" theme will teach ways to create holiday-themed technology gifts -- including animated .gif files. January's theme is photography, while February will focus on graphic design and March on programming.
 
So far, the Lab in Oakland is the only one that also has open hours for any project a student cares to pursue. There, for instance, one group of teens spent October shooting a video of an X-Files-type thriller. Says Wittig: "Even in a workshop, depending on whoever stops by, it can take any number of turns."
 
Writer: Marty Levine

Pittsburgh Cares has a 12-year-old winner in its first 'Who Cares' video contest

Thursday, November 01, 2012
Pittsburgh Cares' first video contest is a winner, as far as Holly McGraw-Turkovic is concerned.
 
She's the organization's director of youth programs, and she says she is very pleased with the 18 entries.
 
One pair of boys produced a video about their recycling club. A young girl provided statistics and proposed solutions for the problem of homelessness. Students from The Environmental Charter School at Frick Park, from 8 to 11 years old, produced a slew of videos about ways to alleviate various ecological concerns.
 
McGraw-Turkovic talked to the teacher who directed these students. "She thought it was a good compliment to what they were learning," she says, "and a good way to get kids to think what they would do and how they would get other people to take action."
 
All the videos, including the winning video by 12-year-old Anna Yaksich of Cheswick (with her friend and Sydni Henley), can be seen on YouTube. Anna's video talks about the $9,000 she and Sydni have already raised for Animal Friends' no-kill pet shelter, starting when they were 7, and encourages other kids to pitch in.
 
For her efforts, Anna has won a $500 mini-grant to help her get started on her next project to help Animal Friends -- or to give directly to the shelter. Notified on Oct. 30, Anna had not yet decided which to do.
 
Pittsburgh Cares plans to hold two more Who Cares kid video contests soon -- around Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January and Global Youth Service Day in April.
 
Writer: Marty Levine

Teens and glass arts: a bright combination

Thursday, November 01, 2012
It’s not more difficult to teach teens the various glass arts than it is to teach them to adults, say instructors at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. In fact, it’s easier.
 
“They seem to have a lot more ideas,” says staff instructor Melissa Fitzgerald. “They’re more eager and follow directions more easily.”
 
One Pittsburgh Allderdice High School junior wowed the entire staff with the sci-fi-inspired glass ray guns he concocted and molded himself from start to finish.
 
For the last 10 years, the PGC has been developing glass artists in its state-of-the-art building in Garfield. It now hosts a wide span of classes, ranging from one-day introductory workshops to intense, multi-week courses for advanced students. Between classes and the independent work of its 281 member artists, the center melts 30,000 pounds of glass a year.
 
It surprises some to learn the center has classes for students 14 to 18, given its sophisticated, flame-spewing equipment. But it holds two ten-week classes for teens (starting every February and October). One teaches glassblowing, the creation of basic shapes like vases and cups using furnaces, and the other flameworking, the molding of glass with torches. Plus, there is an “intensive” in August that boils everything down in a week, as well as one-day “Make It Now" events, where absolute beginners can leave with their own beads and marbles, scattered throughout the year.
 
Jason Forck, the center’s youth education coordinator, says small cuts and burns are inevitable but there hasn’t been a serious injury at the center in its history. He adds that once students get anywhere near the 2,200-degree heat coming from the furnaces, they know to stay back. “Fire has its own safety mechanism,” he says.
 
It’s not just fun and self-expression the center offers. The staff says it’s helped student artists enter colleges with good glass art programs, like Kent and Ohio State universities.
 
Writer: Nick Keppler

Ellis School student with family still in Syria draws attention through July 30 panel

Thursday, July 19, 2012
Thirteen members of Laila Al-Soulaiman's family have died in the clashes that began last year between Syria's citizens and its government, which started in her home city of Daraa. She can't discuss the specifics of her family's situation today; that "would compromise what they are actively trying to do," says the North Huntingdon resident, who will be an Ellis School senior this fall. "Many are active in the protest. Many are still silent.”
 
Laila believes none of us can afford to stay silent about the conflict, and so she is doing what few 17-year-olds do -- she is organizing a panel discussion to create citywide awareness of the Syrian situation, which she hopes will lead to further action.
 
“The average Pittsburgher – that’s who I want to come,” she says of the event, which will be held on July 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Squirrel Hill Carnegie Library meeting room A/B. Besides herself, there are two other panelists so far:     Imam Abdu Semih of Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, and Syrian-American Dalel Khalil, author of From Veils To Thongs and a University of Pittsburgh alumna, who believes their common culture can unite Syrians, Laila says. Khalil is also Antiochian Orthodox Christian. That there are also many Christians in Syria may surprise Americans, Laila believes.
 
The panel, being organized with the help of Global Solutions Pittsburgh and the local Syrian community, will give Pittsburghers the idea that they are connected to what's happening in Syria, she says, and that "we have a lot of power to change it. I don’t want to advocate anything politically – that should be left up to the people at the panel."
 
In her opinion, a solution to the crisis "is something that needs to come from the Syrian people. I think the U.S. government should impose heavier sanctions on the Syrian regime. Right now they’re just letting it happen.”
 
In the future, she hopes to hold a rally in Pittsburgh. There have been public protests in other American cities, but those cities have had larger populations overall, as well as bigger communities of Muslims and of Syrians.
 
"I’m very hopeful that Syria will find freedom," Laila says, "and the first step is that the international community needs to act more like a community and help the Syrian cause. I hope this little panel will add up to something. Mostly, I hope people will care.”
 
For more information and registration, click here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Laila Al-Soulaiman

Mon Valley high-schoolers release their own school documentaries through Hear Me 101

Thursday, July 19, 2012
Students from four Mon Valley school districts spent a year of after-school and weekend time confronting the negative images and real issues head on at their schools, and the results are impressive documentaries, says Jessica Pachuta, project manager for the project, called Hear Me 101, from Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab.
 
"Each of their school districts is battling some type of negative stereotype, and most of it comes from the media,” says Pachuta. In two of the districts, for instance -- Clairton and Woodland Hills -- the stereotype is “'We’re only good at football and the students fight all the time.' No one is looking at what goes on culturally and socially. The students saw this as an opportunity to talk about this.”
 
Pachuta is an alum of one of the other districts taking part in the pilot program -- Steel Valley. "It hit home – I know exactly what they’re going through,” she says.
 
The 80 high schoolers "followed the process of making a documentary like a real documentary filmmaker would,” she says. They worked with the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project at the University of Pittsburgh to help students outline their documentaries, then learned from the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts how to execute most of the production. Two workshops at Pittsburgh Filmmakers helped students look at their schools and communities and decide whom to talk to and what to talk about, then put a video camera in their hands -- many for the first time.
 
Interviews with the young documentarians can be heard here. The films will debut on July 15 at 6 p.m. at Community College of Allegheny County.
 
Clairton's doc, Bleed Orange and Black, shows the way students see their community changing and how crime and safety and other issues affect everyone in the community. Steel Valley's The Study of Success takes a local negative -- concern that students from a particular district neighborhood experience low graduation and college entrance rates -- and turned that into a positive message: No matter where you are from, you can’t let it hurt your chances to achieve success.
 
Woodland Hills students worked on several documentaries, including one on the way positive student-teacher interactions can improve student achievement. And McKeesport students produced three films, including a piece on the function of role models, which made the older students realize that they have to be role models today for the younger kids.
 
“It was challenging to ask teenagers to take a mature look at themselves and where they come from," says Pachuta. "It is an incredibly vulnerable thing. But they opened up so much."
 
While the students learned the technical skills of using cameras, audio equipment and lighting, they also learned a lot of interpersonal skills while having to ask tough questions of school administrators and community officials. Pachuta says Hear Me 101 will continue next year with the same school districts: “We started such a great thing here. These kids don’t want to stop talking about these issues.”
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Jessica Pachuta, Hear Me 101

Very STEAM-y: AIU's Center for Creativity gives $222,000 to 20 districts' fresh learning approaches

Thursday, July 19, 2012
STEM education is still all the rage, but adding the arts to science, technology, engineering and math to make STEAM is catching on.
 
Locally, the movement just got some help in the form of $222,000 in grants to school districts in Allegheny County (and a few in Washington County) from the Allegheny Intermediate Unit's Center for Creativity, with money from the Claude Worthington Benedum and Grable foundations.
 
Adding the arts to the more technical STEM subjects makes a lot of sense when you're pursuing high-tech innovation, says Center for Creativity Director Kelley Beeson, since "technology is the way we get here," Beeson says, "but the arts are where the ideas come from."
 
The Center for Creativity is a new initiative to bring students and teachers together to try unconventional learning methods, she explains, and that's exactly what the top grants of $20,000, awarded to five districts, are intended to foster.
 
Allegheny Valley School District, for instance, is using a butterfly garden and bird sanctuary as living outdoor classrooms, working with the Audubon Society, the Rachel Carson Homestead, a landscape architect and others to construct science, math, art and other stations. At Carlynton, they're creating a learning lab to encourage tinkering and making stuff, in the same vein as the MakeShop at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Carlynton K-6th graders will explore the concepts of building and using machines, such as amusement park rides and different modes of transportation, with the Carnegie Science Center, Carnegie-Mellon University's Robotics Institute, among other local institutions.
 
Elizabeth-Forward will use full-body kinetic videogames to allowing students' bodies to be a kind of learning environment for STEAM lessons, while the Washington School District will create a Summer STEAM Academy for grades 2-12.
 
"These projects all share a very similar effort to change the classroom," says Beeson. "Students learn differently and probably more deeply when they're engaged in the learning process -- when they're actually involved in learning."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kelley Beeson, Center for Creativity

Fred Forward leaps into kids' digital-media future

Thursday, July 19, 2012
The latest Fred Forward Conference on June 3-5 -- run by the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media at Saint Vincent College -- drew 160 people from major media companies and early childhood advocacy groups alike. "Just the perfect mix of folks for the discussions," says Rita Catalano, executive director of the Fred Rogers Center. "This was a national conference but it was a great opportunity to showcase the work that is happening in Pittsburgh."
 
Chief among its topic was the group's “Framework for Quality in Digital Media for Young Children,” two years in the making and still being built. There's so much media out there, but what's worthwhile for the youngest kids, up to 8 years old. Within a month, the Center hopes to take conference-generated ideas and develop them into "a very clear statement of what quality means," says Catalano. Participants also concluded that they need to help create new partnerships among child advocates and kids' media producers and find other opportunities to advance the quality of what's on offer.
 
Research on the subject, she adds, “is still very new, so we need to keep providing evidence that certain kinds of content, certain uses of content, works for children.” Creators of kids' media, from apps to new television shows, as well as childhood educators, also need new types of professional development.
           
Keynote speaker at this year's Fred Forward was Jerlean Daniel, executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. “Jerlean reminded us," Catalano says, "that we need to always remember Fred Rogers’ message of always thinking of the children first.”
 
Do Good:
Advocate for early childhood education through the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Rita Catalano, Fred Rogers Center

Young advisors needed to lend their voices to Pittsburgh Cares

Thursday, July 19, 2012
Pittsburgh Cares is creating a Youth Advisory Council for the first time to make sure younger voices have a say in the direction of its volunteer activities.
 
Students 14-18 years old can apply themselves or have a teacher or other mentor nominate them for a one-year term beginning this September. Application deadline is June 29.
 
"We're really looking for a diverse group of youth," says Nina Zappa, Pittsburgh Cares' Youth Engaged in Service program coordinator. "We just wanted to make sure there's an inclusion of youth voices for all our programs so we are better serving our organization."
 
Among the duties, Youth Advisory Council members will be grant reviewers for the organization's mini-grants program and gain professional development and networking opportunities.
 
Pittsburgh Cares already has students taking charge of Martin Luther King Jr. Day projects and school-related donation drives. Young people, says Zappa, are most attracted to volunteer activities involving interaction with even younger kids -- whether it's doing arts and crafts or sports or helping with homework and reading -- and to providing a direct service at a food bank or soup kitchen. But the new Youth Advisory Council will let students have a voice in more of the organization's activities.
 
"This will be more of the youth in charge of actually doing" the activity planning, she says. "Maybe they will come up with a better way [to organize] that is more youth-friendly and get more youth involved."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Nina Zappa, Pittsburgh Cares

KidsPlay for preschoolers opens at Market Square -- and the Promise celebrates student milestone

Thursday, July 19, 2012
KidsPlay is back in Market Square for summer Tuesday mornings, 10-11:30 a.m., through August 21. It’s a free program of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP), and spokesperson Brooke M. Fornalczyk says this year’s arts, safety, cultural and environmental activities for kids and families are even more diverse and interactive than in the previous five years.
 
Also new this year is the Carnegie Library’s Reading Room, happening at the same time. Kids and their caregivers can step over to the mobile library branch and select a new book for just $1-$2.
 
Fornalczyk says the PDP expects 2,400-3,000 children and their families over the 12-week program – that’s 200-250 people each Tuesday, so kids visiting from local daycares and homes will have lots of company in the revamped Market Square. The Square offers many eateries, too, of course, and free nearby T rides to the North Shore. It’s what Fornalczyk calls “the centerpiece and jewel of Downtown Pittsburgh … the perfect destination to host KidsPlay.”
 
If your kids are older, but still kids, you’ll want to help celebrate the success of the Pittsburgh Promise, whose four-year, $40,000 college scholarships for qualified Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) students have now helped 3,200 kids, about 400 of whom have just become the first Promise recipients to graduate from college.
 
Raising Pittsburgh’s Promise Gala on June 14 will feature keynote speaker Sasha Heinz of the Heinz Endowments, while Igniting The Promise Charity Concert and Dance-A-Thon at Stage AE later that night – lasting until dawn the next morning -- will honor the first Promise-assisted college grads and all the high-school grads with performances by Ashanti, G. Love and Special Sauce, DJ Bonics and DJ Zimmie, ending with a sunrise reggae barbecue.
 
Both events will be fundraisers, of course, as well as parties. "It is a pinnacle point in the life of the Promise,” says Lauren Bachorski, the organization’s special projects coordinator. "It's an ultimate opportunity for us to thank all our supporters so far."
 
It’s also a chance, she adds, for the public to realize again how the Promise is encouraging PPS graduates to stay and work in Pittsburgh – and should encourage families to send their kids to PPS for the scholarship opportunity.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Brooke M. Fornalczyk, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership; Lauren Bachorski, Pittsburgh Promise

... while Fatherhood Initiative fills in gaps in dads' child-rearing abilities

Thursday, July 19, 2012
"Children who have a solid father figure in their lives are more likely to finish high school, more likely to go to college, and less likely to go to jail or get involved with drugs and alcohol and more likely to be good fathers themselves," notes Sarah McCluan, spokesperson for the local Allegheny Intermediate Unit.
 
That's why the Fatherhood Initiative is part of the AIU's Family Support Centers (see above). "Sometimes fathers are left out in the cold," says McCluan. "Sometimes their dads weren't around or they didn't get hands-on experience with kids. The program is to help dads learn to be better dads and overcome barriers," from low income to a recent stint in jail.
 
The Fatherhood Initiative helps with everything from jobs, education and attaining drivers' licenses to nurturing and child development skills. It holds monthly topical meetings in five of the family centers. One of the main focuses is on economic self-sufficiency, from resume building to finding apprenticeships.
 
"Our goal is to have the father understand child development -- and how they can be the best father they can be," says Initiative director Larry Klinger, the AIU's program manager of family and community education services. If a child of three is coloring outside the lines, for instance, a father ought to know that this is not an occasion for correction; that's age-appropriate behavior. Inappropriate discipline could harm a child's ability to properly learn something else later, such  as writing.
 
The Initiative also models proper parental behavior to prevent child abuse, Klinger adds, since "there has been, around the nation, a spike in child abuse cases."
 
Annual events include a Father's Day cookout in Mellon Park, in conjunction with the Allegheny County Fatherhood Collaborative, which drew 500 in June; a December fatherhood awards banquet; a February father-daughter dance; and a September day in the park with the dads.
 
Fathers may be reluctant to seek help or advice, he notes, so the Initiative actively recruits their attendance. "Some of the incentives draw them into the meeting, but they stay because they see 10 or 20 other guys at the meetings who are going through a similar situation and they are able to connect with them."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Larry Klinger, Sarah McCluan

AIU's Family Support Centers more in demand than ever ...

Thursday, July 19, 2012
"So many times, without realizing it, we parent as we were parented, so we make the same mistakes," says Sarah McCluan, supervisor of communication services for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. The 10 Family Support Centers run by the AIU and funded by the state's Department of Public Welfare are there to provide help with new parenting techniques and much more besides, she says.
 
Covering Clairton, Duquesne, East Allegheny, Highlands, McKeesport, Penn Hills, Pittsburgh, Steel Valley, Sto-Rox, West Mifflin and Wilkinsburg, the centers serve families with at least one child 5 or younger. Services cover everything from help handling a colicky kid to assistance securing a GED or transportation for a job.
 
Mainly, says Lori Zimmer, program director of family and community education services, "we go into the home and we work with children and parents, making sure children are developing appropriately" and are ready for kindergarten. Each center also offers weekly parent and child groups focusing on development education, featuring speakers on such topics as nutritious, affordable meals. They each have a newsletter listing weekly groups, monthly family fun nights, field trips for younger children and events in their communities.
 
"We really listen to what the families needs are and focus our groups around that," Zimmer says.
 
Each center has a play area for kids with books and toys, and couches for parents. "It doesn't look like an office," she says. "It looks like a kind of a cool place where you can sit down and chat -- it's very different that a social services agency."
 
Lately, with the economy still struggling, families have come to the center for assistance paying for utilities or housing, says Laura Bosnak-Thompson, site director of the McKeesport Center, as well as for help with food and transportation, especially with the Port authority cuts.
 
"The cuts," says McCluan, "have really had severe consequences for a lot of families in the area and that also affects the children."
 
Services are free but call ahead; numbers are available here. There is also a Latino Family Center on the South Side that draws people from all over Allegheny County.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Sarah McCluan, Lori Zimmer, Laura Bosnak-Thompson

Math + Science = Success campaign rolling out for public

Thursday, July 19, 2012
A two-year public awareness campaign that aims to convince parents that science and math classes are crucial is about to make its television debut on television.
 
The Math + Science = Success campaign by the Carnegie Science Center, the Math & Science Collaborative, FedEx Ground, and WTAE includes online resources for parents, teachers and kids, public service messages on WTAE television and events at Carnegie Science Center.
 
"Parents are not always aware of the career opportunities available to their kids" if the children get math and science training, says Ann Metzger, co-director of the Carnegie Science Center. Fear of math and science "can limit a child's opportunity as he or she gets into the higher grades … and will pay off in the end in perhaps college, or careers that don't necessarily involve college" -- or just in being informed, she adds.
 
One PSA, rolling out now, portrays kids saying to parents, "If you make me take math and science, I may not thank you now, but one day I will." Another features scientists working in the field:
 
Next up for the campaign is a series of Web materials as well as the first event for kids and parents at the Carnegie Science Center.
 
"We're looking at ways to extend the campaign into the community," says Metzger. Before the campaign, WTAE surveyed parental attitudes about the importance of math and science. If they repeat the research after the campaign, she says, "we'll be able to see if we've really moved the needle."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Ann Metzger, Carnegie Science Center

The Lab: Mad scientists of the kids' literary world

Thursday, July 19, 2012
"We're trying to really tap into the surrounding community," says Paula Levin about her new kids' writing program this summer, the Literary Arts Boom (or The Lab) in Garfield. "Instead of saying, 'Come on, don't you like writing?' we're interested in engaging kids on [the idea] that writing is fun and there are a lot of cool things that come out of writing, such as putting yourself in a blog or a chat room or a zine. The kids get a real-world look at how their [writing] is relevant to them."
 
Sharing space with Assemble, the arts and high-tech community place and gallery on Penn Avenue, The Lab is a pilot project for kids 6-18, recruiting community members to show how writing is both creative and practical. The Lab received a Micro Spark grant from the Sprout Fund's Spark program, and Levin, as a December graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, is using her Lewis Fellowship in Social Innovation from the school to fund the project.
 
She calls herself the "lead experimenter." So far, the program has been developing a kind of mad-scientist theme for some of their activities as they proceed.
 
"It's really the spirit of experimentation, invention, creativity," Levin explains. "We're coming up with a lot of workshops that hopefully are exciting to kids and don't feel like school."
 
The once-weekly Lab combines traditional writing projects, such as composing poetry, with science and technology-related subjects, such as paper making, creating pop-up books and exploring kitchen chemistry. Each week's "Experi-Monday" workshop is different.
 
So far, the program has attracted more kids ages 6-11 than other age groups, and Levin is trying to plan more activities to serve older kids. "The big-term goal for this program," she says, "is to help youth and teens improve their writing while they're being creative and learning about the world around them."
 
Using a grant from the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, on Aug. 11 and 18 The Lab will hold a public event called Movable Type -- Kinetic Poetry, for which Lab kids will design T-shirts and signs with individual words and face the live challenge of forming messages and poetry. Levin is still determining the location. She also plans for Lab participants to turn part of the Assemble storefront into a mad scientist-themed area for selling items that will generate revenue for the program.
 
The Lab today -- and after school in the fall, when it will add homework help sessions -- is heavily dependent on volunteer mentors. The next volunteer trainings are Aug. 7 (to learn how to do homework help) and Aug. 9 (to discuss how to develop workshops at The Lab).
 
"We love educators and artists and writers, but we have plenty of room for people who want to do marketing" and other tasks, Levin notes.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Paula Levin, The Lab

"Talent is everywhere" and Higher Achievement comes to Hill, Homewood to nurture it

Thursday, July 19, 2012
"Our belief that talent is everywhere" is what sets the summer and after-school college prep program Higher Achievement apart, says Wendy Etheridge Smith, Ph.D., executive director.
 
The national program is new to Pittsburgh this summer, serving 75 students entering sixth and sixth grades in the Hill District at Pittsburgh Weil and in Homewood at Pittsburgh Faison schools. In Washington D.C., where the program originated in 1975, success is determined by students' later entry into one of the district's competitive-admission high schools. Because Pittsburgh doesn't have such high schools, apart from magnet schools, student success in Higher Achievement will be determined by their later enrollment in Advanced Placement or college prep courses in students' feeder high schools.
 
Higher Achievement promotes a culture of high expectations, Smith says, claiming an average of 95 percent program completion and 93 percent advancement to college among participants in the four other cities where it has been in place. The summer program offers four classes -- social studies, science, math and literature -- and electives from the Girl Scouts and martial arts to the local arts education program Hip-Hop on L.O.C.K., plus recess and two meals a day, as well as field trips on Fridays and the aid of mentors.
 
"We're keeping most of our students [but] we're having growing pains," she admits. The program will try to increase the number of students to 90 for its afterschool program in the fall. While Hill and Homewood students are preferred, since Higher Achievement is aimed at underserved communities, students may participate in the program from other Pittsburgh neighborhoods -- if they can get their own transportation to one of the two Higher Achievement schools.
 
The current students, Smith says "are getting the culture. They're learning to compliment each other," for one thing, which is a bit unusual for middle schoolers, she notes.
 
Each year culminates in an Olympics of the Mind for teams of four to five students competing in a Brain Quest on three of the summer class subjects, with a separate Math Bowl. Students also compete in a spirit competition that assesses teamwork, a science fair competition, and, at the special request of the Pittsburgh students, a talent competition.
 
"It's a big celebration of what they've accomplished throughout the year," says Smith of the Aug. 3 event.
           
Contact Higher Achievement by clicking here or calling 412-478-6505 to learn more.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Wendy Etheridge Smith, Higher Achievement

Hear Me stories start Wilkinsburg campaign for school change

Friday, April 20, 2012
Listening to kids' ideas for changing their schools and communities is the impetus behind the Hear Me project, whose latest recordings highlight some Wilkinsburg High School students with the ambition of improving their educational experience.
 
Jessica Kaminsky, a Hear Me project manager, says the students are all part of a neighborhood project called FUSE  -- Fostering Skills for Urban kids through Social-emotional-literacy Education.
 
“They stood out at Wilkinsburg High School," Kaminsky says. "They’re very proactive in their education and they’re very concerned with Wilkinsburg High School. They asked us at Hear Me to listen to what concerns them.”
 
Their number one concern: the seeming lack of structure in their high school. “There aren’t enough rules -- and the rules aren’t followed well” or consistently by students, teachers or administrators, the kids say in their stories, as Kaminsky summarizes them.
 
“It’s been a really powerful tool for them to have talked about these issues," she says. "They brought [the stories] to the school board meeting this week. They did a very good job of opening up a dialog” with school-board members.
 
Ryan Hoffman, Hear Me project coordinator, reports that the students plan to pull ideas and phrases from their recordings to put on t-shirts, and then create other ways of spreading their message beyond the stories. The audio recordings will thus be a launching point for a longer campaign.
 
"The students were able to talk one-on-one with the school board members, many of whom were surprised to hear the issues in the high school," says Hoffman. One school-board member approached four of the students to ask questions about their stories. "He was surprised to hear that students didn’t feel safe in school and about the lack of student-teacher relationships," Hoffman reports. The board member then invited the students to a community relations and school image committee meeting, and to attend future school-board meetings as the board's youth voice.
 
“They’re a group of hard working students who really want a great education," Kaminsky marvels,  "and they’re willing to put the work in.”
 
Hear Me is a project of Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab (Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment).
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Jessica Kaminsky and Ryan Hoffman, Hear Me

STREAM Academy debuts as hybrid cyber/in-person school for career prep

Friday, April 20, 2012
March 6 marked the debut of a one-of-a-kind regional charter school that mixes cyber-education with in-person group learning. To its STEM focus (science, technology, engineering and math) it also adds an emphasis on research and the arts. That all adds up to the STREAM Academy, opened by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit for K-12 students starting in the 2012-13 school year.
 
STREAMers at the high-school level have the choice of six focus areas, called tributaries, which AIU spokesperson Sarah McCluan says will prepare them for future careers in this region. Local business and industry leaders helped formulate the focal areas.
 
Once called PA Learners Online, the reconceived school was founded by 10 local districts, but kids from any district in the state can attend. The school will have 650 kids when all the spots are filled.
 
The school’s in-person, “On-Location” days are designed to let students connect and collaborate with each other while completing hands-on activities. They also will let students meet educational or business professionals who can give them a better picture of potential careers. Such days will be held at the STREAM Academy facility, another educational institution or even a business; business internships are part of the school’s curriculum as well.
 
The tributaries are meant to be career paths that children will explore from the beginning of their enrollment in STREAM but choose to focus on in their last few years. The tributaries are biomedical; engineering; logistics, manufacturing, and construction technologies; architecture, digital media arts and technology; energy, emerging sciences, and math; and finally agriculture, plant and animal science (which will be added by the 2013-14 school year).
 
“All these tributaries are designed to prepare our students to be productive members of the 21st-century workforce,” says McCluan.
 
Explore and apply to the STREAM Academy here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Sarah McCluan, Allegheny Intermediate Unit

Dolphins leap into Carlynton classroom to improve kids' reading skills

Friday, April 20, 2012
Susan Kosko has been a reading support teacher in the Carlynton School District’s Crafton Elementary School for 11 years, but this year is different: "The kids run into my classroom and they'll say, 'Is it time to leave already?'” – all thanks to some dolphins who live off the coast of Florida.
 
Kosko’s 17 second, third and fourth graders are taking part in the Dolphin Project, Skyping with the crew of The Dolphin Explorer boat as it tours the eco-system and wildlife of the faraway state’s ocean environment – especially the dolphins.
 
The idea originated when Kosko discovered the Explorer on vacation and collaborated with its crew to devise the program. Her students read the book Winter's Tail ... How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again and keep a journal of their twice-weekly virtual marine explorations.
 
"In the past, I could never get my students to read a chapter book," she says; now they’re reading them regularly. Apart from the kids’ enthusiasm – which is a “priceless” aid to reading skills in itself, she says – Kosko reports that her young charges have made gains in both reading and math skills on standardized tests since the dolphins swam into their lives. "When I go down into the computer lab to support my students, I've noticed a lot of them are always choosing dolphins to research. They're almost becoming the experts” in helping other students learn how to research, she adds.
 
She hopes the project will appear soon on Good Morning America, or WTAE’s segment of the program, since she got a positive reaction to a video about the project that she sent to the show. She and the Carnegie Elementary School teacher who is also running a Dolphin Project in her own classroom hope one day to take the kids to see the dolphins in person.
 
Meanwhile, Kosko says, the boat’s personnel "truly make us feel we're a part of the team. I don't think I'll find a team of people who are so good with the students. As a teacher, I'm learning from them. I hope in the future we can continue to work together."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Susan Kosko, Carlynton School District

Crisis nursery headed for East End if physicians realize their dream

Friday, April 20, 2012
Here are some scary statistics: a recent survey of families in East Liberty found that, in an emergency, 14 percent have left their kids with a person whose full name or address they didn't even know, someone who had "anger issues," or a person whose ability to care for their kids was in doubt. The results, for some, were children getting hurt or developing “big behavior problems.”
 
The solution is a relief or crisis nursery, say the two physicians who hope to found this first-in-the-city facility: Dr. Lynne Williams, an internal medicine-pediatric physician at East Liberty Family Health Care Center, and Dr. Tammy Murdock, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is a board member of the Family Life Fund of the Children’s Hospital Foundation.
 
"The city has a lot of resources in terms of child abuse prevention and parent education," says Williams, "but there is no emergency overnight care. Under the age of 6, there is no place for [kids] to go."
 
Dubbed Jeremiah's Place after one of Williams’ mother’s foster kids and a Bible quote (Jeremiah 29:11 "… plans to give you a hope and a future"), the crisis nursery will offer respite care to families with kids up to 6 years old. Children can be dropped off without notice to relieve a variety of stresses on families: If a single mother is ill or needs someplace for a first child to go while she's delivering a second, for instance -- or if a parent needs help because he or she is worried about hurting the children.
 
The need is real: The pair point to reported statistics that show Allegheny County receiving more than 17,000 notifications of suspected child abuse or neglect in 2011.

"We won't assume that you're in any crisis," Murdock assures parents who might need Jeremiah’s Place. "You could be in a time crunch. You won't necessarily have to explain." Jeremiah's Place will aim for a home-like atmosphere, with a first-floor community center for parenting classes and community events, plus upper floors (and backyard) for the kids. Locations are still being scout along the Penn Avenue corridor to serve Wilkinsburg, Homewood, East Liberty, Garfield, Lawrenceville, Lincoln-Lemington and Larimer. The founders are also looking for $750,000 to $1 million to fund the project.
 
"Our goal is to provide for the safety of the child and be supportive of the family," says Williams. "We want them to feel that we are a partner with them."
 
And, says Murdock, staff will also ask parents, "’Next time, how are we going to work through this together? Are you going to come back here?  Do you have supports in the community?’
 
There have been a lot of groups trying to help families backed into a corner,” he adds. “If we don't capture them, this will continue the cycle."
 
Do Good:
Know someone who needs similar emergency help with school age kids? Under the right circumstances, that may be found at the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh or, for older teens, UPMC’s Re:solve Crisis Network. And you can sign up for the Jeremiah's Place newsletter to receive updates.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Dr. Lynne Williams and Dr. Tammy Murdock, Jeremiah’s Place

Teen-written play speaks teen language about dating violence at Prime Stage

Friday, April 20, 2012
Prime Stage Theatre specializes in presenting plays of classic literature that are accessible to all ages, but to reach teens with a warning about dating violence, the theater turned to its own Teen Board for a fresh new drama.
 
The result? "Everything is Fine," being offered in a free showing March 1, with donations benefiting the Demi Brae Cuccia Memorial Foundation.
 
Demi Brae Cuccia was a well-known Gateway High School cheerleader when she was killed in 2007 by an ex-boyfriend. Prime Stage hopes "Everything is Fine" teaches teens the warning signs of dating violence in a way that an adult-written play never could.
 
Dotty Weisberg, Prime Stage board member and Teen Board advisor, says her daughter Hannah Jo and two other Teen Board members wrote the play after the entire Teen Board came up with ideas, then collectively reviewed and refined the results. It has already debuted at several high schools.
 
"The kids who came to see the play … their attention was there from the very beginning," says Weisberg. "There were kids who came up and talked to counselors afterwards who said they thought that they were in a relationship that wasn't healthy."
 
In general, the Teen Board suggests Prime Stage productions that teens ought to be interested in seeing, "in the hopes that as adults they will continue to enjoy going to live theater," says Debra Sciranka, Prime's marketing assistant. Prime will also feature a new dark-night reading series beginning Feb. 27 with a memoir by local multidisciplinary artist Shirley Barasch, who will talk about growing up in Squirrel Hill and developing her creative side despite a strict religious upbringing. Its next play production is "The Elephant Man."
 
"Everything is Fine" will be available for performances at schools and other organizations whose audience might benefit.
 
"A child doesn't have to end up murdered" as a result of a dangerous dating situation, says Weisberg. "There are a lot of warning signs -- obsession with the person, wanting complete control …" This play, she concludes, "is a very valuable educational tool."
 
Do Good:
See tips and tools about teen dating violence at the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh -- and support its other efforts while you're there.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Debra Sciranka, Dotty Weisberg, Prime Stage Theatre

Sitting to the challenge: autism service dogs

Friday, April 20, 2012
Unlike every other service dog, autism service dogs are trained to allow attention -- even too much attention, says Susan Wagner, who has trained 10 such dogs since founding Perfect Fit Canines in Churchill Borough two years ago. “Even though their ear is being tugged, 'I'll sit here, even though chaos is all around me,’” the dogs are trained to think, Wagner says.
 
She and husband Jim, who has two decades of experience with local schools and agencies serving children with autism, are getting more requests for dogs than they can handle, Wagner reports. And the dogs have many uses for kids and young adults along the autism spectrum. The animals can stop kids from bolting, track lost kids or alert parents to kids wandering at night. They can interrupt self-stimulation behavior or become a social connection for kids, especially because dogs are the only animals that look humans in the face to get their own social clues.
 
English labs and standard poodles are the current pooch of choice.
 
Perfect Fit’s greatest need is for puppy raisers: people willing to house and feed young dogs and get them acclimated to behaving in grocery stores, churches and other distracting environments. Perfect Fit pays for two training classes a month, the dog’s training vest, leash and collar, and connects trainers to volunteer and discount veterinarians, or pays for the care outright. The puppy trainer pays for food, treats and toys, but the biggest donation is time, of course -- andWagner points out that monetary expenses are tax deductible.
 
The idea of autism service dogs is gaining notice in the U.S., but the Wagners rely on an international organization for outside guidance on training methods. Susan Wagner hopes school districts continue to be more accepting of the animals, which can be a hurdle, she admits.  "It's been widely used in other countries and other states for many years,” she says, “and it's now gaining more acceptance."
 
To find out more, contact Perfect Fit Canines here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Susan and Jim Wagner, Perfect Fit Canines

Making peace a habit: Children's International Summer Villages

Friday, April 20, 2012
The Children's International Summer Villages program hosts kids in Pittsburgh from all over the U.S. and the world every three years “to make peace a habit of mind among very young people -- that's the only way to prevent wars in the future," says Kristin Kovacic, who heads the local chapter of this global organization.
 
"It's sort of like a church youth group, but without the church," she adds, with a program that teaches the principles of conflict resolution, diversity, social justice and sustainability. "It connects people who would not necessarily be connected -- certainly internationally, but also locally," bringing together youth across neighborhoods, political backgrounds and religious affiliations.
 
Each Village lasts a month because "a month is what it takes, minimally, to make a friend." She calls the whole venture “a global leap of faith.” Ten delegations of four kids each, ages 11-17, will form the Village here starting in June, coming from Brazil, El Salvador, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Norway, the Philippines, Spain, Sweden and elsewhere in the U.S. Even the counselors will be mostly international visitors, from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and the Philippines.
 
"We're going to take care of them like they're our own children," Kovacic says of the young visitors. And Pittsburgh children can expect the same treatment when they head this summer to Villages in Maine, Belgium, Guatemala, Detroit and Austria.
 
While Village activities include such camp staples as soccer and swimming, the focus is on helping kids create bonds and learn how the world works. This year’s theme is “footprints of peace,” which will lend itself to lessons on our impact on the earth and on one another. And there won’t be too many distractions: kids have to check all their electronics at the door.
 
"Kids are just as interested in being thoughtful as they are in being playful," says Kovacic, whose day job is teaching poetry at Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12. Villagers, such as her own son, who went to Mexico, accumulate language skills along the way too, plus they trade a lot with their peers. "And they come home and teach us a lot," she says.
 
Pittsburgh’s Village chapter is still looking to fill its delegation to Guatemala this summer for another Village-sponsored exchange, in which local kids are matched with the same age and gender children in Guatemala, and families in both countries host each other’s children for two weeks each (although the program still includes lots of group activities). There are also chances for Pittsburgh families to take on a single weekend hosting duty during the Village. Says Kovacic:  It's a great way to learn about Children's International Summer Villages and about the larger world."
 
Get in touch with your global side by contacting the organization here, or call Kovacic at 412-683-1908.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kristin Kovacic, Children's International Summer Villages

Entertainment Technology Academy keeps kids coming back to Elizabeth Forward

Friday, April 20, 2012
Fifteen kids dropped out of Elizabeth Forward High School last year, and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Todd E. Keruskin says that's 15 too many.
 
So school district reps asked themselves how they could change the school's environment to retain as many students as possible. They toured Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center and decided to start their own Entertainment Technology Academy in the high school in January.
 
Now, says Keruskin, "kids are staying after school … and proposing a videogame club. That's what we're excited about."
 
The Academy is in a remodeled classroom that now features fiber-optic art, bungee-cord chairs and not a single desk for students or teachers.
 
The first 30 students are now working their way through the initial class, "Games Through the Ages," learning to play, build and modify some of the world's oldest games, and then will branch into one of three areas: computer programming and video; digital storytelling and creative writing; or digital art. Next spring, they'll work together in groups of three (one from each of the above areas) to create an app of a video game.
 
Keruskin says the Academy is in touch with videogame manufacturers to potentially partner, and are already testing games designed by the local company Schell Games.
 
Most astounding, he says, is that other school districts are visiting Elizabeth Forward to learn how to start an Academy of their own -- and some districts around them have even inquired about sending their students to Elizabeth Forward.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Dr. Todd E. Keruskin, Elizabeth Forward

Helping the world, bringing the service back home: Shady Side Academy's Parkin Fellows

Friday, April 20, 2012
“There are kids doing amazing things that they would never have been able to do without this program,” says Kate Vavpetic, senior school head at Fox Chapel's Shady Side Academy.
 
Vavpetic is talking about the school's Parkin Fellows: sophomores and juniors who devise their own national and international travel and aid projects, usually lasting three weeks, in hospitals or libraries, in construction or on environmental issues.
 
This year's Fellows are:

· Aya Agha of O’Hara, going to Mozambique to teach English at an orphanage; 
· Taylor Duncan, who will travel to Panama to help nurse malnourished children;  
· Maggie Elias, headed for Tanzania to work with children there; 
· Joseph Klein, who will work at the Pro Vita Orphanage in Romania; 
· Carianne Lee, teaching at a rural Chinese school; 
· Sophie Wecht, set to work on a project to protect turtles, crocodiles and birds in Mexico;
· Tarah Wright, in Senegal to undertake construction, agricultural projects and teaching; and
· Selina Yossef, slated to help build houses on the Sioux Indians' Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

When students return to school the next year, they present a report to their classmates. And they pledge to continue their service at home.
           
“The ideal for the program is that they have demonstrated some sort of commitment to service,” says Vavpetic. “I think that’s the most challenging for students. It’s hard, when they’ve been working in an orphanage in Romania or Tanzania, to translate that to [service] back home.”
 
In fact, during this spring's fellowship interview, several of the applicants proposed to start a Parkin Fellows club to organize events and pool resources to help with this important final step.
 
How important is it? Nearly every applicant told the selection committee they were inspired to apply by hearing presentations by last year’s fellows, Vavpetic says. “It does bring these global perspectives to our school,” she concludes.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kate Vavpetic, Shady Side Academy

United they win: Two Fox Chapel juniors earn Lincoln-themed national essay prizes

Friday, April 20, 2012
Two Fox Chapel High School juniors are winners in the essay contest of the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America – two of only three kids from Pennsylvania among the 60 honored nationwide.
 
Colleen Hamilton and Lisa Liu have each won $100 and will be headed to Washington, D.C. to participate in a model Congress, called the 2012 Congressional Seminar, and to tour the capitol.
 
Colleen Hamilton, of O’Hara Township, says she was encouraged to enter the competition by Jennifer Klein, who teaches a “Government and Political Science” course in 12th grade – a course Hamilton is looking forward to taking.
 
She admits she didn’t know much about the Society – a 120-year-old group that promotes the country’s national heritage with historic preservation, service, and educational projects – but she was certain our times could still use the lessons of the contest’s theme: Abraham Lincoln’s famous pronouncement, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
 
“That’s clearly a huge issue in the political realm right now,” she says, “seeing that nothing much is being done, considering the divisions between the conservative and liberal parties. Both parties really need to work on compromising.”
 
The 16-year-old says it’s still early for college plans: “I’m interested in economics at the moment, but I’m really still exploring.”
 
Kidsburgh is pleased to present her winning essay here:
 
Divided We Stand: The Modern Day Reality of Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” Statement
 
By Colleen Hamilton
 
Over 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln gave one of the most well-known speeches in American history: the “House Divided” speech.  That speech provided a clear portrayal of America’s situation at that time, addressing the issue of slavery and the nation’s division into slave states and free states. Lincoln warned that a house divided cannot stand—in other words, the country could not continue to exist with both slave states and free states.  As history has shown, this warning about divisions within the nation has continued to be relevant ever since Lincoln’s speech.  The United States is currently in an economic crisis, and divisions within the country have created a stalemate in the process to recovery.   One of the primary barriers to fixing our economic problems is the division between the two major political parties, Democrats and Republicans.
 
Divisions have marked America’s history: patriots vs. loyalists, imperialists vs. anti-imperialists, slavery advocates vs. abolitionists, advocates of foreign entanglement vs. isolationists, etc.  One type of division has characterized most of America’s history: the division between political parties.  At one time the division was between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, but in current day it is between the Republicans and Democrats.  Regardless of their names, political parties have served to spark debate, provide citizens with choices, and act as a check on extreme views.  Often the separation of parties has aided the growth of America, bringing different ideas together to bring as much prosperity as possible. However, parties have also sometimes led to an unproductive clash of opinions that has hindered the nation’s progress.  At the present time, the clash has not aided the country whatsoever, but instead caused a bitter divide and inability to compromise.  The views of those on each side of the party line have become, for much of the population, so set in stone that adjusting their aims would be practically taboo.  The United States is currently in a position of great division, which may lead to it not being able to stand.
 
A few examples illustrate the major problems caused by the division between Republicans and Democrats. One recent example is the Supercommittee that the President convened to develop ideas to deal with the nation’s growing budget deficit.  This committee included both democrats and republicans and was asked to work together to identify ways to reduce the budget deficit, but ultimately was unable to compromise sufficiently to come up with a workable plan.  This failure made it clear that the current society is one in which complete tenacity against one’s opposing party is rewarded, and compromise is seen as a crime against one’s party. Another example is the threat of government shutdown that occurred several times in the past year. Even though a shutdown would create enormous challenges for people who are dependent on government support, members of Congress seemed willing to allow it to happen in order to avoid compromising.  Despite the parties’ agreement on many issues, there are certain items on which they seem to be unwilling to compromise. For instance, Republicans are opposed to raising taxes under almost any circumstances, and Democrats object to many proposed reductions in programs like Medicare.
 
Looking at the U.S.’s current economic crisis, some sort of real measures need to be taken within the U.S. to help end the crisis.  Both parties agree with the need for action.  Be that as it may, that basic agreement is completely superfluous without each side being willing to put forth a collaborative effort to solve it.  Both the Republicans and Democrats are resolutely determined that their views are correct and that their approaches would benefit society more than their opponents’ approaches.  Due to the unwillingness of each side to collaborate or compromise, the houses of Congress are gridlocked.  No truly effective laws are being passed.  Ideas are being slung back and forth between the houses and between the parties without the creation of any final decisions. 
 
America was built to stand united, but its current state of unification leaves much to be divided.  A country cannot properly function if it and its government are split along a barrier of contrasting beliefs.  Lincoln’s message was an eerily accurate depiction of America at his time and at the current time.  Many people have forgotten the basic truth in the main focus of the House Divided speech; in order for the United States to return to functionality, efforts need to be made to address the stark division between parties in America or America will fall.

Hope of CMU's MLK Writing Awards is that talk about race lasts past MLK Day

Friday, January 20, 2012
“Part of what we’re doing is giving them permission to tell their own truth," Jim Daniels says about the high-school students who write about race and related issues for the annual MLK Writing Awards at Carnegie Mellon University, which also includes CMU students. Daniels, Baker Professor of English, founded and directs the contest, which just announced and posted some of the winners.
 
Even though race hovers in the consciousness of everyone, "sometimes kids are hesitant to approach the subject because it becomes so tense and loaded so quickly,” he says. The program began in 1997, when Daniels edited a poetry anthology for adults about race. “I thought it would be really interesting to get young people to do the same thing.”
 
It's hard to say what's trending in young people's thoughts about the subject today. “Sometimes it’s disappointing in terms of things continuing to be an issue – African-American kids getting followed around in stores," for instance, he says. But now there are kids from an even wider background considering the impact of ethnicity on their lives. “There are more kids writing from a mixed-race background, which I find interesting and in some cases heartening. I think they are more open about writing about it than before Obama was elected.”
 
This year's winners include a Japanese student writing about internment camps, a white kid -- the daughter of a minister -- writing about growing up alongside black people, and a Jewish kid questioning how he is supposed to, versus how he does, view Palestinians.
 
“One of the dangers of this" focus on race for only one day in January every year, Daniels concludes, "is that you think about it one day and forget about it the next. One way or another, we hope the discussion continues past Martin Luther King Day."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Jim Daniels, Carnegie Mellon University

Which will win PBS contest: Frogs on the moon or fairies riding crocodiles?

Friday, January 20, 2012
The illustrations WQED gets every year as entries in the annual PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest "put a super-smile on your face," says the station's Jennifer Stancil, executive director of educational partnerships. And the judges get attached to certain tales: "Often we find grown adults defending stories about crocodiles, fairies, spaceships and frogs on the moon, and they get very passionate about it," she reports.
 
That's why she's encouraging all kids from kindergarten to third grade to enter the 18th annual contest aimed at inspiring and increasing children’s reading skills. With EQT Corporation as a sponsor, Stancil expects hundreds of entries that will generate both local and national winners.
 
WQED and stations in West Virginia and at Penn State will be working with local teachers and libraries to encourage entry creation, including the opening of two new PBS Kids Library Corners (the first such in the region) at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library in Carnegie on Jan. 26 and the Homestead Library on Feb. 2. Saturday Light Brigade is also installing two new Story Boxes that feature audio of last year's winners reading their entries.
 
Parents and teachers can register for one-hour webinars to encourage their kids: Writing and Editing on Jan. 25 by elementary school teacher Caley Svensson; Ideation to Storyboarding on Feb. 8 by local children’s author Michael Scotto; and Illustration on March 7 by Joe Wos, executive director of the Toonseum.
 
Deadline for entry is April 6.
 
Past entries have been "amazing and imaginative," Stancil marvels -- everything from pop-up books to stories about science and sports. In art, "we will get everything from colored pencil drawings to paintings, photographs, and a lot of collage, a lot of three-dimensional art." Parents can even write words narrated by their youngest ones.
 
Prizes include tablets, e-readers and MP3 players will be handed out this summer, and winners and honorable mentions will record their stories live in the SLB radio studios at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, along with a celebration at WQED on May 12 that will include a performances of the winners’ stories as puppet plays.
 
Every grade level has four winners locally "and a great deal of honorable mentions," Stancil says. "Last year we had 'Best Use of a Pittsburgh Steeler' as an honorable mention … because we get really attached to stories that well-exceeded expectations."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Jennifer Stancil, WQED Pittsburgh

MakeShop Micro Grants to have major impact on kids' entry into the Maker world

Friday, January 20, 2012
Adam Nye wants kids “to be engaged in the design process and be engaged with new technologies. We want to spread this new Maker [philosophy] throughout Pittsburgh.”
 
This is one reason the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh has opened a new permanent exhibit, the MakeShop, which Nye manages -- and that's why the museum is using funds from the Grable Foundation and other support from The Sprout Fund and The Pittsburgh Foundation to offer “Maker” micro grants to organizations that work with youth. These Micro Grants (up to $5,000) are for programs that engage children aged 7 to 17 in hands-on design and object production surrounding two themes: Wearables and Rideables. The projects can be as different as "a wearable gaming system or cupcakes on wheels," the museum suggests.
 
The entry deadline is March 16 for Wearables and April 20 for Rideables, with online judging.
 
The idea, Nye says, is “to help other nonprofits in the area create Make experiences for kids and young people.” Groups that are already doing projects of this type, such as Hack Pittsburgh in Uptown and Assemble in Garfield, have the best chance of gaining these grants. “These organizations have so many knowledgeable people in them," he says, "but sometimes it’s hard to reach the younger audience."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Adam Nye, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

It's a STEM world, and Duquesne's math contest helps kids live and thrive in it

Friday, January 20, 2012
“Scholars are saying that this is the area that we’re either going to make it or not make it in the world in the future," says Bob Furman about STEM skills. Encouraging the math end of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education is what has motivated Furman to grow his Calcu-Solve program. It was once a math contest in an Upper St. Clair middle-school gym, designed to grow the calculating skills of 5th and 6th graders. Now it is open to 5th-12th graders at all local schools and headquartered at Duquesne University.
 
It's also set to expand across the state and maybe the nation.
 
Twenty-five years ago, Furman was the USC school's principal. Today he is an executive faculty member in the Educational Administration Program at Duquesne University, part of their School of Education’s Department of Foundations and Leadership. Calcu-Solve is now sponsored by the II-VI Foundation, whose founder's "hope and dream and mission is to improve the math, science and technology skills of today's youth and maybe create future scientists,” Furman says.
 
Today the contest involves students only from the Pittsburgh region. Furman is meeting with school officials in surrounding counties in the hopes of expanding participation. His plan next year is to have the Superbowl of Calcu-Solve here for regional winners.
 
“It’s rigorous math, and it’s amazing what the kids can do," he says. "It gives you a warm feeling to se what the kids can tackle.”
 
The contest has both individual and team competitions. Duquesne students are helping develop new math problems for the 9th to 12th grade students. "It’s just a math world," Furman concludes, "and we have to make sure our kids are prepared and competitive.”
 
To arrange participation in Calcu-Solve, call Furman at 724-344-9894, or click here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Bob Furman, Duquesne University

Pitt's School of Ed wins $4 million in grants to encourage more special ed teachers and leaders

Friday, January 20, 2012
"In the next five years, 60 to 70 percent of [special education faculty] are predicted to retire, so we won't have the leadership capability to continue preparing quality special-ed teachers," says Christopher Lemons, assistant professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. "There is a high need for both specialists in autism and highly qualified special-ed teachers in middle and high schools. The need for leadership is very apparent in this field."
 
One solution lies in $4 million in funding recently awarded to the Department of Instruction and Learning in Pitt's School of Ed from the U.S. Department of Education to create a trio of five-year programs focused on teacher preparation. Lemons is involved in two of the programs.
 
The first project, “Apprenticeship in Special Education Instruction, Research, and Leadership,” or ASPIRE, will train full-time doctoral candidates to provide in-service and pre-service preparation for teachers who serve high-need students with disabilities.
 
“Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education Autism Specialization,” the second project, will train master's students in early intervention and early childhood special education, where the need is especially great to serve children under 5 in both cities and suburbs.
 
The final project. “Restructuring and Improving Special Education” (RISE), will revamp Pitt’s pre-K to grade 8 program in special education by creating a dual certification master’s level program in special education and secondary content areas. Lemons points out that, under No Child Left Behind, special ed teachers currently need both special ed and content area certifications.
 
"There is a stronger understanding overall that children with disabilities can be educated in a general education setting" today, he adds, which means that more teachers overall need the appropriate training. "It is encouraging that Pitt is really being seen as a promising area for teacher education and training. That is very exciting for the School of Education. All three [projects] should encourage people who want to become teachers or leaders in the field to look at Pitt."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Christopher Lemons, University of Pittsburgh School of Education

High school students develop and design ideas for vacant lot in Homestead

Thursday, January 19, 2012
A group of high school students from Allegheny County have been tasked with reimagining a vacant lot in Homestead.  And today, after three months of planning and design, they will present their concepts and drawings to a panel of architects and community development leaders.

This is the final session in an apprenticeship program, a cooperation between the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.  These two organizations have partnered for the program since the 1980s, allowing high school students with an interest in architecture to experience studio work and the design process hands-on.

The vacant lot under consideration is located at 7th Avenue and Amity Street.  According to Louise Sturgess, of the PHLF, Amity Street has become a secondary Main Street for the community of Homewood. 

Students were asked to create a design that connects the growing Waterfront complex with the historic Homestead community, using Amity Street as a connector between the two destinations.

Through a series of sessions, students have completed design challenges, a site tour, had discussions with prominent urban designers and toured professional architecture studios, and have presented preliminary site plans to architecture students at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Today, the 25 students will give their final presentations to an audience that includes professional architects and designers, Homestead community leaders, and representatives from the Mon Valley Initiative.

Sturgess says that whether or not students choose to pursue architecture in college, they have taken part in a valuable lesson on how community planning takes place.

“As adults they will know that they can become involved in community design decisions,” Sturgess says.  “We really open up their eyes to the importance of the built environment, the value of historic preservation,” and the academic training required in schools of architecture, engineering, or historic preservation, she says.

Writer:  Andrew Moore
Source: Louise Sturgess

Carnegie Science's Chevron Center for STEM gets $1 million boost

Thursday, January 19, 2012
Chevron and six regional companies have given the Carnegie Science Center $1 million to fund a center for STEM learning that will provide inspiration and teaching in the areas of math, science and technology. 
 
Motivating young people to pursue a STEM education is what The Chevron Center for STEM Education and Career Development is all about, says Ron Baillie, one of the Henry J. Buhl Jr. co-directors of the Science Center. 
 
A center without walls, The Chevron Center will provide opportunities throughout the region for teaching and learning as they pertain to STEM education. One of the goals will be to break the cultural barrier that assumes that math and science are only for "smart kids." 
 
"Some of the new work will be targeted at parents, who are key influencers in guiding their children in their future careers," he says. "We want teachers to understand the great opportunities out there in the STEM fields. If we can inspire young people about the opportunities, they'll stay the course and pursue further study in these fields."
 
The Chevron STEM Center will unite all of the Science Center’s existing award-winning STEM education efforts, including the Regional SciTech Initiative and the Girls, Math and Science Partnership programs.  The new organizational structure will also facilitate the development and delivery of informal science education programs and to serve as a valuable clearinghouse of resources. 

New initiatives will be developed, including partnerships with school districts, colleges and universities, technical schools, businesses and government leaders. 
 
"For our nation, and our region, to remain economically and environmentally strong and sustainable, we must recruit from among an informed citizenry the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians who will solve the complex problems of our times," says Baillie. 
 
In addition to Chevron, founding partners include California University of Pennsylvania, Duquesne Light, Eaton Corporation, LANXESS Corp., NOVA Chemicals and PPG Industries Foundation.
 
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Ron Baillie, Carnegie Science Center

Pictured from the left: Ron Baillie, Henry J. Buhl, Jr., co-director (Carnegie Science Center)
Ann Metzger, Henry J. Buhl, Jr., co-director (Carnegie Science Center)
Bruce Niemeyer, Vice President, Appalachian/Michigan Business Unit (Chevron)
Courtesy of the Carnegie Science Center
 

From juvenile carjacker to award-winning writer: Inspiring inmates and MFA students

Thursday, January 19, 2012
When R. Dwayne Betts was 16, he went from good student to carjacker, committing six felonies that landed him in an adult prison for nine years. From that experience grew Betts' memoir, A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison, published in 2009, and his 2010 book of poetry, Shahid Reads His Own Palm.
 
On Dec. 2 at Chatham University, its MFA program in Creative Writing will host a free public reading and book signing by Betts, which is part of Chatham’s Words Without Walls Black Writers Reading Series, supported by the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation. The Fund will also bring Betts and four other black writers during the coming year to the Allegheny County Jail, where Words Without Walls aids inmates in studying creative writing.


"These are the kinds of people we really want the inmates to see: someone who has had issues in the past but is now successful," says Sheryl St. Germain, director of Chatham University's MFA in Creative Writing program, about R. Dwayne Betts. She is also pleased that his poetry and memoir will speak to local literati as well. Betts is widely published and also uses his voice to campaign for changes in the justice system in this country.
 
Chatham students and others continue to work with inmate and ex-inmate writers through the twice-monthly Voice Catch writers' workshop. As for the MFA students and other would-be writers who may never have been incarcerated but wish to attend Betts' reading: "They are going to be in touch with someone who is down to earth and is not an academic," St. Germain says. "Sometimes we see students who are kind of lazy" when it comes to their writing, she adds. They will likely get inspiration to work harder "when they see someone who saved his life through writing."
 
Do Good:
•Join the Campaign for Youth Justice, which is concerned with prison reform and juvenile justice -- and for which R. Dwayne Betts serves as spokesperson.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Sheryl St. Germain, Chatham University

Kids wanted for SLB Radio showcase of talent in the arts and more

Thursday, January 19, 2012
SLB Radio Productions’ Saturday Light Brigade is looking for school-age kids who want to share their talent on the air, whether it’s in the arts or as a member of a community group.
 
Youth Expression Showcase (YES) features several kids each Saturday from 10:05-11:05 a.m. in a live performance and interview, and “the variety of things that we have is huge,” says SLB Staff Educator Liz Adams. That has included young classical musicians and singer-songwriters, a teen poetry group, and sometimes even community organizations with programs for young people. Kids from Three Rivers Rowing Association’s First Row program, for instance, were on YES speaking about the many ways their first experiences in the water made an impact in their lives.
 
“It’s a chance for young people to be the stars and to share what they are doing in the community,” says Adams.
 
Even though there are a lot of young artists displaying their talent, don’t think “American Idol” or “America’s Got Talent,” she says. YES is not a competition. There’s not even an audition, just a chance for the parents (and ideally the kid) to speak beforehand with Adams about what is involved in a YES appearance.

“We might be the first place their creativity or their project goes public,” Adams says. After all, she points out, “it’s not common for a nine-year-old to have a MySpace page.”
 
And there’s no reason to be nervous about the interview, she explains, since it’s all about why the children enjoy their art and what they enjoy doing in school and at home. SLB host Larry Berger, Adams says, “is very good at eliciting responses from kids, so it’s not an intimidating atmosphere at all. We try to make it as easy as possible for people to participate.”
 
Adams says the show can even feature visual artists describing their art – even if listeners can’t see it.
 
Doing the YES segment, Adams says, “I learn about new things every day, and it’s always really exciting.”
 
Do Good:
 
  • Get involved with the Youth Expression Showcase by calling 412-586-6300 ext. 8 or emailing here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Liz Adams, SLB Radio Productions

The Breathe Project: Heinz Endowments’ way of breathing life into local air clean-up efforts

Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Heinz Endowments hopes the Oct. 27 kickoff event for The Breathe Project “will increase the pace of air-quality improvement in the region beyond what anybody would have expected several years ago,” says spokesperson Doug Root.
 
For months now, the Endowments have been gathering information about the degree of air pollution in the local 10-county region, and enrolling about 40 partner organizations for an education, advocacy and clean-up effort, including corporations and industrial concerns, nonprofits, government agencies, health-care entities, foundations and universities. “We also have scores of individuals who have signed up,” Root reports. “We believe that the combination of organizational leadership and individual actions is really going to ramp this up in ways nobody has thought before.”
 
Tackling local air quality is a necessary task, as the Project website illustrates: During the last seven years, Pittsburgh has ranked among the five worst cities in the country for short-term pollution – topping the list in 2008 and 2009 – and among the ten worst for long-term pollution. Fine particulate matter, half of which stems from power plants, and ozone can cause respiratory problems, heart disease and even death. The site includes proposed solutions for people and businesses to undertake, but The Breathe Project aims to come up with more extensive and effective efforts.
 
The kickoff event will include announcements “of some pretty fantastic pieces that are in the works” to encourage more people and groups to join the Project, Root adds. “The best thing individuals can do would be to sign up to be a member of the coalition.”
 
Do Good:
· RSVP to The Breath Project’s kickoff event, Oct. 27, 1-2 p.m., at the Children's Museum
 
· Sign up here to get regular updates from The Breathe Project. You can also join groups such as a mothers’ group sending representatives to the Allegheny County Board of health, or another group engaged in awareness-building demonstrations, via the Project’s Facebook page. Or add your own ideas and stories to the Project via its blog.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Doug Root: The Heinz Endowments

Civics Fair showcases students projects, from op-eds to videos to speeches

Thursday, December 08, 2011
A student’s report on his experience running for town supervisor. An original video about “George W” and the 2012 campaign. Political cartoons and Op-Eds about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Even a billboard about the effect of education budget cuts.

These and many other projects will be presented by more than 150 high school students at the 7th annual Civics Fair this Friday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at the August Wilson Center downtown.

"The Civics Fair brings together students from across the region to showcase their civic engagement projects and present their ideas to community leaders," says Heather Harr from Carlow's Youth Media Advocacy project, one of the sponsors.

It's a unique event that inspires students to dream up creative ways of impacting their communities, and rewards them for their civic engagement. The Civics Fair is also designed to engage multiple intelligences - some students are great writers and write Op-Eds, others use their artistic skills to create political cartoons, still others hone their political oratory.  In the Youth Media Advocacy Project showcase, students present their ideas for reforming education through media such as TV commercials and billboards."

It goes beyond a presentation. One project to extend voting to 17-year-olds became a bill introduced in the Pennsylvania State Legislature, says Harr. And another participant was recognized with the Pittsburgh-area Jefferson Award for Public Service.

"The Civics Fair is a capacity-building experience for being a fully engaged citizen," she notes.

Civics Fair 2011 is a collaboration between Greater Pittsburgh Student Voices and the Youth Media Advocacy Project, which is supported by Carlow University and funded by The Heinz Endowments.

 





We are not making up this story: Young Writers Institute seeking creative kids

Thursday, December 08, 2011
The Young Writers Institute is looking for kids in 4th through 12th grade who want to take their poetry, fiction, flash fiction, memoirs and other writing to the next level. The Institute is teaming with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to hold its Winter sessions beginning Jan. 28. Registration deadline is Jan. 23.
 
This is not an academic program, says Matthew Luskey, director of the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project at the University of Pittsburgh, where the Institute has been run for many years. Think creative writing, he says. Still, with students learning the art of journaling, drafting, and revising on their way to a fun final product, “that whole process approach to writing is helpful for school.”
 
Sessions will be held on six consecutive Saturdays downtown in the Cultural Trust’s education center, which has “a really a nice space for the kids to write in,” says Luskey. It also has the black-box Peirce Theater, where students will share writing in a celebration at the end of the program. Families can attend and the entire event will be filmed – plus, student writing will be collected into an online anthology.
 
Scholarships are available for up to 20 percent of students.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Matthew Luskey, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project

18th annual Shakespeare contest for kids accepting apps online now

Thursday, December 08, 2011
When it comes to Pittsburgh Public Theater's Shakespeare monologue and scene contest, says PPT Education Director Rob Zellers, "My biggest thrill is to see someone try this out for the first time, and when we see them the next year they've set the bar so much higher for themselves."
 
The 18th annual contest is now accepting applications from both individuals and groups through Jan. 20 online. What began with 75 students has now grown to more than 1,000 kids, and even offers pre-contest coaching. This year they'll be seen -- and heard -- over six days at the beginning of February 2012, followed by a Feb. 13 showcase in front of an audience, featuring the 25 best performers. They'll be acting the Bard's lines amid scenery for the PPT's production of "As You Like It."
 
Zellers says the contest draws both school-supported groups and individuals as well kids who just want to try their hands at being thespians, if only for a few moments. "Let's face it, as a young person you don't get a lot of chance to do this sort of thing," he says. And every year, there is someone who isn't necessarily a drama student who surprises the judges.
 
Those judges, he adds, "have struggled in that same position" as fledgling interpreters of Willie's words. Through the years, some of the winners have joined PPT productions, either as children or as pros later in life.
 
"That's when you really feel like you’re doing something right," Zellers says. Still, he is quick to add, "more importantly is all these kids who get to do Shakespeare as a serious, rigorous pursuit."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Rob Zellers, Pittsburgh Public Theater

Girls have chemistry with chemistry and other science and tech careers at ChemStars

Thursday, December 08, 2011
“We recognize that there’s a definite gap between girls pursuing careers in science and technology compared to boys," says Kim McDonald, marketing manager for the EcoCommercial Building Program at Bayer Corporation. That's why McDonald joined other female mentors from Bayer and four other companies locally -- BASF Corporation, LANXESS, NOVA Chemicals and PPG Industries -- at the Carnegie Science Center on Nov. 12 for ChemStars. More than 125 girls in fourth through ninth grade locally participated in this hands-on program designed to get them excited about careers in chemistry and other science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. 
 
The companies held a STEM career café for boys and girls last month, but McDonald says it is particularly important for girls to find in such technical fields as chemistry a practical application to their lives -- and fun. The experiment stations at ChemStars, for instance, related chemical processes to everything from cooking to going green. "It gives girls a way to see that chemistry applies to their everyday lives," McDonald says. “Once people feel a connection, they can really find a way to apply themselves. It’s important for girls to feel like they can have a connection to [STEM], that it’s something that they can get involved in and make a contribution.”
 
As Bayer MaterialScience spokesperson Lauren Dorsch points out, the years between fourth and ninth grade are “a time when girls lose interest in math and science,” so it is crucial to reach them at a young age. McDonald recalls how she maintained her own interest in science at that age: "I’ve always loved animals and that was probably the big driver for me. Parental involvement is important – my parents always motivated me, and I had I-don’t-know-how-many pets. Between grades 4 and 10 … I had that connection, that passion.”
 
Do Good:
·Explore the ways Bayer's Making Science Make Sense program is bringing STEM subjects to local kids here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Kim McDonald and Lauren Dorsch, Bayer Corporation

‘Shock the educational system’ with Tech Council’s Future of Play conference

Thursday, December 08, 2011
Diana Rhoten, one of the featured presenters at the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s “Learning Innovation: The Future of Play in Education” on Nov. 15, wants to create “a whole new model for educating children through play, technology and digital media,” says the PTC’s Kim Chestney Harvey. “The educational system right now is in crisis, and her goal has been to reimagine education. She really wants to shock the educational system.”
 
Harvey is Managing Director of the Creative Technology Network, which the PTC is rolling out this fall to foster local companies and nonprofits in this field. “Learning Innovation” is its first event, and Harvey says, Rhoten is a perfect addition to this event, which kicks off the annual Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference.
 
Rhoten will examine how knowledge is created and shared, based on her decade as a faculty member at Stanford University’s School of Education and co-founder of Startl, a nonprofit that has supported innovative educational technology efforts
 
That includes Launchpad Toys, run by this event’s other presenter, Andy Russell. Launchpad designed Toontastic for the iPad, which records kids’ online figure play and turns it into a cartoon. He’ll be focused, as will the entire event, says Harvey, on “how kids can play and learn at the same time.”
 
School teachers, school administrators and those in the entertainment technology world will all benefit from “Learning Innovation,” she adds. “It’s a great outlet for any aspiring companies working in this genre.”
 
Do Good:
·“Learning Innovation,” funded by the Grable Foundation, is free at the Regional Learning Alliance in Cranberry Township, but you’ve got to register by emailing here or call 412-918-4229.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kim Chestney Harvey, Pittsburgh Technology Council

Kids, top groups and long-time donors to be honored at National Philanthropy Day Awards

Thursday, December 08, 2011
“I never intended this to be an award-winning thing,” says Bishop Canevin High School baseball coach and social studies teacher Dale Checketts, whose “Going Beyond the Diamond” program is one winner of the National Philanthropy Day Awards, to be held on Nov. 17. “I just wanted to create an opportunity for the kids to give back to the community. To receive recognition like this is kind of humbling.”
 
The team’s efforts began several years ago, Checketts says, when the family of one team member suffered a house fire that required one family member to stay at a local Ronald McDonald House. At first, the Canevin team collected books and household items to stock the house, then a pickup truck full of soda pop can tabs to raise recycling funds. Then a team parent suggested the team visit the house in person.
 
“We had a school bus and we almost didn’t have enough room in the bus for the stuff and the team,” Checketts recalls. The baseball team made lunch for the kids and played video games with them, and even rustled up a cake and candles to make an impromptu birthday party for one resident who said he regretted missing his birthday party that very day. “Just seeing the reaction of his mom – she was in tears of joy,” he says. “It was just a very touching day.”
 
The other honorees, presented their awards by the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Western Pennsylvania Chapter, are Emily Brittain Elementary School, for their “HOP for Leukemia & Lymphoma” program; Jack Mascaro, receiving a Special Lifetime Achievement Award; Daniel Wukich, for creating an internship program at Quest Healthcare Development, Inc.; BNY Mellon, for their “Powering Potential” program helping the foster-care system; Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc., for their HOPE (Helping Our Partners Exceed) Philanthropy Committee aiding those with disabilities; James Hamilton, board member of the Forbes Health Foundation, for three decades of work with the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh; Massey Charitable Trust, named Outstanding Foundation; and William P. Getty, receiving the Special Innovation Award for launching The Power of 32 regional initiative.
 
For Checketts, at Bishop Canevin, philanthropy “is not just something we do one time and we’re done.” The team has also raised $2,000 for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Fallen Heroes Fund. “For our seniors,” he concludes, “I know it is something they hope to be able to continue to do once they go to college.”
 
Do Good:
·To buy tickets to the National Philanthropy day celebration click here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Dale Checketts

Love Your Block projects complete, next round in spring

Thursday, December 08, 2011
Mayor Ravenstahl’s first round of neighborhood Love Your Block projects have come to an end.  Rebecca Delphia, chief service officer in the mayor’s office, says 47 blocks were impacted by the program, with 5,800 pounds of littler collected, over 660 individual volunteers, and 3,000 hours of service.  

The neighborhood projects were also able to leverage a combined total of $7,000 in additional resources, through cash or in-kind donations.

A total of 11 projects took place in different neighborhoods throughout  the city, and included improvements to basketball and tennis courts, establishing community gardens, and the creation of a pop-up café in front of a vacant storefront in Morningside.

“They’ve been diverse and they’ve been specialized to fit the needs of that particular community,” Delphia says.

Last Friday, Pittsburgh Allderdice High School celebrated enhancements to their athletic field, funded in part by the program’s $500 grant, marking the end to their fall project.

And the final Love Your Block celebration in 2011 will take place on November 11th, when the West End Village will hold a Veterans’ Day Celebration, unveiling enhancements to the Veterans monument located in front of the Carnegie Library on 47 Wabash Street.

Delphia says these projects are a good start for city-wide revitalization efforts.

“This is another tool that's now available for communities that have been doing this work for a very long time, to move their visions forward,” Delphia says.

Applications for the Spring 2012 Love Your Block projects will be released in the early part of next year.  


Writer:  Andrew Moore
Source:  Rebecca Delphia

United Way aims to recruit greatest number of volunteers ever to mentor school kids

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Can Allegheny County recruit 4,000 new volunteers to help school kids learn to read over the next three years?

Can we afford not to?

“It’s enormously important that we help more children understand the great futures they can have if they work hard at school and graduate,” says Bob Nelkin, president of the United Way of Allegheny County, which is teaming with the Youth Futures Commission to launch the Be 1 In a Million campaign. It’s part of a three-year volunteer initiative, spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama, to recruit 1,000,000 mentors, tutors, and readers nationwide for the country’s youngest school-age kids.

The county has a head start, Nelkin says; its Be A 6th-Grade Mentor program should already have 400-450 volunteers by Oct. 1. The new Be 1 In a Million volunteers will concentrate their efforts on children through the third grade in as many as 30 local schools, chosen because their students face the greatest challenges. These are schools underperforming academically, schools with a larger number of children who have been abused or neglected, and schools with a greater number of students whose parents are incarcerated.

The United Way and other local agencies will be available to connect volunteers to needs in specific schools. All types of volunteer are desired, whether they can spend an hour a week or an hour a year – although, as Nelkin emphasizes, “The greater commitment of time and effort, the greater the results.”

Do Good:

• To Be 1 in a Million, click here or simply call 211.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Bob Nelkin, United Way of Allegheny County

One Young World's choice of Pittsburgh brings diverse youth to the region

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
One Young World chose Pittsburgh for its next international conference for all the right reasons -- and right on time, say some involved in the city's successful bid.

One Young World attracts young leaders from 170 countries to its annual conference aimed at shaping worldwide policies about business and government, climate change, healthcare and other issues. It will bring several thousand young people to Pittsburgh in the fall of 2012.

The site selection committee rep was impressed with our collaborative spirit, the city's high level of support, and the safety and walkability of the place, says John Denny, director of community relations for the Hillman Company. Denny was part of the unofficial group helping to support both the many Pittsburgh delegates who attended this year's OYW in Zurich and Pittsburgh's effort to bring the next conference here.

The OYW rep "was excited to see it wasn't just the tourist bureau -- that we had young organizations like PUMP at the table, the universities and others," reports Denny. "She was also blown away by the high level of support we were able to get," which included letters from Sen. Bob Casey, Ambassador Dan Rooney, and presidents Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.

It also helped that the town is walkable and relatively safe.

Overall, OYW "is going to put a big spotlight on the value of diversity and youth," says Denny -- which may be particularly important for a city famously old and shown recently to be less than diverse, compared to other metropolitan areas.

"It is a sign, a symbolic aspect, of Pittsburgh turning the corner from a population and demographic standpoint," says Bill Flanagan, executive vice president of corporate relations for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development -- part of the OYW bid team.

"It’s another great opportunity to get a little of the global spotlight again," he says, adding that the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair will bring its fair share of youth to the Burgh in May 2012 as well. OYW, Flanagan concludes, "is another opportunity to tell our story to a couple thousand of the best and brightest from around the world. I hope they’ll take that story home."

Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: John Denny, The Hillman Company; Bill Flanagan, Allegheny Conference on Community Development

Consider a PTI Grad-In-A-Box for your next hire

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Pittsburgh Technical Institute has launched an unusual campaign to market their graduates. They ship them out in boxes.

Well, not actually in the box.

PTI and 3PC Media launched the Grad-In-A-Box campaign hoping to send a clear message to companies and employers in the region that PTI grads are ready to work, explains Greg DeFeo, PTI president.

The school mailed 100 life-sized boxes to key creative leaders in the industry with a little packing slip that explained how to find top talent in the fields of graphic design, multimedia, video and web design.

"The whole idea was to illustrate that our grads are here and ready to work right out-of-the-box," he says with a laugh. "We had a great response from employers. In a challenging market, this was definitely something unique that stood out."

The boxes arrived with simple instructions: Open the box. Hire a PTI grad and put them to work. Recycle the box.

While PTI expected some surprise from those on the receiving end, they were pleased by the positive response. Some took pictures of employees with the boxes and posted them on Facebook. Others gave them a permanent home in the office.

The advertising industry was equally impressed. The-Grad-in-a-Box campaign won top honors at the 2011 Communicator Awards sponsored by the International Academy of Visual Arts in New York.

Since the campaign's launch, PTI has fielded calls from employers who hadn't worked with PTI before, says DeFeo. The school is finally growing beyond its image as one of the region's best kept secrets since it opened in 1946. Last year more than 700 students graduated with degrees in 23 majors.

The campus, located on 180-acres near Robinson, enrolls 2000 students, many of whom live on campus.

“It was the best door opener I’ve ever received,” said Mark Lindsay, senior creative director at Quest Fore, a Pittsburgh-based strategic marketing company. “It was a beautiful idea… simple, cost-effective and attention-getting.”

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: PTI, Greg DeFeo

Pittsburgh picked again as a Playful City USA!

KABOOM Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Are we all having fun yet?

Apparently so! KaBoom recently named Pittsburgh one of the most playful cities in America. Check out the more than 140 places to play in the region.

Read it in KaBOOM and USA Today.

Pittsburgh Promise continues success, paves way for future

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Pittsburgh is set to host PromiseNet 2011 -- the country's fourth annual conference of groups that offer hope to eligible students through college scholarships. And it's fitting that Pittsburgh do so, says Pittsburgh Promise Executive Director Saleem Ghubril.

The Pittsburgh Promise offers all Pittsburgh Public Schools graduates who are city residents $20,000 to attend a Pennsylvania college if they maintain an 2.5 GPA on average and a 90-percent attendance rate. The scholarship amount is set to double, to $40,000, for the graduating class of 2012. Only two cities had a Promise program before us, says Ghubril, and none has a larger one. Denver, for instance, will use its $100 million donation pool to target only select schools.

While Ghubril won't have final numbers until the end of November, he says about 3,200 scholarships will have been awarded by then, covering students from the classes of 2008-11. UPMC alone has pledged $100 million over the next 10 years to the Promise, which has a fundraising goal of $250 million by 2018. For the most recent fiscal year, the Promise raised $12.2 million in total donations -- $1 million more than the previous year. 

A recent report shows that more and more students are taking advantage of the Promise: 78 percent of eligible 2010 graduates, compared to 72 percent in 2009 and only 58 percent in 2008. And a RAND study found that the Promise is increasingly a factor in parents' decision to choose Pittsburgh Public Schools.

"We are pretty sure the Promise will be around for 32 to 36 years," Ghubril says. "We're pretty confident that in the year 2040 we'll still be making scholarships."

PromiseNet Conference speakers will include officials from the W.E. Upjohn Institute (talking about the first Promise program in Kalamazoo) and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who will give the keynote address.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Saleem Ghubril, Pittsburgh Promise

The Neighborhood Academy opens $10 million campus and science center

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Neighborhood Academy finally has a campus to call its own.
 
Ten years to the day since it started as a school for low-income and at-risk youth, TNA opened a new $10 million campus in Stanton Heights, including a 24,000 square-foot academic building, 26,000 square-foot athletic facilities and a science center offering the latest STEM-based curriculum.
 
The Neighborhood Academy (TNA) began as an urban street ministry and summer program for at-risk youth in 1992, explains Jodie Moore, co-founder and president. The students are from 13 different neighborhoods in the city, attracted by recruiters and a process that encourages hard-working students to apply and dedicate themselves to learning. Seventy students are enrolled in the 8-12 grade school this fall; the school has space for 120 students.
 
"We are looking for the child who has the inner perseverance and resiliency to do the hard work necessary to become college ready," Moore explains. "These kids are in need of remedial help. Many are several grade levels behind. They need to work hard to catch up."
 
Students attending TNA master college-level work by the time they graduate. 100% go on to successful college careers; 90% graduate from college in four years, says Moore.
 
The new campus marks the culmination of a major fundraising campaign that was supported through donations and grants from Pittsburgh corporations, foundations, faith-based communities and individuals. LANXESS Corp. donated $100,000 for a science lab and programming through Xplore Science with LANXESS. Every student receives almost a full scholarship, which is supplemented by grants.   
 
The former campus was located in leased space in a converted warehouse on the corner of Penn and Atlantic avenues in Larimer. "It worked well as a little cobbled together campus," Moore says. "But space and architecture definitely matter.
 
"One of our kids walked in the first day and said 'wow, this is motivation for education!' This sends the message that we value and honor our students. The kids are proud and walking tall. It's amazing how differently they act."
 
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Jodie Moore, The Neighborhood Academy

Picture courtesy of TNA
 

ToonSeum to triple in size on Liberty Avenue, downtown

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
ToonSeum, Pittsburgh’s cartoon and comic museum, is about to triple in size.  After two successful years in a narrow, Cultural District storefront, the museum will grow by expanding into an adjacent building at 947 Liberty Avenue.  An exhibition space, small library, and public courtyard will be added to the current ToonSeum location.

Executive Director Joe Wos says this expansion will allow the museum to showcase more work from ToonSeum’s permanent collection, include more local artists, and to bring in larger exhibitions from around the world. 

“It really gives the opportunity for the public to just have a greater experience overall, to really immerse themselves in the comic and cartoon world,” Wos says.  The museum will also be able to offer more classes to the community, and rental facilities for private events.  The expansion is expected to be completed by November.

The outdoor courtyard will offer fans a place to read comics and manga, enjoy refreshments from Japan and Italy, and will also be used for performances, Wos says.  The courtyard is already known for the popular 15-foot Liberty Avenue Musicians sculptures.

In addition to growing the museum, Wos says this expansion is also a statement of ToonSeum’s commitment to the 900 block of Liberty Avenue, or what he calls the emerging “Alternative District.”

“This is making a statement that we believe this is going to be one of the most exciting, vibrant and really exhilarating blocks in downtown Pittsburgh,” he says.  “There’s just a lot of really great things coming from here.” 

Fans of the museum can contribute to the “Be a real superhero, support the arts” campaign via ToonSeum’s Kickstarter page.


Writer:  Andrew Moore
Source:  Joe Wos

Carnegie opens first exhibit specifically for 5- to 13-year-olds: M is for Museum

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The first hands-on, kid-focused exhibit debuts at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Oct. 15, and “this one is a little bit different," says Project Director Beth Redmond-Jones.
 
The museum is pulling more than a thousand specimens out of storage for this behind-the-scenes view of how a museum works. Dubbed M is for Museum, it aims to answer questions kids are likely to have: What do you collect? How big is your collection? Where did the animals come from?
 
The A-Z exhibit includes D is for Draw (all those scientific illustrations throughout the museum), K is for kids (who collect stuff too), O is for old (What's the oldest thing in your house? Where did it come from?) and X is for X Marks the Spots (where you'll find Carnegie Museum workers around the world). Kids will be able to examine fossils (at F), use hand lenses and microscopes (at L is for Look), and learn about the museum's research at Powdermill Nature Reserve (at P).
 
“It's really breaking down that wall for who we are, what we do – what we collect,” says Redmond-Jones. “This is also definitely going to appeal to adults, because a lot of adults have no idea what we do behind the scenes.”
 
Kids will be able to build their own museum displays at (C is for Collect) from a mix of real specimens and replicas, then label the displays themselves. Testing a prototype, Redmond-Jones found that “I had five, up to 13 year olds, doing this activity and I couldn’t get them to stop.
 
“We would really like visitors to have an appreciation for life on earth and why we do what we do," she concludes, "and why it’s important to the community.”
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Beth Redmond-Jones, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
 

That’s not all folks: insider look at Looney Tunes comes to Toonseum

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The top characters of Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes cartoons belong to that highest echelon of pop culture icons: They’re recognizable to just about everyone. Bugs Buggy looms in the American conscience as largely as Elvis, Darth Vader or the Coca-Cola logo. So with “Overture: Looney Tunes Behind the Scenes,” the very specialized ToonSeum has scored an exhibit of very broad interest.
 
“They have true multi-generational appeal,” Executive Director Joe Wos says of the cadre of characters that includes Duffy Duck, Tweety Bird and other well-merchandised icons. “There are five-year-olds who love them as much as their grandparents do.”
 
“Overture,” which was shown previously at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, features a host of artifacts dating as far back as the 1930s, when the foundation of the franchise was set down in a series of animated shorts for movie theaters. Advertising material, comic-book art, draft-stage character designs and penciled artwork that acted as each cartoon’s bare bones will be on display. Wos is particularly excited to have the musical score sheets for the old cartoons, in which every action in every scene – every mocking smooch from Bugs Bunny or humiliating injury endured by Wile E. Coyote – is written above the corresponding musical note.
 
In addition to the famous favorites, the exhibit, which runs from Oct. 23 until the end of the year, brings back a few lesser known Looney Tunes names. Wos is planning a screening of cartoons featuring Snafu and Hook, characters seen in World War II-era training films for the U.S. Army and Navy, respectively.
 
What has made most Looney Tunes practically immortal? Wos explains that they were created at a time when theater-going grown-ups were the primary audience for cartoons. “Like all of the most successful [cartoon] characters, they weren’t made for kids; they were made for adults,” he says. “The kids who see them feel like they are being let in on something special.”
 
Writer: Nick Keppler
Source: Joe Wos, ToonSeum

Let's Move Pittsburgh: set in motion by First Lady, running strong at Phipps

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden is famous for its plant and flower displays, so of course it is hosting two major conferences on curbing childhood obesity.
 
Wait, what?
 
“We’re connecting people with the important role plants play in people’s lives," says Phipps' Executive Director Richard Piacentini about his institution's mission. "And the biggest intersection we have with plants is with the food we eat.” From processed foods to factory farms, modern food production is having a large impact on making us larger -- starting with our children.
 
Let's Move Pittsburgh is set for Oct. 12. As part of the White House's Let's Move! Program, it will focus on regional groups' actions to bring healthier food and more physical activity to local children, attempting to create a plan for the future. It will feature panels with representatives from local schools, health care, out-of-school and other community programs, early childhood education, and the food industry.
 
Feeding the Spirit on Oct. 13 brings together national groups to talk about what museums and public gardens can do to improve children's health. The keynote speaker is White House Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass.
 
Both conferences will be the start of something larger and will have a regional impact for years to come, Piacentini says. The Move!ment hopes to focus on parents and caregivers next.
 
“There’s so much confusion about what’s healthy and what’s not healthy," he says. "Everywhere you go you get a different message.” He hopes conference participants will create a consistent message about healthy eating and activity, and point to who is doing something innovative and who is overcoming barriers.
 
Concludes Piacentini: “We see this as becoming a really key place for people to find resources, to find out what other people are doing, and to find best practices … for addressing healthy lifestyles for children.”
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Richard Piacentini, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden

Training the next leaders of the social-justice movement: Youth Leading Change

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Building Change: A Convergence for Social Justice on Oct. 13-15 is being billed as "the first-ever gathering of people and organizations from across Southwestern Pennsylvania … who share a common goal of advancing social justice and change in our region and world."


Among the "first evers" is the Convergence's Youth Leading Change track on Oct. 13 at the Heinz History Center. It is designed “to make sure we’re speaking to youth directly about how they can be effective in their communities and how they can use their skills," says Willa Paterson of the Three Rivers Community Foundation, which organized the event.
 
More than 300 students from 32 schools will team with 28 nonprofits to create plans for community service projects to be accomplished throughout the coming year. At lunchtime, youth from the YMCA Lighthouse project, Royal Tribes, and Terrance Moses will perform.
 
Local labor experts Charles McCollester and Rosemary Trump will present Lessons in Leadership, a series of readings about local history – who are the historical leaders of social change in the region, and what did they accomplish? Workshops will cover everything from community organizing, coalition building and civic engagement to fundraising and social entrepreneurship, as well as media, marketing and social networking.
 
Concludes Paterson: "We need to engage our students at a younger age with community activities.”
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Willa Paterson, Three Rivers Community Foundation

A waiting list already! Urban Pathways opens school to K-5 kids

Tuesday, October 11, 2011
What's the secret for success at Urban Pathways, one of Pittsburgh Public Schools' original charter schools? How did all 70 members of its last two graduating classes head off to college?
 
"We have a real college preparatory curriculum, we’re pretty strict with discipline, and we start immediately with goal-setting, not only for college but for their personal lives," says Linda M. Clautti, the school's CEO. "And we have a lot of parental support."
 
The school has just opened up for K-5 students, supplementing the current students in 6-12. It has 140 students this year in K-3, and will add the other two grades over the next two years, growing to 300 students by 2013.
 
"We have a waiting list already," Clautti says. "We’re finding lots of referrals, not only siblings of our current families but friends of our current families."
 
The K-5 school offers many unique features. Its curriculum includes the Stephen R. Covey Leader in Me program as well as the Values for Life program developed by Jerome Taylor, founder of Pittsburgh's Center for Family Excellence and chair of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Urban Pathways also has modular classrooms, with desks grouped in pods, around which students will travel to undertake different activities and lessons.
 
Concludes Clautti: "We hope that by starting at kindergarten we can get them ready … and they’ll have a seamless transition" to the upper grades.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Linda M. Clautti, Urban Pathways Charter School

Kids learn medium is message's best friend, via YouthMAP

Monday, August 08, 2011
"Imagine if you didn't get to see many teenagers," says Heather Harr. "What would you think of them if all you watched was the news?"

You'd probably think they were all criminals or prodigies -- mostly the former -- and the Youth Media Advocacy Project aims to fix that.

"What we wanted to do is create a regular vehicle for youth voices in Pittsburgh," says Harr, who is YouthMAP's co-director. YouthMAP brings together teens, particularly African-Americans from distressed neighborhoods, to help create better and more positive coverage of teen issues. Instead of becoming the news, they are making the news by learning how the media works, how to create their own effective messages, and how to use media to advocate for change they want in education.

With the help of Carlow University students who have taken the college's youth media course, YouthMAP teens from various Pittsburgh Public Schools have produced billboards, half-hour shows for PCTV, radio and TV ads, and, most recently, one-minute radio spots that debuted on the Saturday Light Brigade radio show on July 23. They now run weekly there, as well as on KISS-FM between 4 and 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and are posted on SLB's neighborhoodvoices.org site.

The new radio spots feature teens talking about education, the state budget cuts, education reform and other issues that concern them. Harr says YouthMAP plans to work with Pittsburgh school students to keep making new radio segments in the fall.

The topics aren't always as serious as school closings, she adds -- but the students and the district have learned the power of their own words. Students at Pittsburgh Brashear placed an ad in The New Pittsburgh Courier to explain why they wanted culinary arts classes in their school and earned a meeting with the school board president. And students at Pittsburgh Obama made a film about healthier lunch choices that encouraged the district food director to offer some new items in the cafeteria, Harr reports.

"It gives more gravity to their opinions," she says of these student productions. "Sometimes they say, we're tired of pizza -- we'd like some broccoli. So it's surprising."

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Heather Harr, YouthMAP

Placid place perfect for peewee paddlers, thanks to Kayak Pittsburgh

Monday, August 08, 2011
From its location beneath the Roberto Clemente Bridge, Kayak Pittsburgh launches paddlers straight into the Monongahela River.

But if this sounds overwhelming to a young or new kayaker, smaller kids and novices can now push off from Kayak Pittsburgh's spot on North Park Lake, which reopened Aug. 1 after a two-year hiatus. It will stay open through Labor Day weekend.

"The water is not moving at all," says Kayak Pittsburgh Manager Liam Cooney. "It's ideal for people who want a few more baby steps."

The 75-acre, horseshoe-shaped, manmade lake in North Park (which also hosts a playground, swimming pool, tennis courts and biking and hiking trails) was dredged of sentiment over the last two summers and is back to an average depth of 15 feet, up from five or so feet pre-dredge, says Cooney. Boats there are launched out of a stone boathouse built in the 1930s.

Each rental comes with a paddle (of course!), a life jacket and a brief safety lesson. In addition to solo and tandem kayaks, Kayak Pittsburgh rents out rowboats, canoes and paddleboats. Rates range from $15 to $20 for the first hour, then $8 to $10 for each additional half hour, depending on the vessel. Paddlers have to be 12 or older to get into a boat by themselves, and must weight at least 35 pounds to get into a boat at all.

There is also a third outpost on Lake Elizabeth in Allegheny Commons. Of course, it's the group's central spot, which gives access to the three rivers, that is Kayak Pittsburgh's most popular, says Cooney. It attracts 15,000 visitors a season versus the 6,000 to 7,000 at the lakeside locations. Still, he recommends Lake Elizabeth and North Park for anyone new to paddle sports. The Clemente Bridge location will always be there for next summer.

Writer: Nick Keppler
Source: Liam Cooney, Kayak Pittsburgh

Critical parental role clear in "Voices of Youth"

Monday, August 08, 2011
Joan C. Eichner had the idea last year to create a short documentary film to capture creative ways parents promote learning in their kids, and how critical adults are in the learning process.

Eichner, children's policy director for the University of Pittsburgh's Office of Child Development, says the resulting 20-minute production depicts parents in their own words and shows just how much they contribute to the lives of their kids.

Called "Voices of Youth," its three sections talk about early learning through relationships; about how important play is as a tool for exploring and trying to make sense of the world; and about parents' hopes and dreams. The entire film can be seen here.

"Some people here have watched it and kind of gotten choked up," Eichner says.

Parts filmed in two local child-care classrooms show kids' socialization process, while early childhood experts from Carlow University and Pitt present research about how the brain develops.

Eichner hopes the film will help "to reinvigorate parents about their role."

It was funded by a grant from the Grable and Pittsburgh foundations.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Joan C. Eichner, Office of Child Development

Superheroes conquer Warhol Museum

Monday, August 08, 2011
When the Andy Warhol Museum begins displaying famed comic book painter Alex Ross's lush, photorealistic depictions of Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and other iconic heroes, they won't be the only super-people in the museum's halls.

Children will be able to create their own superhero masks, and design and create characters, using screen printing methods passed down from Andy Warhol himself. That's because the Warhol is tailoring its Weekend Factory art activities to the exhibit. "Whether you know it or not, you are saying something about yourself when you create your own superhero or villain," says Dave English, the museum's resident artist/educator.

Kids will have plenty of inspiration from the Ross exhibit, which is titled "Heroes and Villains" and will take up 5,500 square feet of gallery space from Oct. 1 until Jan. 8. The American Academy of Art-educated Ross cemented his place in comics with two celebrated series, 1994's Marvels for Marvel Comics and 1996's Kingdom Come for DC. He went on to paint countless posters and comic book covers and even a few dinner plates showcasing well-known characters. His work for DC was compiled into a coffee table book, and he won Comics Buyer's Guide's "Favorite Painter" award so many times the magazine discontinued it.

The Warhol's retrospective of more than a hundred Ross works goes way back. "We have these paper dolls of the Justice League he did as a kid," says English. "They're pretty complicated for kids' art."

English is hoping to encourage those watchful guardians who are always present at the Warhol, the museum guards, to get in on the spirit and put on a mask and/or cape.

"Some people are really into it and have their identities and costumes picked out," English says, "and others groan and ask, 'Um, what days will we be doing that?'"

Writer: Nick Keppler
Source: Dave English, Andy Warhol Museum

FitWits: Eating healthy is all its cracked up to be, says CMU and Eat'n Park

Friday, August 05, 2011
Elvis Presley has re-entered the building – this time with a peanut-butter hairdo.

He's been re-dubbed Elvis Pretzley, and re-dipped (none of that processed cheese sauce for him), thanks to FitWits, a new collectible character card and text-messaging game at Eat'n Park designed to get parents and kids talking about healthy eating -- and acting on the idea too.

"Kids have so many negative characters in their daily lives," says Kristin Hughes, associate professor of design at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Design, who leads the Fitwits team there. Hughes means negative food-pushing characters, of course, such as the sugary cereal shills populating grocery store shelves and TV commercials. The new FitWits characters, with their jokes, riddles, quizzes and recipes, may attract kids to multiple messages about healthy foods.

There's three-strawberry-headed Berry S'Mores, promoting a yogurt-and-berry variation on the campfire snack, or Phil and Spill, the taco twins, plus the Queen of Wheat and Sunny Yolk. FitWits worked with local fifth-grade classes to create the creatures. As for Elvis Pretzley, "I'm not sure how that one came about," Hughes says. But at least the youngsters may recognize the name from Penguins hockey games, if not ancient vinyl.

Kids can also use text-messaging to help Elvis Pretzley choose his meals while on the road during his singing career – presumably so he doesn't turn into a soft pretzel, wearing a salt-covered cape.

Also part of the FitWits team are UPMC St. Margaret Family Health Centers, The Heinz Endowments (which funded this anti-obesity effort with a $125,000 grant), Open Science Initiative (which created the text message game), and Tropo (which is donating text-messaging services).

Hughes is confident about the program's future impact. "The characters provide a level of comfort and ease for a parent and child to talk about the idea of healthy eating," she says. "I think that's the success of the program."

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kristin Hughes, FitWits

The Saxifrage School to bring new college experiment to Millvale

Friday, August 05, 2011
The Saxifrage School is on the move. With plans to launch a new, community-integrated college, the organization is seeking space in Millvale for their next storefront project set to begin later this summer.

Saxifrage founder Tim Cook says his group hopes to spark conversation within the community by activating an empty storefront, and demonstrating what that college could actually look like in Millvale.

"The best way to really get to know a place is to actually be there," Cook says.

The school would not have a traditional campus. Instead, classes would be taught in vacant spaces, churches, at coffee shops and bars. Cook says the project doesn't work without community buy-in.

"It's very much founded on the basis that it needs to be supported by all these partner organizations...and that's the only way that it will work," Cook says.

Saxifrage was most recently operating in the former Firewarters Saloon building across from PNC Park. The school is planning similar projects in the Northside and East End.

"If you think about higher education, you think about cathedrals of learning, and castle-like academic buildings," Cook says. "[But] higher education is not about the buildings, and it's not about the absurd cost, it's about actual student outcomes, people learning how to live well, work well, and change the world potentially."

By integrating into the community, the school hopes to limit tuition to around $5,000, offering a more affordable alternative to traditional colleges. The school is being founded, in part, as a response to rising costs in tuition and student debt.

Each Saxifrage student would pick two majors, one in the liberal arts tradition, and one in a more technical field, such as home building, organic gardening, or computer programming. Cook says the Saxifrage School hopes to better prepare students for success as well-rounded individuals with practical skills for everyday life.

"So theoretically then you graduate being a great communicator, and philosopher, and poet, but also know how to build a house," Cook says.


Writer: Andrew Moore
Source: Tim Cook


What if a bunch of teens had $200,000 to give away? Ask the Heinz Endowments

Friday, August 05, 2011
The Heinz Endowments had involved young people in various aspects of its grantmaking process for a dozen years before staff had a revelation:

"We just thought, if we really wanted to have a youth voice in our grantmaking, we ought to let the youth start making grants," says program officer Wayne Jones.

Thus, in 2005 was born the Summer Youth Philanthropy Program in its current incarnation, which this year will allow 28 recent high-school grads to award $200,000 in grants for a more sustainable Pittsburgh. Jones directs the program. The interns decide on the focus of their philanthropy, solicit the proposals and decide on the most worthy programs. For 2011, working in partnership with the Sarah Heinz House, Adagio Health, Sustainable Pittsburgh, the Student Conservation Association and the United Way of Allegheny County, the group decided to offer funds around the issues of alternative fuels, arts education, sustainability; STDs and reproductive health, nutrition education and urban gardens, vacant lots, and employment for vulnerable youth. Proposals are due Aug. 1.

The interns' work sometimes has an impact on the Endowments' wider grantmaking, and even on their grantees. A few years ago, reports Jones, one team focused on youth gardening and urban farms, giving Braddock Farms a grant. Since then, the Endowments have done more grantmaking there. And an intern-funded Strong Women, Strong Girls Foundation program of environmental education and awareness inspired those young grant recipients to turn around and do a little youth philanthropy themselves.

Finding out how nonprofit philanthropy works has been "an eye-opener" for intern Ethan Busis, who just graduated from Shadyside Academy. His team has used Sustainable Pittsburgh's data on individual municipalities' sustainability efforts to devise $25,000 in potential grants to encourage alternative transportation and fuels. Their project is called A Vehicle of Change.

"We wanted to make sure it really went to a cause that helped municipalities become a leader in alternative transportation," Busis says. "We wanted them to spend the money well and become a start to their green transportation fleet and expand the [impact] beyond the money we were giving them."

Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Wayne Jones, Ethan Busis, Heinz Endowments

Seven Pittsburgh school districts rank top in the nation

THE WASHINGTON POST Friday, August 05, 2011
Seven Pittsburgh public school districts were ranked the top in the nation for college preparedness by Washington Post's High School Challenge. The ranking was based on the total number of graduating seniors divided by the district's number of advanced placement or college level tests given in 2010. Among the districts that made the list (in the order they are listed): Upper St. Clair, Pine-Richland, Beaver Area, Mt. Lebanon, Hampton, North Hills and Taylor Allderdice.

Read the Washington Post.

Using a broader methodology--six components including graduation rates, test scores and college courses--Newsweek came out with its list of the top 500 school districts in the country. Hampton and North Allegheny both made the list. Read it in Newsweek.



Two foundations get in line to combat online bullying

Friday, August 05, 2011
"There aren't a lot of community resources invested in this new challenge" of cyber-bullying, says Chris Sweeney, board member of the Marcus L. Ruscitto Charitable Foundation.

That's why Ruscitto family members -- the late Marcus was founder and CEO of Stargate Industries -- decided to team with The Pittsburgh Foundation to create a new $50,000 regional initiative to combat bullying, and particularly the variety that sometimes plagues the Internet.

Sweeney says it will be the six-year-old Ruscitto foundation's signature issue.

In November, the foundations will convene up to 400 local educators, school counselors and administrators to hear Dr. Adolph "Doc" Brown, III. The inspirational anthropologist, who is a psychology and education faculty member at Hampton University, brings a message for students about how bullying can affect other kids, and how very serious the issue ought to be among students today. And he does that, at least partly, through song and dance. He addresses the bullies, the victims, and the bystanders, who do not feel confident enough to seek help.

Sweeney says the foundations will then solicit educators to submit creative ideas to stanch the flow of bullying in our schools, and will give funding to selected school districts to implement the best ideas.

"Hopefully then," he concludes, "we'll be able to announce any new ideas that have emerged."

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Chris Sweeney, Marcus L. Ruscitto Charitable Foundation

Schoolkid in landmark case is now woman inspiring new Pitt Constitution course for highschoolers

Friday, August 05, 2011

Mary Beth Tinker was only 13 in 1965 when she, her brother John and other junior-high kids decided to protest the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands. Her school in tiny Atlantic, Iowa banned her and four others from returning until they gave up the armbands. With the ACLU, Tinker was the lead plaintiff in the subsequent Supreme Court case, which ruled that students need not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Tinker didn't find the courage of her convictions on her own. "We were motivated by examples we had in our lives, like so many young people," she says. That included both her parents; her father, a Methodist minister, lost his church after helping its youth group protest a whites-only pool. "They taught us you should act out your principles, not just on Sunday, but every day," Tinker says.

On June 2, she helped kick off a new University of Pittsburgh program that will bring Pitt law students into local high-school classrooms this fall to teach a course on the U.S. Constitution, leading to possible participation in the National Moot Court competition. It's part of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, which is only in 10 other U.S. cities.

Kevin Deasy, associate dean of students at Pitt's law school, says he hopes the program will not only help students understand the legal system and their rights, "but also instill in them an appreciation for what education can do in their lives," leading to college and careers – perhaps even in the law. It should also be a useful experience for Deasy's own students; there's no better learning tool than needing to master a subject in order to teach it.

For her part, Tinker hopes the program teaches kids how to be active citizens. In 1965, young people "were saying, in a democracy we can do better. And that's been the role of young people so many times throughout history," Tinker observes. "We have ideals in our own country, but we haven't met them. We have a justice system that is not always just -- that's true -- which is all the more reason why young people need to be aware and a part of finding solutions."

Do Good:

• Get inspired by reading more about the Tinker case.

Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Kevin Deasy, Pitt School of Law; Mary Beth Tinker

MLK is also Moving the Lives of Kids through murals

Friday, August 05, 2011
When reached by phone in Wilkinsburg, Joy Taylor can hardly be heard for the sound of shouting children obviously having fun. Inside a church in Wilkinsburg, the kids are working on a mural about Pittsburgh's landmarks and history, using brightly colored paints.

Helping them create the scene are two adult artists -- hip-hop pioneer Paradise Gray and Aaron Regal, who used to be one of these kids painting murals. And this mural is one of 15 local kid-painted murals set to pop up around the area this summer, thanks to the MLK (Moving the Lives of Kids) Community Mural Project. Begun in 2004 by local mural artist Kyle Holbrook, it has sponsored more than 200 such murals in the Burgh and 500 across the country -- even a few in Brazil and Haiti. 

These multi-week efforts to create murals teach pride in place, and offer kids the chance to do something the whole community can see and admire, Taylor says.

New this year is Fashion for the Future, through which at-risk girls learn the business with professional artists and designers, who help the kid make their own clothing line. The first group of girls is in the midst of the inaugural program in the Hill District today.

The MLK Community Mural Project is working in East Hills, Penn Hills, the North Side, Oakland, Hazelwood, McKeesport and elsewhere this summer. Taylor says it is always trying to expand its reach to new communities and new demographics each year.
  
"There are so many distractions that keep them from focusing on the positive in themselves," she says of the program's young participants. "They get an opportunity to give something back to their community and have a voice. A public art project really gives them a chance to say something -- and to say something positive."

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Joy Taylor, MLK Community Mural Project
 

The ultimate sports injury? Trouble breathing, says Athletes United for Healthy Air

Friday, August 05, 2011
Jamin Bogi sees people jogging along the main streets of their neighborhoods during rush hour and wonders whether they realize that, in an effort to keep themselves healthy, they could also be doing themselves some harm.

That's because southwestern Pennsylvania's air has high levels of sooty particles, and the deeper breathing caused by exercise means taking in greater amounts of the particles too. It's worst right next to a bunch of idling polluters.

The local Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) chapter, where Bogi serves as education and outreach coordinator, has started Athletes United for Healthy Air to educate people -- particularly young people -- about the effects of air pollution during exercise.

And if you do anything outside besides sitting, Bogi says, "you're an athlete. You shouldn't have to calculate, am I harming myself more or less" by exercising.

One simple, if partial, solution is to take your exercise to the side streets. GASP has joined with Venture Outdoors to offer a series of 3- to 4-mile strolls through city neighborhoods to promote off-main-road exercising and the superior sights and sites that can be found off those beaten paths.

Bogi is hoping the new campaign, which will include a variety of educational and active approaches in the future, also inspires people to agitate for air pollution controls -- and encourages potential Pittsburghers not to pass the city by. He recalls moving here with his wife several years ago and researching the area. "Everything about Pittsburgh looks wonderful," he says, "except for all of the press about the bad air."

Do Good:

• Lace up your walking shoes for the next Side Street Stroll, in the Strip on June 11; sign up here.

• Get involved in GASP's other issues here.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Jamin Bogi, Group Against Smog and Pollution

Giving caregivers a break is elementary for Watson

Friday, August 05, 2011
"I've never had children, I've never been around children, and I don't know a lot about children with disabilities," MaryJo Alimena Caruso recalls one 60-year-old woman announcing to her. Yet this woman still wanted to volunteer for CareBreak, the Watson Institute program that matches adults with families whose children need constant care -- and who could use a weekly break in the action.

CareBreak volunteers don't have to have any particular experience, Caruso says -- just the desire to volunteer for something that lasts. "They want to make a difference in a way that develops a relationship," says Caruso, who is CareBreak's coordinator. In the case of the 60-year-old volunteer, who cautioned that she was rather immobile besides, CareBreak matched her with a small child who must use a wheelchair, and they've been together for 10 years now.

"I think of it like a dating service," Caruso jokes. The program serves kids up to 16 years old in Allegheny and Beaver counties and the Cranberry Township area of Butler County.

Besides providing companionship for the child, volunteers may do therapeutic or purely fun activities with him or her, in or outside the home (where possible), as well as helping with school work, developing social skills, and performing basic care and feeding.

The respite these volunteers give to families and other caregivers goes beyond the several-hour break. Not only does it reduce their stress level and the secondary health issues that often accompany stress, it gives them another adult with the potential to see their children as just kids, which doesn't happen often enough in public.

The program, which is free, is relatively small, serving 54 families currently, but Watson is always looking for new volunteers. Concludes Caruso: "We also recognize that our kids need a break from their parents."

Do Good:

• Need CareBreak? Request a Family Registration form at 412-749-2863 or 866-893-4751.

• Want to volunteer -- or create a respite program on CareBreak's model? Call 412-749-2863 or email MaryJo Alimena Caruso.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: MaryJo Alimena Caruso, Watson Institute
Image courtesy of the Watson Institute

Sick child? Children's Hospital has an app for that

Friday, August 05, 2011

If you need to determine what dosage of over-the-counter medicine to give your child, or why a rash still hasn't gone away, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC has an app for that. 

 

ChildrensPgh, released for iPhones, iPads and iPods in March, and now available to Android users, provides various useful resources for parents and physicians alike.

 

Frequently used features include an appointment service, emergency contact list, and an easy-to-use symptom guide. 

 

The latter is incredibly useful, says Raymond Pitetti, M.D., of Children's Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

 

"Parents tell me they aren't sure what they can trust online.  This they can trust," he says.  "Everything we put online we look at ourselves to make sure it's consistent with what we believe."

 

Parents can search by body part or by symptom. If the app advises they consult a physician immediately, it provides emergency numbers and directions. 

 

Pitetti uses the app himself, and comments that non-pediatric doctors can find helpful information on it as well.  He often uses the app's mapping feature to direct parents to the hospital from their current location. 

 

Now it easier than ever to figure out what your child's rash might be, and what you can do about it.

 

The ChildrensPgh app can be downloaded from the Android Market, Apple's iTunes store, or from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh's website. 


Writer:  Lindsay Derda

Source: Raymond Pitetti, M.D., Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC

Teens digital expressions are among their most cherished artifacts, says CMU study

Friday, August 05, 2011
Virtual stuff is gaining a powerful and sentimental hold on teenagers today, Facebook images, email threads and immaterial artifacts of the online world, says a new study by Carnegie Mellon University.

So much so, that social network profiles and Foursquare badges may be more precious to a teen than a tattered childhood book or favorite tee. The "placelessness" of virtual possessions stored online tends to enhance their value because they are always available, compared to a treasure box that is hidden under a bed.

There is value in these virtual connections, says John Zimmerman, lead researcher and associate professor of human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) and School of Design.

For the study, researchers interviewed nine girls and 12 boys, ages 12-17, from middle and upper-middle class families who are active on the Internet, mobile phones and other technology.

"What I think is fascinating is teens are tremendously inventive in the way they are discovering how to value digital things, which no one has shown them how to do," says Zimmerman. "It's human behavior to invest meaning in the things we surround ourselves with; they are finding new ways to do this."

The virtual world gives teens a powerful way to explore meaning in their lives, understand themselves and who they are. When people share and tag photos or conversations online, it allows them to reflect and investigate who they are in the relationship with that person.

It gives friends an opportunity to share experiences. A picture of a favorite t-shirt or treasured memento, shared with others, becomes much more real than something sitting on a shelf or in a drawer, he says.

The CMU team plans to continue investigating how to provide new products and services that help to fulfill people on a virtual level so they can begin to move away from more material things, says Zimmerman.

How can we help children create a sense of place as they move between places, such as children of divorce? Or give people who are homeless or incarcerated a sense of security in relationship to themselves and others to promote a better self image as they transition back into the real world?

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and by Google.

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: John Zimmerman, CMU


Five young Burghers will fly to Zurich as top leaders for One Young World

Monday, June 20, 2011
Budding leaders in Pittsburgh's nonprofit community are invited to apply to become a delegate to the One Young World Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, Sept. 1-4 as a guest of the One Young World Pittsburgh Partnership.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh was chosen as the only U.S. city competing to host the 2012 summit.

Last year's London gathering was the first for the international forum, which is already looking to the next generation (those 21-28) to confront and solve some of the world's most pressing problems. About 1,600 delegates are expected in Zurich, and the Pittsburgh Partnership plans to find five from southwestern Pennsylvania who most qualify for sponsorship. Local corporations such as Bayer also plan to send their own young employees as delegates.

Steven E. Sokol, president of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh -- one of the Partnership groups -- heard One Young World co-founder Kate Robertson speak here in March, outlining some of the outcomes of last year's assembly. They included an African Student Leaders' Summit that brought together 11 African countries and 23 of the continent's universities, as well as CrowdVoice on MideastYouth.com. The OYW website outlines other projects already underway, such as an effort to employ Haitians to raise chickens for profit and healthy meals, and the world's first carboNZero-certified winery, eco.love, in New Zealand.

"There's no better place than Pittsburgh for the world's young people to gather to envision the future" next year, says Bill Flanagan, speaking for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. He points to yet another high ranking for the city on the international scene: North America's "Large City of the Future" for 2011, as named by FDi magazine of The Financial Times.

"We are working to field a very strong and diverse delegation which represents a good cross section of the best that Pittsburgh has to offer," says Katie McSorley, Mid-Atlantic president for another Partnership member, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR. "It's a terrific achievement to be selected as the sole U.S. bid city – but we are competing with cities like Johannesburg, Dubai, and Melbourne. The community has to rally behind this effort to bring this to Pittsburgh."

Do Good:

• To apply, complete the registration form or contact Caitlin Berczik or Allyce Pinchback for more information.

Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Steven E. Sokol, World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh; Bill Flanagan, Allegheny Conference on Community Development; Katie McSorley, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR

Bayer Science Stage is new stage in Science Center's stage capabilities

Monday, June 20, 2011
The stage is set for more years of science education on the Carnegie Science Center's stage, thanks to Bayer's sponsorship of the newly dubbed Bayer Science Stage.

The Center will continue to use their 300-seat auditorium for lectures, shows and presentations.

"Bayer's relationship with the Carnegie Science Center is a perfect fit," says Bayer spokesperson Katie Kirkpatrick. "The Carnegie Science Center is connecting people with science -- so does Bayer. We're dedicated to educating the next generation of scientists."

Bayer also sees the opportunity now to use the venue for public policy forums it holds for employees, as well as employee town halls. It will also use the stage for its own science education program, Making Science Make Sense. Volunteers from this program, who until now had conducted some experiments in classrooms, will now have the opportunity to conduct them with students on the Bayer Science Stage.
   
Bayer's support also created a new Making Science Make Sense educational kiosk in the Carnegie Science Center lobby. It is the second such facility in the area, matching an existing kiosk at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The interactive sites offer kids the chance to explore such questions as "Why does a hockey puck slide so quickly?" and "Why does an ice cube float?"

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Katie Kirkpatrick, Bayer
Image courtesy of Katie Kirkpatrick, Bayer

Carl Kurlander produces a new documentary on the avant-garde movement, "Kidsburgh"

WQED PITTSBURGH Monday, June 20, 2011
What began as a seed planted by Fred Rogers and a breakfast brainstorming meeting of several colleagues has grown into an avant-garde group of nearly 300 education and tech people in Pittsburgh working to make "Kidsburgh" happen.

Watch the video produced by Carl Kurlander On Q.

What is Kidsburgh? All you need to know here

BILL PEDUTO Monday, June 20, 2011
"Kidsburgh" is becoming a new buzzword to describe Pittsburgh. But what does it really mean? City Councilman Bill Peduto's blog gives us the answer: "Pittsburgh is Kidsburgh because a group of Pittsburghers are dedicated to making Pittsburgh 'the best place for kids on the planet'."

Click here to read the entire article.

Be sure to check out Pop City's sister publication, Kidsburgh.

Watch the winning student videos in the "Take a Shot at Changing the World" contest

TAKE A SHOT AT CHANGING THE WORLD Monday, June 20, 2011
View the winning videos, created by students from Mt. Lebanon High School, Hampton High School and Peters Township Middle School, who participated in the "Take a Shot at Changing the World"  contest. The contest challenged students to create their own short videos about the crippling disease of polio. Mt. Lebanon High School's Tyler Anderson's piece about a young woman's letter to her grandfather who had been afflicted with polio won the $5,000 grand prize and recognition on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation blog.

The contest was inspired by the new film "The Shot Felt 'Round the World," which documents how the medical team of Jonas Salk brought together the community of Pittsburgh to develop the polio vaccine.


Watch them here.

Louise's kayak adventure is the latest animated Riverlife video by Scott Benson

RIVERLIFE Monday, June 20, 2011
10-year-old Louise shares the story of how she paddled her kayak on the river to help break the World Record on World Environment Day 2010 in Pittsburgh in this latest video from Riverlife's "Living in a River City" series.

Watch the YouTube video!

Girls of Steel: taking over the robots to compete nationally at FIRST contest

Friday, June 03, 2011
Patti Rote's dream of creating an all-girl robotics design team has finally been realized -- and they're headed for the national championship competition April 27-30 in St. Louis after winning All-Star Rookie awards locally and in Washington, D.C.

Rote, Carnegie Mellon University's robotics industry program director, had witnessed teams of 90-percent boys at national contests for years, so this fall she got CMU Robotics Institute faculty to mentor the new all-female team. Calling themselves Girls of Steel, the group of mostly high-school freshman hails from 11 different school districts and uses the Rosie the Riveter logo on their uniforms -- with a robotic arm in place of the strong right she usually brandishes.

In St. Louis, they'll face 2,000 other teams -- 11,000 competitors -- at FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), which offers about $15 million in scholarships as prizes.

Their previous awards came because the girls, who have never been on a robotics team before, have done their own website, business plan and marketing, and helped other teams with their efforts in the process. When they heard about the recent tornados near the contest site, they even decided to raise money for the victims.

"It's just wonderful to see them work together," says Rote. It is hoped that the team involvement will provide experience with technology not always offered to girls in today's classrooms.

They have already mastered some of the skills needed for the competition, says Rote, such as building a larger robot to deploy a smaller robot to perform a designated task, with the larger robot working autonomously for part of the time.

"I think we're going to see a change in the type of people who apply at the Robotics Institute, or robotics programs across the states," Rote concludes.

Do Good:

• Watch the Girls of Steel team in a promo video, in a Pittsburgh match, and receiving the Pittsburgh Rookie All-Star Award.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Patti Rote, Carnegie Mellon University

Phipps is on the forefront of a new White House initiative for kids

LET'S MOVE BLOG Friday, June 03, 2011
Let's Move! Museums and Gardens is a new White House initiative that heralds the work done by museums across the country--like Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens--to stretch the imaginations of our youth.

Read it on the Let's Move! blog.

Who won the France trips with one photo? A Pop City exclusive from the Children's Museum

Friday, June 03, 2011
Nineteen-year-old Alexandra Valliant of Hampton Township is one of two local young people winning trips to Paris for their photos, and she says "I'm still in shock. I've never been to France. It'll be a crazy, one of a kind experience -- and I can't believe I have the opportunity now."

She and 15-year-old Danielle Perelman of Squirrel Hill were chosen by local judges to represent the city -- and the United States -- at the second annual International Heritage Photography Exhibition, sponsored here by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. They'll be jetting to the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg in December for the awards ceremony, then have their photos displayed in all 60 participating countries and published in the contest catalog. (See all Pittsburgh entries here.

Valliant's winning photo is quintessentially Pittsburgh -- it shows the crowd at PNC Park, with a river, bridge and Downtown skyline in the background, as seen from the stadium stands. Perelman's photo is Fair Oaks Drive on an ultra-snowy day, with just a few silhouetted souls stopping in mid-shovel.

"These are pictures of Pittsburgh we're all used to seeing," says Angela Seals, program manager at the museum. "But if you think of it from the point of view of someone who hasn't seen snow, or who is from somewhere that doesn't have these big trees …" Indeed, she notes, when last year's Pittsburgh winners befriended Tunisian photographers in Paris, they found people who seemed just like them. But their winning photos gave surprising glimpses of Tunisian desert-village life.

Although the international contest was begun to promote preservation of each place's unique landscape, Pittsburgh's photos "give a sense that this isn't just a landscape made by bridges and mountains and buildings, but a landscape made of people who live here," says Seals. Pittsburgh is the only U.S. city participating in the IHPE.

All entrants will be shown in a Children's Museum gallery starting Sept. 10. Honorable mention winner Cody Voye's photo of the Duquesne Incline will be exhibited at the incline.

Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: Angela Seals, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh; Alexandra Valliant
Image courtesy of Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Promise gains national attention

USA TODAY Thursday, March 10, 2011
Pittsburghers may know about the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship, but now the nation does too. For those who may not know, the Pittsburgh Promise is a 3-year gift for public school graduates who attend school regularly and maintain a 2.5 grade point average. USA Today features the program and what it has done not only for its recipients, but the city as well.


Click here to read the entire article.


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Fearing state budget cuts to education, elsewhere, nonprofits set talks, advocacy

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Even before Gov. Tom Corbett announced deep education funding cuts in his budget on March 8, Arlene Levy believed there was reason to worry about the future of public education.

"The major concern we have," said the co-president of the League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh, "is that funding for public education is adequate -- to make sure public school students can have a proper education, whether they are regular education or special education." Will there be new, unfunded special education rules? she wondered. And where will the state legislature's fiscal priorities be -- on public schools or elsewhere?

To discuss and influence the budget before it passes, the League and other groups are already calling for several public meetings.

The PA Budgetwatch Series, focused on budget changes that may affect all nonprofits, will have its first session on March 25, 2-4 p.m. at the Heinz History Center in the Strip District. Featured speakers are Karen Snider, the state's former Secretary of Public Welfare, and Chuck Kolling, a lobbyist and government relations professional for Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney LLC. The Series is sponsored by the United Way of Allegheny County, the Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership, The Forbes Funds, The Pittsburgh Foundation and Dewey & Kaye.

The League of Women Voters has set four gatherings in March, titled "State Funding for Public Education: Progress or Retreat?" and featuring Ron Cowell, president of the Education Policy and Leadership Center and former chair of the state House's Education Committee.

The sole evening meeting (March 15, 5 p.m.) is at Pittsburgh CAPA High School downtown. It includes a light supper and is co-sponsored by a variety of groups, from A+ Schools and the Black Political Empowerment Project to the Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children and the Coro Fellows.

Daytime meetings are March 10, 12:30 p.m., at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library; March 11, 1:30 p.m., at the Squirrel Hill Public Library, and March 16, 10 a.m., at St. John's Lutheran Church in McCandless.

Do Good:
• Lend your voice to a League meeting: For more information, email or call 412-261-4284.
• RSVP for the PA Budgetwatch meetings: Click here by March 11 to register. For more info, click here or call Jason Bernard at 412-434-1335.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Arlene Levy, League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh

Auberle recreation to expand so many groups can play along

Thursday, March 10, 2011
The recreation facilities on Auberle's extensive campus in McKeesport will soon see $1 million in improvements, serving both the social-service agency and many community groups in the surrounding area. The center assists troubled, neglected and often abused children.

State Rep. Mark Gergely helped channel $500,000 in funding from Harrisburg for the project, and Auberle will provide the other $500,000 as well as maintenance funds.

The new rope and challenge courses will be used to help build trust between counselors and kids as part of their therapy, modeled after a similar practice and facilities at West Virginia University's hospital.

The ballfields and gym, already in use for various adult programs, will also be improved, making them even more inviting and useful as recreation sites for local schools, businesses, community groups and medical facilities.

To the grounds will also be added new parking and fresh walking trails and plantings, which are part of Auberle's environmental program, since its 18 acres are a National Wildlife Federation certified wildlife habitat.

"It will be a unique facility for the region," says John Lydon, CEO of Auberle. "When this all fleshes out, it will have an economic development impact."

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: John Lydon, Auberle
Image courtesy of Auberle

Four new universal playgrounds open in Allegheny County

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Three new universal playgrounds have been opened in Allegheny County, with a fourth set to open in Settler's Cabin Park by the end of August.

The playgrounds, located in South Park, White Oak Park, and Harrison Hills Park, are specially designed to meet the needs of children with disabilities, while providing entertainment for children of all abilities.

The playgrounds were opened on July 30 by County Executive Dan Onorato, as part of the County Parks Foundation initiative, a recreation non-profit. The one million dollar playgrounds were designed by GameTime, with their $255,376 Childhood Obesity Grant, along with $600,000 from the Regional Asset District, and an additional $200,000 from the capital budget.

"Allegheny County is proud to offer four more universal playgrounds in our regional parks so children of all capabilities can play side by side. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act this week, we're thrilled to add this new equipment to our parks and continue our efforts to promote accessibility," says Onorato

"They're very colorful and very vibrant. They have ramps wide enough for two wheelchairs to pass each other. There are handlebars in places for a child to get out of their wheelchair if they're able to do so, so they can use the slides," says Megan Dardanell, Allegheny County Deputy Director of Communications.

Construction on the four playgrounds began at the beginning of the summer, following the success of the first universal playgrounds in Boyce Park and North Park last summer.

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Sources: Dan Onorato, County Executive
               Megan Dardanell, County Deputy Director of Communications
Writer: John Farley

College-bound? Your scholarship hunt just got easier with searchable Pittsburgh Foundation site

Thursday, March 10, 2011
There are more scholarships this year than ever before available through The Pittsburgh Foundation -- $2.6 million worth -- and searching for the right ones is more painless than ever.

"We wanted to find an easy way for folks to go in and find scholarships specific to them," says Yvonne Maher, the Foundation's vice president of development and donor services.

Graduating high schoolers and current college or grad school students can search the large variety of offerings at the Foundation, which last year gave scholarships worth $1.7 million to 542 people in Allegheny County (representing 222 different scholarship funds), and another $117,000 to 102 students in Westmoreland County via the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County.

Students are able to search by current high school or future college and field of study. And new scholarships become available all the time, says Maher, often to celebrate a person, place or occupation dear to the donor's heart. The Foundation works to establish standard criteria for these scholarships, where possible, such as GPA or the federal assessment of financial need (FAFSA), and helps donors oversee the application and selection process.

So get started searching now -- most of the scholarships have a March or April deadline. As Maher notes, "Every scholarship is unique."

Do Good:
• Ensure your future: Try the scholarship search site early and often.
• Ensure someone else's future: Set up a scholarship fund to memorialize a memory – and create new ones.
• Donate online: Find the best nonprofit to help in a variety of great causes.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Yvonne Maher, The Pittsburgh Foundation

Sprout's Super Spark grants to light up early childhood education innovations

Thursday, March 10, 2011
The deadline to apply for the second round of the Sprout Fund's Super Spark grants is Dec, 13, just as the projects funded last year are about to take off.

The grants, supported by the Grable Foundation, give up to $50,000 to early childhood learning projects that link kids to age 8 with media and technology. Unlike the Mini-Spark grants, Super Spark requires a team of applicants.

Debuting tomorrow, Dec. 9, at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium is 2009 Super Spark grantee Reefbot, a robotic submersible for kids to steer through the two-story ocean tank, capturing images and using interactive software to identify and learn about its creatures. Last year's other funded project was Isabel's Playground, currently being developed at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University and Ohio-based Southpaw Enterprises, this special inpatient playground for kids with health issues will be embedded with fiber optics and other materials that interact with the children. It is set to open in March, 2011.

Sprout Programs and Communications Associate Ryan Coon says the new focus on connecting children to technology and media emerged this year: "In Pittsburgh, we've got a lot of energy and experimentation going on developing new media, coming from the universities and startups and traditional media. And there's a community of people dedicated to early childhood services. We wanted to bridge those two worlds. They are perhaps farther apart than we thought they were."

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Ryan Coon, The Sprout Fund
Image courtesy The Sprout Fund

Book drive has read on benefiting, creating young writers

Thursday, March 10, 2011
There's still time to donate books to the National Novel Writing Month Book Drive to benefit their free Young Writers Program – even though it's too late to try writing an entire novel in November.

NaNoWriMo (as participants call it) has reached The End this year, so you've missed your chance to pen a bestseller, or at least put 50,000 consecutive words on paper, in a mere 30 days. But the charitable arm of the group behind the annual word marathon, the Office of Letters and Light, is attempting to collect 5,000 books in Pittsburgh alone by Dec. 15 to sell online. The effort will benefit its programs that encourage school kids to attempt fiction and scripts of their own. The Young Writers Program offers everything from downloadable lesson plans to forums for teachers and students – and occasionally the loan of laptops for student use.

Kelly Thomas, local volunteer book-drive coordinator, hopes this will aid both local schools' efforts to increase reading proficiency and the need for top communications skills in the job world.

"Even though this is fiction we're talking about" during NaNoWriMo, says Thomas, "writing in general is one of the most important skills you can have once you finish school and enter the workforce. Every job application I've looked at in the past two years has asked for a candidate who can communicate clearly."

The group has collected n early 2,000 books so far. Donation can be dropped off at Phantom of the Attic in Oakland, Squirrel Hill's 61C Café, Bistro Soul on the North Side and Robert Morris University's Nicholson Center in Moon. Arrange for the pick-up of large loads by contacting Kelly Thomas.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kelly Thomas
Image courtesy Kelly Thomas

Carnegie Science Award winners blast off on another mission to inspire

Thursday, March 10, 2011
John Tucker is the Business Groups President of a $2.5 billion company, Kennametal, that's about to launch an innovative new tooling and coolant product called Beyond Blast on March 1. It took three years to develop, both at company HQ in Latrobe and in India and Europe. Yet he seemed most pumped up about winning a Carnegie Science Award for the product.

"For Kennametal, it was quite an accomplishment," Tucker said before the announcement of Kennametal's Advanced Manufacturing Award at the Center on Feb. 3. "Here in our hometown, to be recognized by the Carnegie Science Center, is an extra-special recognition."

Other awards went to educators and scientists at many levels, including John Pollock of Duquesne University (Special Recognition in Science Education Award), Thad Zaleskiewicz of the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg (University/Post-Secondary Educator Award) and Sara Majetich of Carnegie Mellon University (Emerging Female Scientist Award), as well as Richard Gebrosky of North Allegheny School District (Middle Level Educator Award).

The Catalyst for Science Education Award was given to ASSET Inc., a South Side nonprofit focused on science and math education programs. Last fall they received a $20.2 million U.S. Department of Education grant to establish Regional Professional Development Centers and associated sites throughout the state to help train 450 new teachers in special science curricula over the next five years. Says spokesperson Karen Ahearn: "We're really serving as a model for the nation."

As Carnegie Science Awards co-chair Ron Bailey noted: "Our larger mission is to inspire scientific curiosity in the next generation of leaders."

The awards ceremony is May 6 in the Carnegie Museum in Oakland, with keynote speaker Anousheh Ansari, the first civilian and first Iranian astronaut.

Writer: Marty Levine
Sources: John Tucker, Kennametal; Karen Ahearn, Asset Inc.; Carnegie Science Center
Image courtesy of Carnegie Science Center

Ryan Clark had his dad, Max Starks had his chess teacher – whom can you mentor?

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Steelers safety Ryan Clark says his father was his biggest mentor, teaching him how to do the most important job of all – being a father. For offensive lineman Max Starks, his mentor was the man who taught him chess at the local youth center.

For more than 24,000 local kids last year, the Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania was the key to bringing the right adult into their lives to read to them, or play sports with them, or just to serve as a positive role model. More than two thousand others remain on waiting lists for mentoring programs here.

"And there are thousands more who can benefit from a mentor," says Kristan Allen, director of marketing and communications for the Partnership in the Strip District, which is in the midst of National Mentoring Month. The organization assists about 140 youth-focused groups with starting and maintaining mentoring programs – from offering best practices to recruiting new volunteers (sometimes with videos involving the Steelers).

Those programs include Be a Sixth Grade Mentor, started last year in Pittsburgh Public Schools. Designed to help kids understand how many more options they'll have in life if they stay in school, it places 250 mentors one hour a week with children in many schools. It's been so successful it's being expanded this year to the seventh grade.

If you're interested in being a mentor, but have a limited amount of free time to volunteer, the Mentoring Partnership can still use your help, says Allen, and will happily match your availability, talents and interests to the appropriate local program.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kristan Allen, Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania
Image courtesy Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania

Playpower creates computer games for children in developing countries

Thursday, March 10, 2011
For children in developing countries, educational games that are culturally appropriate and operate on low-cost computers are only too rare.

Playpower hopes to change that. The Project Olympus social venture is developing educational computer games for children in countries such as Africa, India and South America that run on computers that cost as little as $10. The games target STEM skills--science, technology, engineering and math--and are also available on modern platforms such as PCs, smartphones and tablet computers.

Playpower is well on its way to launching several game titles and building a community of more than 500 volunteers for the global effort, explains Derek Lomas, founder and director. The company has received financial support through several grants, including a MacArthur Foundation Grant, and $50,000 from Silicon Valley-based Marvell Semiconductor to develop a STEM game for their Android tablet.

"We realized that the cost of a computer isn't so much a barrier to computer-generated-learning as the lack of software," says Lomas. "We're looking to combine academic research with grant funding to create software titles that we can release on these really low-cost platforms."

Lomas believes providing the games through an open-source and nonprofit model would help to support the distribution of games to those who can't afford them.  Playpower is also a way to slip into the more competitive and profitable gaming space for higher computing platforms, he adds, especially the school market and games that address STEM learning. The company is based at Carnegie Mellon but includes team members in India, NYU, MIT and San Diego.

"We're looking at education as a really global issue that isn't currently being addressed," he says. "There are a lot of issues still to be worked out, but there's a lot of support to do this in Pittsburgh."

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Derek Lomas, Playpower



Amusement park of steel

AOL NEWS Thursday, March 10, 2011
AOL News recently covered Rivers of Steel's $78 million plans to transform the abandoned Carrie Blast Furnace site into an interactive park, where visitors can explore the towering monument to our industrial heritage.  In the past two months, Rivers of Steel has been giving hard hat tours of the sprawling site, and 700 visitors have come out to marvel at this iron giant.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Challenges and joys of a developmentally disabled sister: 'Rachel Is' film screens at Chatham

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The experience of watching the new, locally shot film, Rachel Is, about a family caring for their young, intellectually disabled member, "more than anything can teach us compassion," says Tony Goreczny. "Not just compassion for those with developmental disabilities," he adds, "but for their families and for everyone who has challenges in their daily lives, which is pretty much everyone."

Goreczny is Professor of Counseling Psychology at Chatham University and principal investigator of its state-supported IM4Q program -- Independent Monitoring for Quality -- which studies individuals with developmental disabilities, with the aim of improving their lives. Along with Chatham's Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics, IM4Q is sponsoring a free screening of the film, followed by a panel discussion, on March 15, 6:30 p.m., on the main campus's Eddy Theater.

The documentary is the directing debut of Rachel's sister Charlotte Glynn and shows the family -- including mother Jane Bernstein, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of English and creative writing -- dealing with Rachel's desire for self-sufficiency, even though she cannot fend for herself. Henry J. Simonds, a Chatham Board of Trustees member, is the producer.

What impresses Goreczny about the film, he says, is that "it's real. It follows a young woman and her family in real-life circumstances, the real, daily struggles – and not just the struggles, but the love and care that is there, that family members have for each other." What may be most impressive, he concludes, are the "…insights into the resilience we all need to develop in facing those challenges."

Do Good:
• Attend the screening: For more information, call 412-365-1878 or email.
• Be inspired: Learn more about the film, Rachel and the issue by clicking here.
• Get involved: Find out how you can support the American Network of Community Options and Resources, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of the 800+ organizations that provide services for those with disabilities.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Tony Goreczny, Independent Monitoring for Quality, Chatham University
Image courtesy of Henry J. Simonds

Robots, gems, space, skeletons ... hands-on kids' science from college profs at C-MITES

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Gifted and other high-achieving students aren't always challenged by their everyday school projects, notes Ann Shoplik, director of C-MITES -- the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Talented Elementary and Secondary Students. The program's spring Weekend Workshops bring these students together from all over Allegheny County for such classes as "Build a Robot," "Ice Cream Science," "Inside the Beehive" and "Neuroscience and the Learning Brain." And that's important, Shoplik says, because "research has shown us that gifted students learn better when they are grouped with other gifted students, both academically and socially."

Classes are also fun -- and a rare opportunity for younger children to learn from university professors, in many cases, and use university software, tools and facilities, such as CMU's machine shop and mechanical engineering software.

Robotics class students, for instance, use the Lego Mindstorm robot-building kits but also work with the CMU Robotics Institute professor who has developed the Institute curriculum. "That's not something they can just get out of a box at a toy store," Shoplik notes.

To see available classes, just click on "View classes with openings" on the C-MITES spring course website. Summer programs should be clickable soon on the website as well. C-MITES serves 5,000 kids a year, with additional offerings in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the state.

"There are just a handful of university programs for gifted students in the country," Shoplik notes. "Pittsburgh is lucky to have such a program right here."

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Ann Shoplik, C-MITES
Image courtesy of Ann Shoplik, director of C-MITES

Strong Women, Girls pumps up South Side presence

Thursday, March 10, 2011

A mentoring program for girls is expanding from schools, churches and social agencies to include library sites for the first time in Pittsburgh.

Strong Women, Strong Girls matches college women with elementary girls in an effort to promote success in school and later in life. It has 21 program sites in Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg and Steel Valley. There are sister programs in Boston and Miami, but Pittsburgh is the first to see whether libraries can attract more participants. The new sites for this free, once weekly after-school program include the Carrick and Brookline Carnegie libraries, as well as the Brashear Association, all on the South Side.

"A lot of research tells us that some girls, as they reach their adolescence, shut down on their dreams," says Lynne Garfinkel, head of the Pittsburgh SWSG. "We want to nurture their dreams as much as we can."

The program, which is serving 350 girls in its fourth year here, aims to provide female college-student role models, encouraging the younger girls to pursue higher education and greater career success. It also offers a comfortable space for them to develop their self-esteem, Garfinkel says.

"We're trying to help break the cycle of poverty," especially with women earning less and seemingly avoiding careers based on high performance in math, science and related academic subjects. The fall session ends shortly but resumes in mid- to late January, culminating in an April 9 Jump Into Spring jump-roping event as a kind of graduation.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Lynne Garfinkel, Strong Women, Strong Girls
Image courtesy of Lynne Garfinkel, Strong Women, Strong Girls

Autodesk buys ETC spinout Wild Pockets

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Autodesk, the 3D computer-aided design company, has bought Wild Pockets, formerly Sim Ops Studio, the 3D game platform and spinout of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. 

Wild Pockets founder and CEO Shanna Tellerman declined to comment on the sale at this time, but her  LinkedIn profile lists her job as Product Manager at Autodesk. Several sources confirmed the sale and speculated that Autodesk will maintain the Wild Pockets office in Pittsburgh, which will give the company a presence in Pittsburgh.

Tellerman started  Sim Ops in 2008 with a virtual training tool that helped workers in high-risk occupations. The company later changed its name to Wild Pockets, based on the 3D game development platform that was one of the earliest 3D platforms on the Web 2.0 scene. Wild Pockets is a free web-based game engine that allows anyone to create and share 3D games and media.

The company has an office in San Francisco in addition to its digs on the South Side. Wild Pockets also sponsors the popular Wild Pockets PA Game Jam, which attracts game creators to Pittsburgh from across the country.

Autodesk, based in San Rafael, Calif., makes the gaming tools 3ds Max, Inventor and Maya.

Writer: Deb Smit
Source: VentureBeat, LinkedIn


Mr. Rogers continues to inspire

TAKING NOTE Thursday, March 10, 2011
Though he's been gone eight years, the lessons Fred Rogers taught us still live on. Given the current struggles teachers are facing, John Merrow reflects on the importance of Mr. Rogers to public radio, television and education.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Now hear this: Children's Hospital and Pitt get $8.2 million for quicker ear infection fix

Thursday, March 10, 2011
A quicker ear-infection cure involving less medicine, fewer side effects and a decreased chance of developing antibiotic immunity – that's the aim of an $8.2 million grant awarded to UPMC's Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine by the National Institutes of Health.

Until 2004, children with ear infections were routinely treated with antibiotics but were becoming resistant too often to the medication. Pediatric experts then recommended that doctors hold off on treating kids with uncertain diagnoses and mild symptoms, but the question has not been studied in depth – until now. The new study of 600 patients will see whether physicians can employ half the duration of antibiotics and still cure ear infections, while reducing the number of children developing resistance at the same time.

Alejandro Hoberman, M.D., a professor of pediatrics in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics at Children's Hospital, says Children's and Pitt were among just eight institutions chosen nationwide for such a study this decade.

"The real issue has been, we were not clear under what circumstances [which] is the preferred treatment strategy," says Hoberman. The four-year study is already being designed and should begin accepting patients in October.

Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Alejandro Hoberman, M.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh

Cleveland wants Pittsburgh's promise

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER Thursday, March 10, 2011
Several American cities have launched city-wide scholarship programs in recent years, one of the most famous being the Pittsburgh Promise, which has given 2,200 children the opportunity to attend four-year colleges and boosted high school graduation rates across the city.  Plain Dealer writer, Bren Larkin, wonders why Cleveland hasn't launched a similar initiative.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Girls robotics team hopes to increase interest in engineering

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Move over, boys. The girls will take this one. In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon's Field Robotics Center and PghTech Women Network, Girls of Steel is an all-girls robotics teams.

Made up of 25 girls, they range from grades 9 through 12 in different educational options. Girls of Steel is part of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a national non-profit that strives to help young people discover and develop a passion for technology, science, math and engineering.

"There are a few all-girl FIRST teams, but we're bringing that idea to Pittsburgh," George Kantor, lead mentor for Girls of Steel, says. "FIRST generally is not a girl-specific activity, but there is plenty of room for girls to contribute."

Kantor continues that the mission of the team is not just to make opportunities for girls, but to also inspire an interest in engineering. "I think it's a tough sell, because culturally, engineering is not cool and we're trying hard to make it cool," he adds.

This mission seems to be working, however. Zhimi Ding, Girls of Steel member and a student at The Ellis School, says she now wants to major in engineering. Not to mention the sense of satisfaction that comes along with building robots. "I think the best part is helping me know something that I didn't know about before," Ding says. "When you make a robot or the design by yourself, you feel really happy and proud of yourself"

Girls of Steel participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition kick-off event earlier this month. The girls are now constructing their robot for the Pittsburgh regional competition this March. 

Writer: Alex Audia

Sources: Dr. George Kantor, CMU  Zhimi Ding, Girls of Steel

    
    

Growing Pittsburgh's urban farms

SMART PLANET Thursday, March 10, 2011
Even with many outdated laws, private and commercial farming has been on the rise in the city for over a decade.  In order to ensure this trend continues into the future, The City of Pittsburgh has passed new legislation making it easier to making it easier than ever to own and operate an urban farm or aviary. 

Click here to read the entire article.

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Kansas City looks to Pittsburgh's urban school reform successes

SAVING 17,000 KIDS Thursday, March 10, 2011
Kansas City's Saving 17,000 Kids site recently examined the progress over the last five years in reforming the Pittsburgh public school system.  The story points to some major improvements, spearheaded by Superintendent Mark Roosevelt, such as The Pittsburgh Promise, anti-poverty initiatives, and hikes in literacy achievement.  While Roosevelt's efforts are highly lauded, the story is careful to face the grim realities of education reform, and notes that Kansas City is at the beginning of a long road towards fixing it's scholastic problems.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Robots take center stage at Pittsburgh museum

PhillyBurbs.com Thursday, March 10, 2011
Opening June 13 at the Carnegie Science Center, Roboworld is being touted by as the world's largest permanent robotics exhibition.

The American Association of Museums (AAM), which has a database of past, present and future exhibits at science centers nationwide, says it knows of no other like it, and a representative of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, which has members in 44 countries, said the Pittsburgh exhibit will be unique because of its scale.

One goal of the interactive exhibit is to interest children in robotics, with the hope that they will pursue an education in the field and stay in Pittsburgh to fill hundreds of job openings.

The Pittsburgh area has more than 60 robotics firms and Carnegie Mellon University is internationally renowned for robotics.

Read the complete article about Roboworld here.

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