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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

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

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' 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

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

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

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

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