Luke Van Meter Public Feed

Wednesdays@TFI Program Wins National Prize

Posted by Luke Van Meter on
The Wednesdays@TFI program, created by The Franklin Institute specifically for SLA, recently won 2nd place nationally in the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) Design Learning Challenge. The prize was awarded to school and museum programs that effectively integrated design thinking into K-12 curricula. In this unit, planned by Franklin Institute staff and the very creative Phil Holcombe at PlusUs (a design and education consultancy), one group of students was tasked with choosing an interesting area of STEM and teaching it through an exhibit of their own design. They worked with The Franklin Institute's exhibit design/prototyping team and went behind the scenes to see how it's done. Through successive iterations of inquiry and research, the students created new exhibit concepts and prototypes, and presented their ideas to the exhibit design/prototyping team for feedback. 
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SLA Students Transform TFI Recycling System

Posted by Luke Van Meter on
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After conducting a waste audit of the Franklin Institute in February, a group of 15 SLA freshmen presented their findings to both the Manager and the Director of Operations. When the students received the endorsement of Waste Management Corporation in March, and presented their recommendations at the NJ/PA Sustainability Symposium, the Museum staff agreed to make some changes. The students worked with Waste Management to secure new recycling bins, some of which are pictured above. On Thursday, the students chose strategic placements for the bins in order to maximize public compliance. On their behalf, Waste Management recommended to TFI management that a new system be used to differentiate trash from recycling in the Museum's processing facility. The student group will propose next steps to the entire Franklin Institute staff, including senior management, at a keynote in September. These steps may include an educational program, a PSA, and/or other ways to ensure that the Museum's roughly 1,000,000 annual visitors handle their waste responsibly.

Music and Science Collide at SLA

Posted by Luke Van Meter on
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DSCN4794

Stephon Alexander, an internationally known physicist, and accomplished jazz saxophonist, visited SLA earlier this month as a guest of The Franklin Institute to share his vision of how science and music are really one. The talk focused on cosmology and quantum mechanics, which he related to sound through the wave phenomena present in both, and through the physics of sound in everyday music. Dr. Alexander also took the science of music to a new level, exploring geometric patterns in saxophone improvisation. He illustrated his points using his saxophone - and at the end, gave an improvised jazz performance.

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DSCN4862
Dr. Alexander has been featured on PBS's "Nova" for "The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers" and has collaborated with Will Calhoun, the two-time Grammy-winning drummer from the band "Living Color." He recently won the National Science Foundation Career Award and was elected a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. Born in Trinidad, Stephon grew up in the Bronx, and is now Associate Professor of Physics at Haverford College, Assistant Professor of Physics at Penn State, and is beginning a new tenure at Dartmouth College.  
"Music is a wonderful device to communicate the beauty of physics. Matter isn't a boring, dead, solid thing. It's vibrating energy that maintains its consistency through resonating, just like a unified harmonious orchestra playing. I like to demystify the Big Bang by breaking it down in terms of sound. By connecting physics with music, I want to inspire young people and open their eyes to new possibilities."

-- Dr. Stephon Alexander

Learning Computer Programming at The Franklin

Posted by Luke Van Meter on
Scratch_Cat

In one of the Fall mini-courses at the Franklin Institute, 20 freshman SLA students learned to computer program in Scratch. The workshop was led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Deborah Fields from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Some of the best students completed by these junior programmers are shown below. We're very proud of their creative work! 

Cooking Popcorn
By Jian Zhang


Yoü and I
By Enthony Chhin and Jamira Carter

Christmas Scratch Project
By Jaime Christmas

Scratch Project Final - Choose Your Own Character
By Traevon Gray

Running Across the Boardwalk
By Jasmine Nieves

Bored Funny Me
by Betty Louis

Robot
By Naihema Powell

SLA Students Starting their own Businesses

Posted by Luke Van Meter on
Students in the Individualized Learning Plan (ILP), "Startup Corps" spent the year developing their own businesses and organizations from scratch.
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StartUpCorps-271-M
Michael Sanders, above, worked with seasoned entrepreneurs to develop his idea of a babysitting substitute: a place where parents can go for an outing, with a separate area for monitoring children.  His business is not open yet, but he's planning to complete his vision in the years to come.
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StartUpCorps-291-M
​Rashaun Williams (left) and Anthony Torrance (right) started a non-profit called "Fresh Philly," whose mission it is to make the city of Philadelphia a more beautiful place.  They've organized volunteers to complete neighborhood cleanups and garbage sweeps, and also have collaborated with other local non-profits.  Rashaun Williams was awarded the First Niagara Scholarship in the amount of $2,500 for his incredible progress and commitment to the program and his community. 
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StartUpCorps-218-Ti
​Gisela Giolafina, above, worked with her community church to raise over $15,000 to start a community space for South Philadelphia children and adolescents.  The goal of this project is to create better outcomes for young Philadelphians by providing them with a safe, productive environment for after school hours.
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StartUpCorps-207-M
​Tenzin Ngawang used graphic design software to design her own line of bumper stickers.  She sold these at school and donated the profits to Red Cross disaster relief in Japan.
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StartUpCorps-180-M
​Blase Biello started a mobile application development business, called BLOxAPPS, which already has iOS and Android apps on the market, bringing in a profit.  Search the Android Market for BLOxAPPS to see his work.
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StartUpCorps-144-M
​Elona Myftaraj (front) and Newon Dennis (back) collaborated to create a fashion line called "Enticing."  Newon was responsible for the designs, while Elona managed production.  They worked together on marketing strategies and accounting.  Elona and Newon were awarded the Pierce Scholar of the Year Award for their business and were presented with $500 to invest in its future.
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StartUpCorps-327-M
The Startup Corps Individualized Learning Plan (ILP)

SLA Freshmen Featured on MIT's Scratch Website!

Posted by Luke Van Meter on
​Sean Force, Roger Bracy, Kenny Le & Eric Loth designed the following game: ​http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/SCForce/1632135

Sean McAninich and Daniel Tuveson designed the following game:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/gokuen/1545112

Both of these were featured on the front page of MIT's Scratch Website!!!!

Congrats to these 6 students, and thanks to Debbie Fields and Yasmin Kafai from UPenn for providing this opportunity!
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