Learning Unboxed

There’s incredible career potential in the fashion industry, and when you show that to a kid and you show them the variety of careers behind the scenes in the fashion industry, it can get those kids excited to learn. So, today, we’re sitting down with three of the people who are devoted to engaging kids and teaching them about the opportunities in this industry, especially in Columbus: Joe Brim, a...

Jeff is a PAST Teaching and Learning Coach as part of our School Design team and better yet, Jeff is a veteran virtual teacher with tons of experiences, do’s , dont’s and so much more for us to think about to be successful in making this switch.  • How does a teachers thinking need to change as we move quickly into online education? • How does student thinking need to change in response to this ne...

Mary is a PAST Teaching and Learning Coach as part of our School Design team and she gets asked about strategies for collaborative teaching all the time. On this episode we will explore the 5 most frequently asked questions about virtual collaboration in educational settings.   • What does it look like to work collaboratively in a virtual environment? • How will I be able to work with my colleague...

Are you looking for quick and easy tips on how to transition to working remotely? Give a listen to Kat Deaner, a remote working warrior -- after five years working virtually with teams and industries from around the globe Kat has a number of tips to make sure you can quickly and efficiently transition to a fully virtual environment.   • The virtual working environment  • Managing time • Avoiding d...

Sonya Pryor-Jones is the Chief Implementation Officer for The Fab Foundation, an organization with a mission to provide access to the tools, knowledge, and financial means necessary to educate, innovate, and invent using technology and digital fabrication. Their goal is to allow anyone to make (almost) anything, and the impact they’ve made over the past 10 years is powerful. The founders of The Fa...

There’s a common problem that pops up at the intersection of classic art and education: it’s challenging to make those collections accessible to a broad and diverse group of people. Art can feel intimidating to some, even exclusionary, but that really doesn’t have to be the case if we can make these spaces more inviting. Irma de Vries, Senior Staff Member for Families and Children in the Education...

Georgia O'Keeffe is known as the mother of American modernism, but many people don’t know that O'Keeffe was also an educator with a passion for giving back to her community. That’s why the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Sante Fe, New Mexico, provides free educational programs and outreach to youth free of charge — and they’re doing some spectacular things both in their programs and in the...

Today we’re talking about a critical piece of the educational landscape that we haven’t really touched on in previous episodes: how university faculty can leverage their expertise to craft programming that gives back to students and the local community (and, inversely, how teachers can bring effective college programs and faculty into their classrooms). And our guest today has been bridging that g...

BoSTEM is a collaborative effort throughout the City of Boston that aims to ensure that every middle-school student in Boston Public Schools has access to high-quality STEM learning opportunities. Our guests today represent the two organizations that partnered up to start BoSTEM — Julia Kilgore of Boston After School and Beyond and Joe Rosenbaum of United Way — and there’s a lot that just about ev...

There’s no state in our nation that doesn't have some type of transportation issue that they are wrestling with right now. It's a global issue, especially at the rate and pace of change of technology. And there is an amazing opportunity for schools and students to be part of the conversation about these various transportation issues. So, today, we’re talking to someone who is out there, ev...

Have you ever heard a kid ask, “But how will I use this in the real world?” Maybe you even asked that question yourself back in the day? This disconnect creates disengagement for a lot of kids, but that’s just the way these systems were designed — and that’s a big part of the broken system that needs to be changed. Luckily, there are amazing teachers like Angela Forino out there, a third-grade tea...

We are once again on the road this week, this time in Boston, Massachusetts with Marty Klein, president of Martin Klein Consulting. You will find that part of Marty's journey was taking his scientific work and providing an opportunity for public outreach and engagement, taking the real-world science and engineering he's doing and make it relevant to young people. To learn more, visit: past...

On today’s episode of Learning Unboxed we are sharing the story of Calvin Mires and his journey in pursuing his passion: education. We talk about what’s possible, the amazing opportunities out there, and the importance of connection. Calvin shares his experiences in teaching educators and facilitating human growth in innovative and unexpected ways.     Calvin Mires, currently works as Research Ass...

On Learning Unboxed, we like to share case studies of the projects and programs that are revolutionizing education; great new ideas that have already been tested, the lessons that we've learned along the way, and where there are opportunities for other communities to do similar things as they think about education.  On this episode of Learning Unboxed we are sharing the story of an organizatio...

A school is only as good as its teachers, and how we train our teachers is important. Joining us today is Mary Schneider and Erika Reeves to talk about school design at PAST, which is how we integrate the teachers with what they will be doing in the classroom. We also talk about P3 (problems, projects, products), an online course that introduces teachers into creating coursework and using design t...

This year, the PAST Foundation held our 2nd annual Girls Who Lead Summit. The event focused on giving 120 parents and students an opportunity to explore and try out different STEM skills. For this episode, we wanted to highlight some of the participants at this summit to share some of the incredible things they are doing! To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org Resources: Learn more at www.pastfo...

This year, the PAST Foundation held our 2nd annual Girls Who Lead Summit. The event focused on giving 120 parents and students an opportunity to explore and try out different STEM skills. For this episode, we wanted to highlight some of the participants at this summit to share some of the incredible things they are doing! To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org Resources: Learn more at www.pastfo...

Most people are familiar with Girl Scouts, but may not realize what they do today or the wide-spreading impact they have on girls and communities. Tammy Wharton, President and CEO of Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland, talks about their mission to develop girls’ courage, confidence, and character, and how that mission helps move more girls towards STEM and STEAM careers. To learn more, visit: pastfou...

We’re talking with Asis Gonzalez, the Planetarium Coordinator at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, to talk about a Planetarium that isn’t like any you’ve seen before: It travels! The goal is to get people excited about and invested in their surroundings in a way that traditional schoolwork can’t. To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org Resources: Learn more at www.santafechildrensmuseum.org Stargaz...

Today we visit the Buffalo Manufacturing Works with Susan Witt, the STEM Lab Manager for Buffalo Manufacturing Works, and Darius Melvin, an educator who came to Buffalo Manufacturing Works to be the STEM Learning Lab Instructor. We talk about the future of manufacturing work, what that is going to look like for kids, and how we prepare them for it. To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org Resource...

The Works is a museum, but it is also much more than that. It is a place to not just learn but explore for kids, families, and adults — and it’s an active member of the Newark, Ohio, community. Meghan Federer is the STEM Education Director for Middle and High School students at The Works, and she sees herself and the museum as a spark; an opportunity to ignite engagement in history, art, and techn...

Today we are going to talk about additive manufacturing, what some are calling the next industrial revolution. First of all, what exactly is additive manufacturing, and what is so exciting about it? We also talk about the Additive Manufacturing Summer Institute, which was a project between the National Science Foundation ATE Grant Program and Columbus State Community College, the PAST Foundation,...

Joining us today is Jenna McGuire, who is the Associate Director for Translational Data Analytics Institute at The Ohio State University, and Airyana Washington, a student who participated in the data science summer camp program. We talk about data science and what the heck it is. But more importantly, how do we get more young women interested in what data science is about? We also talk about Airy...

Joining us today are Armando Henriquez and Dean Alkire, who are going to talk about the role of university student clubs working with K-12 students and how we can get those young students to actively engage in their own learning in an after school setting. Armando is a fourth-year undergrad in mechanical engineering at the Ohio State University and Dean is an eighth grader at the Metro Early Colle...

We are once again on the road, this time with Bill Manchester. Bill has always hated the idea of wasting kids' time. He didn’t want music class to be seen as a filler class or time waster for students, so he worked hard to make something more out of it. He is passionate about teaching kids not just music, but everything, using the lens of musical performance and production. To learn more, visi...