Learning Unboxed

One of the best ways to empower students with the life skills they’ll need as adults is to entrust them with solving challenging, real-world problems. Now imagine being able to pay them for those problems. That’s the reality of the Smart Skills Program here at PAST—all about creative, innovative ways to think about workforce development. Smart Skills is a six-week program over the summer, a career...

We believe kids learn best through experience. But what happens when we start holding our young ones back in a misguided attempt at keeping them safe? Gever Tulley is the co-founder of Tinkering School which came about in 2005. It gives kids the opportunity to prove how capable they are by supplying them with the tools to solve real-world problems and watching them make mistakes, learn, and build...

Anyone will tell you: Teaching is hard. But when we have teachers who are good at their jobs but are feeling that struggle, how can they overcome that hurdle and go on to have long, joyous teaching careers? Bill Manchester is an old friend of Learning Unboxed. We met with him and his students back in episode 34, Engineering Creativity Through Music. If you happened to miss that one, we’ll catch yo...

When we can use entertaining games as amazing educational tools, everyone wins. It’s clear that the game of chess can lead to some stellar learning opportunities, but what's not always obvious is how to get kids interested in it at all. Elliott Neff is the founder and CEO of Chess4Life, a platform that teaches kids critical thinking skills, problem-solving, EQ, and other important life skills...

When we spoke to members of The Willowell Foundation, Jen Olson & Tasha Ball, about the Wren’s Nest, we realized there’s so much more to this story that needs to be explored. How we contextualize our relationship with nature is so important, and getting kids interested in it at the ground level may have far-reaching implications. Matt Schlein is the founder and director of The Walden Project a...

There’s a lot to learn by taking the time to understand things that kids are invested in, even if it doesn’t seem to relate to education. Take esports, for instance: Could this thing that so many adults pass off as a waste of time actually teach our kids valuable life skills? North American Scholastic Esports Foundation (NASEF) is the world’s first academic approach to esports, providing opportuni...

In previous parts of Hacking School, we’ve taken a look at our education system, the role it’s played, and what could happen if we allow ourselves to imagine other possibilities. Change is difficult—especially getting started—and once you’ve decided to make a change, picking a direction to go in can be even harder. We’re joined by August Majtenyi, a member of PAST’s research team, to have a conver...

If the role of school is to prepare students for their adult lives, then academics are only a part of what they need to learn. We’re going to look at an innovative program that is working hard to bring SEL (social emotional learning) to the forefront of our thinking as we look at transforming our school structure. Bridget Durkan Laird is the chief executive officer at Wings for Kids, an organizati...

We’re speaking to a number of people from one of Ohio’s leading STEM schools, the National Inventors Hall of Fame School, including Sam Crews, a founding teacher at the school with over 20 years of experience in schools. Joining him are two former students, Mar Lin and Camryn Woodley. They share their learning experiences at the National Inventors Hall of Fame School and how what they learned ther...

Many schools are excited by the idea of collaborative maker spaces, putting large amounts of funding into getting them built. But once those spaces have been built they start to struggle. What do we do with these spaces to make them a success? Nikil Ragav is the founder and CEO of inventXYZ, a program devoted to bringing high-tech, hands-on education to students everywhere by setting up maker work...

With a wicked problem in mind, choosing relevant issues tied to a school, a community partnership, technical apprenticeship, or continuing education reveals many paths that lead down numerous avenues of inquiry—all relating back to the issues at hand. Sustainability, world health, and local environments are larger issues with multiple facets, with the potential to generate years’ worth of projects...

Education starts from the moment we take our first breath, but we often only give it our full attention as kids get closer to their careers. Today we’re going to be talking about our littlest learners and how to prepare them for further education and their futures. Willowell Foundation’s “Wren’s Nest” program, a holistic, interdisciplinary, and sensory-based approach to learning, and a companion p...

Original summarization of the episode. Greet the reader and/or introduce the guest. Preview the person’s area of expertise, qualifications, accomplishments, or hook for being on the show. One sentence to connect relevant subject matter to the audience. Consider finishing with a list rounding out other included topics. Quick sign-off CTA. Educational, open-minded tone. Part of our core philosophy a...

There’s a severe disconnect between the preparation of students coming out of K-12 education and career success. Though the founders of the PAST Foundation each came from diverse areas of science, they each found they were seeing the same problem in students and young employees who worked in their labs: As intelligent as they were, when it came down to rolling up their sleeves and working there we...

Shawn Young is the co-founder and CEO of Classcraft, an innovative platform that helps educators make learning meaningful and motivate students through gamification. SInce its launch, Classcraft has had an incredible impact, with over 10 million students making use of the platform. He has a background in teaching himself, and in fact built Classcraft to meet the needs of his own classroom before i...

One of the main goals of education is to prepare our kids for the future, and that often means preparing them for a career. A great way to do that is through internships, capstones, and mentoring programs. Erika Reeves is the Bodies Early College Experience Coordinator at Metro Early College High School, who we’ve spoken with on the podcast before. She’s joined by a student, Shirish Parasa, who ha...

In this special issue of Learning Unboxed, we are kicking off a multi-part series we call “Hacking School.” The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, while awful in its own right, brought to light several long-standing issues in the education system—specifically when it comes to equity, technology, and pedagogy. We’ve come to understand that the current system does not prepare students adequ...

Art is such a powerful way to expand our creativity and explore unique ways of thinking, but the traditional art world can be uninspiring to outsiders and limiting to the artists themselves. Thankfully, people like Allyson Lupovich mean to change that. Allyson is the Director of Brand Content for Meow Wolf, an immersive art experience company in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their goal is to inspire creat...

High school internship programs can be a fabulous experience for students and, when done well, are incredibly productive for all parties involved. Internships can run from work-based experiences to being fully embedded in a workplace. Tammy Cooper has been the internship coordinator at the Marysville Early College STEM School for the past five years. She talks about some of the benefits of interns...

Travel is a wonderful thing, and so much learning can happen while doing it. Creating opportunities for learning takes a lot of work however, and it isn’t always accessible. How can we make it easy for anyone to learn as they travel? That’s the goal of the Smithsonian Adventure Labs. Anne-Marie Gilliland a volunteer organizer at the Smithsonian Castle. Adventure Labs is an app based on the idea of...

How do we get our kids through childhood and teenage years to adulthood? The world is changing rapidly, and that’s leaving young adults with having to make important decisions about their future—without knowing if the advice that worked for their parents, or even their peers, will work for them in the future. Things like whether or not college is necessary, what jobs will be around in the next fiv...

How do we create good stewards of Mother Nature from a young age and give our kids a well-rounded education—while having fun? Jessica Kaknevicius is the Vice President of Education at Sustainable Forestry Initiative where she leads the initiative to advance environmental literacy, stewardship, and pathways to green careers. She also leads and directs Project Learning Tree. Sustainable Forestry Ini...

Food is essential to our lives, but kids rarely get a chance to understand where it comes from – or how to participate in the process. Jim Bruner is the farmer extraordinaire at the Mezzacello, an urban farm in the middle of downtown Columbus which hosts programs that expose local kids to urban farming. We discuss how last year’s events went and what lessons he’s learned that will be applied as th...

When given trust and resources, students can do some incredible things. One Stone is a student-led and directed nonprofit that makes students better leaders and the world a better place. Through allowing students to pursue their passions and interests, they learn to become more confident, empowered, and self-sufficient. Jesse Ross is the director of senior partnerships at One Stone. He’s joined by...

Elly Blanco-Rowe is an expert in K-8 mathematics, with over 20 years of experience in teaching, coaching, and school leadership. We’re talking about Teaching Matters, a national New York City-based nonprofit whose mission is to close the opportunity gap of a radically unequal education system for underserved and historically marginalized children. We take a look specifically at their Math Accelera...