Weekly Update • 8/28/15

SIG at T4T The School Improvement Grant program held their annual Summer Science Institute for teachers at T4T for the second year running.  About forty teachers from schools all over the district heard talks, met in small groups, and most importantly, did hands-on projects in subjects including: the rock cycle, methods of reproduction, air cannons, and more.  The focus this year was on the paradigm of modeling.  Modeling not just as a standalone project, but integrated into the fabric of education so that we are engaging students and keeping them engaged.  Participants built functional Archimedes screws from discarded tubing, forged metamorphic rock from plastic beads, and did an in-depth investigation of the cup-and-string telephone.  At the end, each teacher was able to select a set of materials to use in their own classroom throughout the coming school year. Instructional videos on some of the SIG projects that were explored at the conference   The Spirit of America Lands at T4T Goodyear was so generous as to donate a large portion of the canvas from their recently retired blimp.  The Spirit of America, headquartered in Carson, was one of two Goodyear blimps in the country, and as part of its retirement ceremony we attended the final docking and held two days of maker workshops for the kids who passed through the airfield.  We were blessed with a large audience as well as an up-close tour of the legendary airship.  The blimps will be replaced by next-generation semi-rigid airships with improved technology.  Check the T4T facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/trashforteaching for updates on when the blimp material will be made available to...

Weekly Update • 7/24/15

Beyond the Bell LA’s premier after-school program sent 15 schools to T4T in 15 days to enrich their summer curriculum.  They built and raced eco-vehicles, erected prodigious towers, and had a blast with a more involved version of the Ultimate Recycling Machine that incorporated a full complement of Rube Goldberg elements. Demenno-Kerdoon Open House California’s largest used motor oil recycling plant hosted an open house to educate the community about their business.  T4T entertained the kids with a Re-Selfies table where participants constructed their faces on poster board out of yarn, beads, fabric, and many other materials.  The experience was enhanced by our talented neighbors at the next booth, who painted intricate super-hero and video game themed masks onto the kids faces, which then showed up prominently in their Re-Selfies.    Ford at Para Los Ninos The automotive giant sponsored a truck-making workshop at the middle school campus of the downtown charter school.  T4T came fully prepared, thanks to a killer design by volunteer Noe Zelaya and fabrication by our master craftsman Tito Guillen, with pre-assembled frames and body pieces.  Ford employees worked with the kids to assemble the core elements, then helped them realize their visions for the vehicles.  Although everyone started with the same model, each group branched off in a completely different direction, and we were amazed by the creativity of the final products. El Monte Concert Series T4T squeezed into a packed house at Arceo Park in El Monte to provide an Ultimate Recycling sideshow to the summer concert series.  We were grateful to be flooded with participants of all ages.  They embraced the spirit...

Weekly Update • 5/8/15

Latest STEAM Labs Our STEAM Lab initiative has been ramping up in recent months, with classrooms completely redesigned in Wright Middle School STEAM Magnet (Westchester), Washington Irving Middle School (Northeast LA), Sun Valley Middle School (Sun Valley), and El Portal Elementary School (La Habra).  Children ages 8 through 14 have now have had the experience of designing and constructing a lab of their own, to be used throughout the rest of their time in the school.  Each lab has a look and feel suited to the school and the age range of the students, and boasts the best materials T4T has to offer. Earth Day We were fortunate enough to be booked solid for the week of Earth Day, with schools and communities reaching out to us for eco-inspiration.  We brought the ‘Re-Selfie’ self-portrait activity to the employees of Sony Studios and Fox Studios in Culver City for their Earth Day fairs; had the Crossroads students of Santa Monica envision and prototype a project of their choice to help the Earth; and facilitated ramp- and tower-building for Science Nights at Pacific and El Rincon Elementary Schools.  We were truly grateful to have the chance to interact with so many eager children (and parents) in one week of activity. BOOST Conference The Best Out Of School Time Collaborative has an annual conference in Palm Springs, and this year Trash for Teaching decided to be an exhibitor.  Our executive director, director of creative programming, and even one of our board members attended and got to meet so many contributors to best practices in after-school programming.  We showcased our NASA B.E.S.T. Cart...

Weekly Update • 3/18/15

LAUSD Science & Engineering Fair We attended the district science fair for middle and high school hosted by Horace Mann Middle School.  The first day, we helped judge the engineering projects, which were very impressive: several robots made with completely different materials and with different purposes, ranging from a drawing robot made from a french fry tray, to a walking K’nex dinosaur robot.  First prize was taken by a magnetic clutch made completely from scrap materials.  The next day, we occupied one of the rooms and showed a presentation to fair participants and their parents.   Nonprofit Management Conference Mindy attended this conference a few weeks ago, which was put together by the Fullerton Collaborative and hosted at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center.  A small group of about 40 people convened to learn about funding opportunities, best practices, and trends in nonprofit management.  It was a great networking opportunity and exciting to learn of the good work that is being done by Orange County nonprofits.   Curtis School Sixth-graders mentored their kindergartener schoolmates to construct impressive towers entirely from T4T materials and with no adhesives.  Each group’s tower had to stand on a 12” by 12” sheet of poster board and undergo an exacting wind test performed by an authorized adult.  In the face of these challenges, many of the towers did not even budge under “hurricane-force” winds, and some reached a height of four feet or more!   Los Nietos Middle School Phibro-Tech, a chemical engineering company, sponsored a hands-on engineering day at Los Nietos Middle School as a way to give back to the community.  Mindy and Isai...

Weekly Update • 3/13/15

DIY Valentines T4T paid our respects to Saint Valentine by hosting a card-making workshop on February 14th.  Attendees started with our heart-shaped box tops and added embellishments to perfect their creations.  The many thousands of beads, flowers, and other supplies we received from the liquidation of Berger Beads Co. made this occasion a rousing success! Mardi Gras for Autism T4T joined the Fullerton Cares foundation on a blazing Saturday morning to entertain children across the autism spectrum and their families.  Our Ultimate Recycling Machine tent was so crowded at one point that we had to institute a waiting line.  On the plus side, we didn’t have time to tear everything down between groups, so one family would sometimes start from the last one’s creation and improve upon it, making for some very sturdy and sophisticated contraptions.        Chadwick School The Chadwick kindergarteners showed up at our warehouse for a day of eco-vehicle construction.  Despite the large number of adult chaperones, it was all hands on deck to keep up with all the hot-gluing, sawing, and other after-market modifications to the hot rods these kids came up with.  It’s tempting for us to open up a body shop using free child labor, but we think we’ll stick with our original mission statement for now. Sun Valley Middle School T4T was a proud participant in Engineering Week at Sun Valley’s STEM magnet school.  Our director of programming ran a professional development session the week prior to give participating teachers the low-down on catapults and allow them to try constructing them from our materials.  On the day of the event,...

Weekly Update • 2/24/15

Wilshire Boulevard Temple In the Jewish faith, Tu B’Shevat is the “new year for trees”, the beginning of a new fruit-bearing spring in the land of Israel. T4T celebrated Tu B’Shevat with high schoolers at the Olympic Boulevard temple by having them design devices to help conserve the environment. In the span of an hour, plastic lenses became solar panels, felt strips became panes of a wind turbine, and bouquet holders became water filtration systems as the students illustrated and then shared their myriad ways of saving planet Earth. Cleveland Elementary School We broke out the cardboard tubes for Science Night at Cleveland Elementary, where the children graciously overcame their parents’ obstacles in engineering to erect ramps to transport ping pong balls across the room. The heights got more precarious and the methods of attachment more ingenious as the night wore on. Needless to say, there were a few spectacular crashes, but nothing that the tenacity of our participants couldn’t take in stride. Corporate Team-Building @ T4T The T4T warehouse hosted one half-day team-building session each for the Mattel toy company’s design team and Republic Services waste management company In addition to hosting departmental meetings in our spacious and inspiring warehouse, participants got their creative juices flowing by participating in some of our classic T4T hands-on activities. Mattel employees had fun making homemade cards for their ‘secret valentines’ and Republic employees had a ball building the tallest, sturdiest tower out of ‘junk’ in our warehouse. Everyone left with tangible – and hopefully long-lasting – tokens of inspiration and education.       4th Annual Early Childhood STEM Conference T4T...

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