Press Releases

RAFT and Citizen Schools partners on a pilot project to evaluate effectiveness of RAFT Activity Kits

6th and 7th Graders having fun while learning with the RAFT Owl Pellet Activity Kit

San Jose, Calif. – Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT) and Citizen Schools are collaborating on a ten-week pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of ’Hands-On’ activities in after school STEM education through December 13th, 2011. The students from Kennedy Middle School and Mc Kinley Institute of Technology in Redwood City  will use a variety of projects from dissecting ‘owl pellets’ to learning about water absorption in plants in the two STEM apprenticeships – ‘CSI: Kennedy,’ and ‘Don’t Pave My Bay, Bro!’. The two programs focus on forensic sciences and environmental awareness respectively.

The Citizen Schools program instructors, Benjamin Arnold and Daniel Chang use RAFT Activity Kits and RAFT’s repurposed materials to introduce middle-schoolers to exciting real world project simulations. During the past weeks, students used RAFT materials to understand concepts on DNA modeling, artificial blood and footprint casting, while Daniel Chang used RAFT’s Shake Table Activity Kit to model wet soil, among the many other activities. Benjamin Arnold says, “Students became investigators in their “CSI” apprenticeship, solving different hypothetical crimes by gathering evidence by using RAFT activities!”

Both the groups will present their results at a ‘WOW Event’ on December 13th. Attendees get to unravel a crime using RAFT Activity Kits to gather the clues while students in the ‘Don’t Pave my Bay, Bro!’ program will present their findings in a science-fair setting.

Middlle-schoolers explore heating and cooking with the RAFT Solar Cone Cooker Activity Kit

Daniel Chang describes the importance of RAFT’s ‘Hands-On’ Activity Kits, “The students will showcase their learning, demonstrate the power of RAFT Activity Kits, and highlight the resourcefulness of RAFT for teachers. The attendees will be impressed by our students’ creative use of RAFT Activity Kits using commonly found materials in their presentations.”

Adds Greg Brown, Education Director at RAFT, “RAFT and Citizen Schools are perfect partners because our goals are so closely aligned.  We both work to bring real-world experiences into the classroom.  RAFT ‘Hands-On’ Activity Kits, in the hands of Citizen School instructors, create powerful opportunities for real-world learning.”

RAFT makes it easy to “go green”– reusing everything from bottle caps and bubble wrap to discarded wood or foam packaging — and they become part of Science, math or Art activities.  RAFT also provides training and professional development for Bay Area educators, ensuring that they’re ready to connect and leverage the creative use of Activity Kits in the classroom while teaching to state standards.

Citizen Schools is an expanded learning time initiative that partners with middle schools to provide a longer school day. With Citizen Schools, students program their own video games, or redesign buildings with a local architect, or investigate a forensic mystery using basic chemistry – all the while bringing relevance to their education.

RAFT to provide prototyping resources for upcoming Big Ideas Fest Action Collabs

San Jose, CA (November 29, 2011) – “Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem.” – Brian W. Aldiss

Martha Kanter, Under Secretary U.S. Department of Education - one of the speakers at the 2011 Big Ideas Fest

Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT) and Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) join hands to focus on transformational change in K-20 education at the annual Big Ideas Fest, December 4th-7th, 2011. The conference gathers top minds, from innovators, speakers, students, to people from foundations and text-book companies, to share their work and ideas in an environment that encourages risk-taking and overall imagining of the impossible.

Big Ideas Fest’s unique format includes RapidFire talks from leading innovators like Martha Kanter, Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Danny Hillis, Chairman and Co-founder, Applied Minds and Georgette Yakman, Founder, STEAM Education; interactive networking with education’s movers and shakers; and Action Collabs which are design-thinking labs that engage groups to brainstorm, prototype, and ultimately create scalable solutions to cumbersome issues in education.

A Big Ideas Fest attendee at the last year's event holding up a model made out of RAFT materials.

Greg Brown, Director of Education at RAFT, will facilitate a multi-day Action Collab at this year’s Big Ideas Fest. According to Greg, the Action Collabs protocol is very similar to the creative product development process used every day at RAFT. “The same hands-on approach will enable Big Ideas Fest participants to create and test ideas quickly, and will open the door for exciting products to emerge. I’m confident we will see some powerful and practical solutions come out of these sessions.”

Since its inception, RAFT has focused on helping educators transform a child’s learning experience through ‘hands-on’ education that inspires the joy and discovery of learning. By partnering with Big Ideas Fest, RAFT is further strengthening this focus.

RAFT has also donated the materials for the Action Collabs prototyping sessions this year. Megan Simmons, ISKME Education Program Director, adds, “I’ve been a RAFT fan even before I became the Education Program Manager at ISKME. The materials are awesome at RAFT! I really appreciate how many resources RAFT provides educators. We are very excited to partner with RAFT for the Big Ideas Fest Action Collabs.”

The conference is held at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Half Moon Bay, CA. For more information, please visit www.bigideasfest.org