The Spark blog is a collection of news stories and interesting web items related to children, media & technology.
Micro Spark Project Manager Deren Guler passes along the following invitation to join Kid Power Week, a summer camp of RePlayMyPlay, the Micro Spark supported project to design and construct energy harvesting playground equipment.
See the flyer below for more details or contact Deren by email.
Micro Spark project RePlayMyPlay, an energy harvesting playground, is in the spotlight on Carnegie Mellon University’s homepage.
RePlayMyPlay project manager Deren Guler, a recent graduate of CMU’s Physics department, shares some of her thinking behind the creation and ongoing development of RePlayMyPlay and the gratification that comes from introducing children to new concepts:
“The best thing is the look that comes over kids’ faces when I explain to them what I am doing,” said Guler, who has long held an interest in renewable energy technology. “They almost instantly understand what’s going on. That makes me feel like I’ve succeeded in finding a way to get kids excited about learning concepts that might otherwise seem too complicated for them to understand.”
Deren won a Micro Spark award to support the early development of RePlayMyPlay and continues to work closely with Sprout and her community partners to find a permanent home for the project.
You can meet Deren and interact with some of her RePlayMyPlay designs at Sprout’s exhibit at the WYEP Summer Music Festival in Schenley Plaza in Oakland on Friday, June 25 from 4 to 8pm.
Three recently supported Micro Spark projects will be featured on The Saturday Light Brigade this Saturday, June 12 at 9am.
SLB host and previously funded Micro Spark project manager Larry Berger will get the background story on new Micro Spark projects in interviews with these project managers :
The Saturday Light Brigade uses radio and audio to encourage, amplify, share and archive the ideas, stories, and feelings of children, youth and families. What a perfect match for your Spark project! Locally, SLB is broadcast on 88.3 WRCT FM.
Thanks to Larry and Jeff and everyone else at SLB for welcoming Sprout on the air!
Tune in to Saturday Light Brigade 6am to 12pm every Saturday.
RePlayMyPlay, a Micro Spark project led by Deren Guler, has been named a finalist in the KaBOOM! Promote Your Project Design Contest. Deren’s design is in competition with playgrounds from around the country for equipment grants worth up to $5,000. Congratulations Deren on making it this far!
Awards are made by public ballot and the three projects that receive the most votes will win. RePlayMyPlay is close behind the current top three designs and Deren needs your help to raise her project into contention.
So head over to Kaboom, sign up for a free account, and vote for RePlayMyPlay!
Be sure to spread the word along to anyone you think might be interested!
Sprout will host an information session for all interested Spark applicants on Saturday, May 22, 2010 from 9:00-11:00AM at the Waffle Shop in East Liberty.
Join us, over yummy waffles, to learn more about Spark and begin working on an application in time for the June 4, 2010 submission deadline. This is a chance to meet with program staff, receive feedback on your proposal idea, and workshop your application.
The Micro Spark funding program awards grants of up to $15,000 to projects that engage children ages birth to eight in the creative use of technology and media.
Visit spark.sproutfund.org to download all application materials and learn more about applying for Spark support.
Saturday, May 22nd
9:00 to 11:00 AM
Waffle Shop
124 Highland Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
RSVP Today! Email spark@sproutfund.org or call 412 325-0646.
On Saturday, March 20th, Sprout’s Funding Programs Manager Mac Howison joined host Larry Berger on the Saturday Light Brigade to discuss Spark grant opportunities and recently funded projects.
Joining Mac on the show were Micro Spark award winners Joe Wos of the Toonseum, and Deren Guler from RePlayMyPlay. Joe and Deren, as well as Larry and Jeff from SLB’s Story Box project, were among the several Spark-supported projects on display at the Fred Forward Innovation Showcase at The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
You can listen to the show on Saturday Light Brigade’s Neighborhood Voices website.
Thanks again to our friends at the Saturday Light Brigade and the Children’s Museum, as well as our Micro Spark project managers for taking time to share their stories.
Come see the Fred Forward Innovation Showcase featuring 4 Spark-funded projects this weekend at The Children’s Museum!
Join Sprout from 12 noon—4 pm on Saturday March 20 and Sunday March 21 for this special one-time-only Innovation Showcase demonstrating some of our region’s most unique and creative applications of technology to learning.
Sponsored by The Fred Rogers Center, in partnership with the Children’s Museum and the Kids+Creativity Group, the showcase features four Micro Spark projects including Message From Me, RePlayMyPlay, Out of the Box and Onto the Wall, and The Storybox Project.
Sprout Staff will be on hand during the Showcase both days to help answer questions about the Spark program and projects. Spark and The Sprout Fund will also be highlighted on the Saturday Light Brigade during the 11 am-12 noon hour on WRCT 88.3 FM with live interviews, commentary, and music.
Where: The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, 10 Children’s Way, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
When: 12 to 4 pm, Saturday March 20 and Sunday March 21
Cost: Free Admission to the Innovation Showcase.
Parking: Museum parking in the Museum lot is $3 for members, $5 for nonmembers.
Also on from 12 to 4pm on Sunday, March 21, there will be another public innovation showcase at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, where cutting-edge technology for early childhood learning will be on display.
Our friends at the Environmental Charter School near Frick Park in Pittsburgh’s Regent Square neighborhood are hosting “an evening of interactive playground exploration,” on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 7:00 PM.
In addition to screening a short documentary about Pittsburgh playgrounds, visitors can participate in hands on activities including:
- Where We Play and What We Play With – An artistic exercise that challenges participants to draw their favorite place to play or item to play with. Photos will also be accepted and added to a large wall mural.
- Designing a Playground – A photo display of play spaces from around the city and the world that invites participates to observe and design a blueprint for their dream play space.
- Constructing a Playground – After observing the kindergarten’s model play spaces, participants can then use recycled and re-purposed materials to create their own model.
It’s great to see more community discussion on the topic of play, a theme Spark is exploring through Show & Tell, the Spark Creative Challenge that invites people to share images, stories, and recordings of how kids play in Kidsburgh.
We hope you’ll attend this exciting event at Environmental Charter School and then add your voice to this important regional discussion!
Environmental Charter School is located at 829 Milton Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15218. For more information, call 412-247-7970.
Hope to see you there!
The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is looking for young photographers to represent the Pittsburgh region and the United States for the International Heritage Photographic Experience, (IHPE), an enormous project involving 200,000 in 66 countries spanning across 4 continents.
Interpreting the theme of heritage in the broadest possible sense, young photographers have captured nearly 1.3 million photographs celebrating the uniqueness of their home regions. Now is your chance to participate as Pittsburgh has been invited to represent the U.S. as the first and only American entrant.
Winners receive a trip to the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, France to present live and print exhibitions of their work. More information and entry instructions can be found on the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh website.
This is a great opportunity for everyone who has been capturing their world as part of the ongoing Spark Creative Challenge Show & Tell and we hope it will inspire the children and youth of Pittsburgh to take a creative view of their hometown.
Starting this Saturday, January 30, 2010, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh opens a new exhibit celebrating all things Pittsburgh with hands-on activities that let kids repair one of the city’s renowned bridges, design their own fireworks display, create new Pittsburghese phrases, invent a wacky sandwich … and much more!
The weekend-long activities include featured programming from the Toonseum’s Joe Wos who will be debuting his recently supported Micro Spark project Out of the Box and Onto the Wall — a radical new interactive experience that transforms YOU into a famous Pittsburgher.
Don’t miss it! The exhibition runs from 10:00AM to 5:00PM both Saturday and Sunday.
PS – Share your very own play experiences with us at Show & Tell, the Spark Creative Challenge. We’re looking for stories, photos, videos, audio recordings, drawings, anything about kids and play. It’s easy and it’s fun so don’t delay — Visit SparkCreativeChallenge.org today!
