1 | 2 | 3 | BACK TO INTRO
Friday, July 15, 2011 — H.S. Students In UNH Project SMART To Launch "Satellite" DURHAM, NH: A handful of high school students hope to make history of a sort next Monday (July 18, 2011) when a cardboard and Styrofoam vehicle they built glides back to Earth following a 90-minute balloon ride up to the edge of outer space to gather data on cosmic rays. The launch will occur at 9 a.m. from the Vermont Agricultural Business Education Center in Brattleboro.
The dish-shaped one-of-a-kind reentry vehicle - one meter in diameter and weighing under two kilograms, the Federal Aviation Administration limit – will carry a payload of a miniscule Geiger counter, two temperature sensors, and two video cameras about the size of a pack of gum. During the flight the students hope to obtain real-time measurements of changing levels of cosmic rays and atmospheric temperatures. The video images, should all go according to plan, will show the balloon bursting (under pressure) at 100,000 feet, the curvature of the Earth, and the blackness of outer space.
The experiment is part of their four-week Project SMART (Science and Mathematics Achievement through Research Training) summer residential program at the University of New Hampshire, which concludes next week. The program, now in its 21st year, is designed to help spur upper-class high school students into careers in science and mathematics. Students work with faculty in three disciplinary modules - space science, marine and environmental science, and bio- and nanotechnology.
For FULL STORY, go to: the University of New Hampshire, 7/15/11 http://unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2011/jul/ds15launch.cfm
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 — Jobless Youth Get Summer Lift at Bicycle Works. CHICAGO, IL: The New York Times reports that on Chicago’s South Side, the mix of heat, humidity and joblessness can weigh on teenagers like 19-year-old Marcus Cammon. But Marcus was keeping busy, mending the battered bones of an old Schwinn 10-speed bicycle. “I’ve revived the bike with a wheel adjustment and a new seat,” said Marcus, one of 140 novice mechanics at Blackstone Bicycle Works, a youth program in the Woodlawn neighborhood that tries to help keep young men and women off the streets this summer.
They learn skills like repairing a flat tire, working on a team and helping customers. … Programs like Blackstone’s are aimed toward those who face the hardest time finding jobs — black teenagers from low-income families. For example, 15 percent of black teenagers were employed in the summer of 2010, Mr. McLaughlin said, while 32 percent of white teenagers were. His research shows that teenagers from families with a household income of less than $20,000 are those most likely to be unemployed. “It is counterintuitive to what you might think,” he said. “The teens who need the jobs the most have the lowest employment rates.” Only 14,000 teenagers out of 50,000 applicants were able to be hired for this summer’s Youth Ready Chicago program, according to the city’s Department of Family and Support Services.
Marcus, the youngest of 10 children, said the Blackstone program offered a chance to learn new skills, perhaps to earn a bit of money and to savor a quiet environment away from the tumult of his home life on the West Side. Blackstone’s mission includes projects like Earn-a-Bike, which awards a refurbished bicycle plus a helmet and lock to children ages 9 to 16 who work 25 hours in the shop. Teenagers with more advanced mechanical skills become paid members of the staff.
For FULL STORY, go to: the New York Times, 7/8/11 http://nytimes.com/2011/07/08/us/08cncblackstone.html?_r=1 &emc=eta1
Monday, June 20, 2011 — Annual Competition Invites High School Students into Shakespeare's World. NEW YORK, NY: Nine years ago actor Juan Villegas wanted to bring Shakespeare to high school students. He founded and has hosted the Annual Public High School Shakespearean Monologue Contest at the Poet’s Den in Manhattan. This year 9th to 12th graders recited monologues from “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” and “A Winter’s Tale” on June 1st. With a four-person panel, students were judged on their enunciation, projection, theatre etiquette, tone, interpretation, memorization and body language.
“The goal was to inspire students to appreciate learning using the challenge of Shakespeare,” said Villegas who first reached out to principals, teachers, famous actors, students and funders for help nearly a decade ago. For the 9th annual competition, over 25 students were highly enthusiastic and energetic about reciting in public. Of course, some forgot lines, stumbled and lost their place and asked for lines, which they were judged on, but Villegas’s event was a professional competition that offered $300, $200 and $100 as 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes with each participant receiving a Barnes and Noble gift card. For Villegas, using Shakespeare in a monologue competition was a way to capture the conscience of his community’s teenagers.…
When it was time to perform, students showed great tenacity and awe in their approach to their Shakespearean monologues. There was Beverly Lopez who sang Ophelia’s lines, Angelica Flores who was well rehearsed for “All’s Well That Ends Well” and Angel Zayas who flubbed some of his lines but made up for his gaffs with a smile and some charm.
For FULL STORY, go to: My Latino Voice, 6/20/11 http://mylatinovoice.com/politics-and-us/23-education/2883-annual-competition-invites-high-school-students-into-shakespeares-wo
1 | 2 | 3 | BACK TO INTRO
