NCCE Conference
February 24-26 in Seattle, WA
Keynote Cheryl Strayed
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Oregon Game Project Challenge
Oregon Game Project Challenge (OGPC) is excited to get ready for their ninth annual competition in which middle and high school students from across Oregon form teams in a theme-based challenge to come up with a computer game that follows that theme in creative ways. OGPC uses game development as a means of engaging students in various STEM/STEAM disciplines while having loads of fun. OGPC uses games as the medium to bring it all together.
There will be kickoff events, Game Jams, held on
November 14th to announce the theme and let students start planning and designing!
Click Here to register for a Game Jam near you! Get ready to start building and remember, the season culminates in a judging event on
April 23rd at Chemeketa Community College where industry professionals come to judge and interact with the students.
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Closing the Opportunity Gap in Beaverton
Opportunity You, a brand new afterschool program at Five Oaks Middle School, is pioneering the Citizen School model here in Oregon. The program, which was developed by full time teacher Eric McGuire, takes inspiration from Citizen Schools' dedication to partnering with public middle schools in low-income communities to provide an expanded learning day, rich with new opportunities.
Eric has brought together volunteer teachers to offer an expanded learning day for middle school students to explore careers, participate in activities, and enjoy academic enrichment after school. Driven by a passion for social justice, Eric has worked to open the doors of Opportunity You this month to 75 middle school youth with the hope to engage many more. We are excited to see such dedication to making a difference in Oregon, and look forward to the success of the program!
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Register Now for Oregon Afterschool Conference
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Whether you are looking for
STEM, Equity, Health and Wellness,
or just plain
fun ideas, REGISTER NOW to join us THIS Saturday, November 7th in Salem!
Introducing our Keynote
Corey Newhouse is the Founder and Principal of Public Profit, an independent consultancy that helps youth service organizations measure and manage what matters. Public Profit is proud to serve as the evaluation partners for after-school systems in Oakland, San Francisco and Richmond, California, which collectively serve 40,000 youth in more than 250 sites.
Public Profit has helped many youth service organizations incorporate 21st century skills and mindsets into their programs, whether as a specific enrichment activity or an organization-wide strategy. A former youth worker herself, Corey is passionate about using information to help youth service organizations be their very best for kids and families.
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Pakistani Future Women's Leaders visit Airway Science for Kids
Last Tuesday, through coordination with the World Affairs Council Oregon, eight women leaders from Pakistan visited
Airway Science for Kids. During their visit, they learned about the
Oregon Girls Collaborative Project and saw students actively engaged in the afterschool STEM program first-hand.
The visitors were invited to the United States under the auspices of the Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program with the intention to explore programs that support women entrepreneurs and engage women in STEM careers and to meet with groups that promote leadership, skill building, and citizenship education for young women and girls. Each visitor chose to come to the US as a professional development opportunity to study and observe state and national efforts to promote gender equity and equal opportunity.
While watching two students use the Flight Simulator one visitor mentioned, "I wish I had this opportunity when I was a kid. I remember in 3rd grade my teacher told me I was bad at math and to give up, so I did." Unfortunately, this example rings true for many women in STEM fields in the U.S., too. Though women make up to 47% of the total US workforce, much less are represented in computer and mathematical science (25%) and engineering (13%) occupations. (
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Women in the Labor Force: A Databook, 2014)
If you're interested in finding out how you can connect with local STEM projects, programs, and workforce to bring to your afterschool program, check out The Connectory here.
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Umatilla Robotics Team members:
(Left) Elijah Pine, Alexander Gutierrez, Alvin Garcia
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Moving Forward with Digital Badges
What would happen if middle and high school students were able to gain professional credit for their work in developing their own 21 Century Skills in expanded learning environments? What if this credit came to them as a
digital badge, and would count towards college and career-readiness? As we continue our work with the Mozilla Foundation, Technology Association of Oregon Foundation (TAO), Concentric Sky, Business Education Compact (BEC), Equal Access to Education, Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), and the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE), we imagine this as the final goal for students across Oregon. OregonASK is working with our partners to create a multifaceted student experience that utilizes Umatilla's afterschool STEM Academy and strong industry partnerships to support a well-designed digital badge system.
Students in the Umatilla STEM Academy are gearing up to pilot this badge system beginning this November, using Mozilla Web Literacy Clubs. High school students will plan and implement web literacy clubs with middle school students, using the tools and resources available from Mozilla. The clubs will be aligned to standards, and available for both school credit and earning digital badges. As the project moves forward, we plan to increase technology / CS programs to create a full 6-12 pathway that prepares students to be participants in a technology-based innovation economy. We believe that this STEM Academy model, along with our proposed additional technology and computer science components will help address the needs of our rural communities by increasing potential and providing opportunities for students to build 21st century workforce skills.
As Umatilla student Elijah Pine stated in an interview, "It's really good for skills that aren't necessarily documented, but are still useful skills. For example, projects you've done or things you've learned that don't already have something set up in the system - like a certificate of completion - so the badges show what you've done and the credibility behind it. It's something I can use in getting a job"
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Upcoming Trainings
Automotive Inventing for Kids with Ed Sobey
Automotive Invention for Kids is a full day workshop designed to ignite the inventor in school-aged students through hands-on creation of amazing vehicles! This training will be hosted by the World of Speed Automotive Museum, home to an inspiring collection of cars and the stories behind their designs.
Saturday, January 9th, 2016
World of Speed, Wilsonville
9 AM - 4:30 PM
$89
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OregonASK | Wilsonville, OR 97070 | 503-689-1656 | oregonask.org
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