A major PTO campaign at Irving is aimed at remaking the school's exterior space, and Irving 5th graders have been part of the process through Architecture Adventure. Students worked with local landscape architects Michael Elsen and Colleen Hulen to develop their own site plans that included not only kid-centered ideas, but also ideas that showed an awareness of environmental and community needs.

The students' plans include a community garden, a rock-climbing wall, grass mazes, and rooftop gardens. Ms. Linne said the climbing wall and an area for playing four-square were ideas not thought of by the adults working on the project, and that these will be considered in the final plans.

The students learned about artificial turfs as an alternative to real grass from Jassen Strokosch, who was Irving PTO president when the Irving Schoolyard Revitalization Project was first developed. Artifical turf, made from recycled materials, doesn't turn to mud when heavily used and also drains better--into giant rain barrels beneath the surface. "So it's kid-friendly but environmentally driven," said Mr. Strokosch.

At times, the students had to check their creativity with reality and safety. For instance, Mason P. explained that "you can't put a grass maze right in front of the main entrance!" Problem-solving came into play as well. Rosie W. said, "We needed to find a safe place for the climbing wall so finally we decided to put a fence around the field."

The students all agreed that the process was one of compromise. Kevin C. said "we had a lot of arguments in our group deciding what to put where." Isaac J. chimed in that "sometimes we had to barter," and Daija G. said "I know there were problems, but we usually figured it out by majority."

The students were happy to be part of the process. Kevin C. marveled, "We are actually making something that could possibly come true," which he noted is not always the case with school projects. Max M. was pleased "just having the honor to design it."

Click here to see a slideshow of photos by Sophia Lyman.



 

Local artist Guillermo Delgado has been partnering with Ms. Nelson at Whittier for more than 10 years. In May, 2010, their Art Start students created beautiful paintings about nature, dreams, and a personal calender, inspired by the Aztec calender. The second graders painted with gouache paint and created their own Amate-like paper. Amate is a form of paper that was manufactured in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, made by boiling the inner bark of several species of trees, particularly fig trees.

Click here to see a slideshow their work (photos are by Guillermo Delgado).



 

Thank you to Oak Park & River Forest High School's Tau Gamma service club, who came together last Sunday, September 19, to clean up and sort out the thousands of Legos used in OPEF's Geared Up program! All District 97 3rd graders experience Geared Up -- which introduces students to concepts of force and motion using Legos. Students usually work in pairs and have a full kit of Lego building materials -- wheels, weights, supports, axles, etc. By the end of the school year, after having seen action in 8 schools and more than 20 classrooms, the kits are in some disarray. The high schoolers donated their time to get the kits ready for 2010-11 third graders.

More pictures here, courtesy Ginger Yarrow.



 

A group of 30 middle schoolers spent 4 weeks of their summer building "bots"--robots, that is -- as part of OPEF's Vex Robotics BASE Camp. They worked in teams of 4 under the direction of Julian teachers Tim Walsh and Jason Morrell, assisted by high school student mentors. The kids designed and constructed bots that could pick up plastic rings placed around a course and deposit them on goal posts in a series of 2-minute competitions.

Team 4 built a robot that grabbed the rings, while Team 7's bot scooped up the rings like a shovel. Team 4's Emmet L. said they had lots of ideas that didn't work out. His teammate, Ceazar D. noted, "That's what happens when you build robots." Brothers Christopher and Christian M., also of Team 4, explained that they kept starting over, trying new designs, "to be able to max out on the rings."

Gabriel G. of Team 2 said he liked the building part of Vex. "I'm a very manual person, but I need to learn how to program," so he and Ethan R. were working on the programming commands--trying to slow down their robot's speed so it could navigate the course more accurately.

The camp ended with a competition on July 1. Seven teams competed in two separate alliances--red and blue. Their bots were built with shovels, grabbers, probes, and vacuums to pick up the rings. The game was very close, with the red teaming pulling ahead in the end, 146-131.

Both Julian and Brooks have Vex Robotics clubs during the school year, from October through February, open to all 6th-8th graders. This year teams that excel will have the opportunity to compete in other area competitions.

Mr. Walsh said he was "impressed by the level of sophistication that these new robotics engineers came up with." He also described a "skills contest" they conducted on the final day of the camp. Each team was allowed two minutes on the course by themselves. "The top scorer was 'The Clamp,' which scored 8 rings and claimed 5 posts in two minutes! Bravo!"

More about the course and how the competition works can be found here.



 

Legos, Legos, Legos! It may sound just like play time, but in OPEF's summer BASE Camp Geared Up program, kids used Legos to learn about basic machines and concepts of motion and force. Among the machines built were a working clock, a dogbot with a moving tail and jaw, and a walking bug. On this particular day, the kids were building windmills. Aaron C., a Hatch 3rd grader showed how a crank powered by a windmill can lift a block, demonstrating how wind is a viable power source in the real world.

Jackson G, a Whittier 4th grader, said "these are much cooler, bigger" than other things he has built with Legos. "I'm making things that actually work!" He built a car with a motor as well as an egg beater during the camp.

Holmes teachers John McCauley taught the first 2-week session of Geared Up along with Holmes colleague Colleen Cushing. He noted that the Geared Up program has "built-in differentiation"--an important component of District 97 classrooms. "It's great for all different levels. You can take off with it or just get the basics. Parents are telling me that their kids are coming home saying this is the best camp they've ever gone to."

Mr. McCauley explained that Geared Up is also a natural pre-course to get kids interested in Vex Robotics. Holmes 3rd grader Danny L. said, "I'm going to do Vex Robotics when I get to 6th grade. I like tweaking with stuff and doing electric stuff." He also visited the Vex Robotics BASE Camp program during his time at Geared Up.

Louisa V., a ninth-grader and teaching assistant for Geared Up, loves working with the younger kids. "I like building and it's cool to see them build and learn at the same time."



 

Oak Park grade schoolers created a city during OPEF's BASE Camp Architecture Adventure program this summer. The students researched famous world structures, created models of them, and then combined all their efforts into one urban plan, complete with rivers, dams, parks, and bridges. Gabe M., a fourth grader at Irving, built a boat dock and the Golden Gate Bridge and found that "you can make a lot of things out of just a little." His Mom, Veena R. says "He loves cities. He plans them on paper all the time, so this was perfect for him."

Adrienne McMullen, coordinator for Architecture Adventure and BASE Camp teacher, said the kids also got a chance to use Google's Sketch Up design program with the help of volunteer Mark Klancic. With this the kids "could see the kinds of [designing] stuff that is out there." The emphasis of this camp, however, was "figuring things out three-dimensionally and building with hands and not with computers." So, with cardboard, plastic, and a host of other materials, the kids set out to build their city.

Sophia Lyman, an Architecture Adventure BASE Camp teacher, said about 10 different professionals visited the camp. One volunteer was Ken Floody, a structural engineer with INGENII, LLC. He worked with Hatch fifth grader Nicholas B., on a working model of the Hoover Dam. Nicholas said "I loved this camp, but I'm sad I didn't sign up for the next session!" John Viise from Halvorson and Partners also showed the kids what structural engineers do and how they work with architects. The student-built models included the Lotus Temple in Delhi, Sydney Opera House, the Parthenon, Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, and Chicago's Aqua building.