At Lincoln School, a group of 3rd graders is building houses without any nails, wood, or drywall. Instead, these students are building in a virtual world using Google's SketchUp design program. Their toolbelt consists of a cursor, a toolbar, and the help of their own classmates. Under the direction of local architect Mark Klancic, the 3rd graders are learning some basics of house design and architecture as part of OPEF's Architecture Adventure program.

Click here to see the class's virtual neighborhood tour using SketchUp, and here to see photos of the class working on SketchUp.

Matt Kuntz, GTD teacher at Lincoln, is working with Mr. Klancic for the second year in a row. Mr. Kuntz said, "Mr. Klancic is teaching one group of students on SketchUp and then that group teaches the next group. It also works across grade level. The 4th graders who did it last year want to come back to help out."

For instance, Jacky N. had completed her house design the previous week so she was helping Rayne L. add features to her house since this was Rayne's first time working with the program.

A similar collaboration was going on between Jack K. and Miguel S. Mr. Klancic's first question for Jack was "Are you comfortable in the virtual world?" since it takes a bit of time to learn to use the different SketchUp tools and manipulate the building in 3D space.

"Mr. Klancic takes a pretty complicated program and makes it simpler for these kids," Mr. Kuntz said.

The kids, however, very quickly adapt and learn the "tricks" to the program, such as the "push-pull" tool to bring the bottom of the house below grade. Max H. exclaimed, "Look! I'm making a basement!" Similarly, because the houses around Oak Park have a ridge, or pitched roof, on top, Mr. Klancic taught them how to go from flat to pitched, with the click of the mouse.

As he was helping Miguel, Jack realized he had forgotten how to do this "trick," so he went to a classmate for help. A great deal of teamwork was going on throughout the room--kids sharing their new-found expertise, their excitement, and their creativity. Lots of creativity. Consider Lawrence S., who had practical design features such as a porch awning and a double front door, but also included a telescope on top of his house! As Mr. Kuntz explained, "The things Mr. Klancic is teaching them are not only in SketchUp but also design techniques, his area of expertise." Here, SketchUp really helps, since it has specific tools to create straight lines, parallel lines, and other architectural basics.

Morgan V. admitted that you can get quite creative with SketchUp, but "you can't just put random stuff anywhere, like 40 windows, because then it doesn't even look like something you could live in."

Mr. Klancic told the kids, "The cool thing is that as I'm helping you guys I'm learning too. I'm getting something out of this--other than just the fun of working with you."



 

Click here to read the patch.com story about the art show and auction.

The 6th grade arts students at Brooks and Julian Middle School have created beautiful bird-themed art work for the 7th annual auction at Fly Bird, an Oak Park store specializing in curious items for the happy home, body and mind. Each year Fly Bird donates all proceeds from the show to benefit the Oak Park Education Foundation's Art Start program.

The show will be open for public bidding from February 28 - April 3, with an artists' reception at Fly Bird on Friday, February 25 from 6-8 pm. Bidding for the artwork starts at just $15, with a "Buy It Now" option of $40 per piece.

This year, our young artists approached the project with the concept of exploring beautiful birds in their natural habitat. Others were influenced by two types of Haitian art work: the metal work traditionally made from recycled metal oil drums and the sequined flags traditionally used as part of religious ceremonies and now sold to tourists. The work is made in the format of the flags out of metal. Click here to see some samples of student art work. Photos are by teacher Chris Worley, who led the project with fellow art teachers Kristi Murray and Lynn Reising.

The paintings will hang in Fly Bird's storefront window at 719 Lake Street, and can be observed at any time of day or night. Fly Bird is open seven days a week. For more information, stop by the store or email headbird@fly-bird.net.



 

You don't want to miss this exciting competition between Julian & Brooks students, who have been designing, building and programming their robots since October! The 6th annual middle school Vex Robotics Competition will take place at 9:00 am on Saturday, February 5, at the Julian gym, 416 S. Ridgeland in Oak Park.

This year's competition, called "Round Up," is a game that challenges robots to move plastic tubes onto goal posts, and to climb a ladder in the center of the field. This is the first year that District 97 students are participating in the official Vex competition, so that students who do well in the District 97 event can go on to compete in a regional competition the following weekend.

Round Up will include short competitions between remote-controlled robots as well as rounds featuring robots that operate autonomously.

OPEF's Vex Robotics program is open to all 6th, 7th and 8th grade students at both Julian and Brooks -- no experience required. They work closely with teachers as well as professional engineers and other adults who volunteer their time and expertise to help them think and build like engineers.

Come one, come all, and bring the kids! The gym will be filled with cheering onlookers. The event will feature a projection screen for great viewing, an emcee and DJ, food for sale, and Rosie the $4 million telemedicine robot from Gottlieb Memorial Hospital on display.

Click here to see Oak Park photographer David Kindler's photos of the Brooks team getting ready for the big event.

Special thanks to our event sponsor, Aria Group Architects.



 

Wikis. Infrared thermography. Home energy assessments. Longfellow 3rd graders and Brooks 6th graders are using these tools in a collaborative Global Village project to explore energy efficiency and how it relates to caring for our earth. Ms. Flowers' 3rd graders and Ms. Frick's 6th graders first met in person in early January to kick off their project, DoSomething.

In order to communicate with each other remotely, analyze their data, and post their observations and recommendations to the public, the students and staff created a wiki--a collaborative website in which contributors share, update, and comment on information about a given topic. This wiki is open for the public to see but only students can comment and add to the wiki.(See http://dosomethingcollaboration.wikispaces.com)

Ms. Frick has been working for several months with Elise Jury--a D97 technology leader--to teach her Brooks 6th graders how to use a wiki. They first created a plants- and-poetry wiki so that kids in all of Ms. Frick's classes could collaborate and develop their wiki skills. This was in preparation for a unit on catastrophic events in which they hope to communicate with students in California, Florida, and Louisiana.

"Then I came up with the idea to practice these skills with a teacher friend of mine, Sandra Flowers, who is in the district but in a different building, as the next step to practice for collaborating across the country," Ms. Frick explained.

In the meantime, Ms. Frick received a call from Energy Men, a Chicago-based company, looking for a school partnership. Mr. Grafft said he is interested in helping students "relate in a global sense to something that is very close to them, for example, between global warming and wasted energy in people's homes." Thus, another Global Village project was born.

Mr. Grafft explained that Energy Men provides "a physical for your home." Their consultants collect data on overall efficiency, run diagnostics, and then suggest ways to address any energy issues on a home or building. He noted that most people "want help with comfort and that is closely linked to efficiency and cost savings."

"To begin with, this was not going to be a public wiki, but we thought it needed to be to bring these ideas to the world," explained Susan Oxnevad, also a D97 technology teacher leader. Because of the subject matter and the technology, she added, "this project is constantly evolving."

Ms. Frick agreed. "Goals change daily with this project and it can get frustrating. Therefore, one of the learning experiences from this is to be flexible and let things go if they don't work out!"

During the kick-off meeting at Longfellow, Mr. Grafft walked the students through the Home Energy Performance Data Collection--their essential document for the project. He spoke with students about important energy facts. For instance, he explained that "fifty percent of electricity generated at the power plant is lost between the plant and your home." He also explained some of the choices and alternatives people have when heating and cooling their homes, such as using a tankless water heater to heat the hot water only when you need it.

Sixth-grader Olivia F. liked listening to Mr. Grafft's presentation, such as when he explained "how they sucked all the air out of a house to see where the cold was coming through."

Twenty-four pairs of students--one 3rd grader and one 6th grader--will communicate with each other via the wiki. Each student will complete the data sheet at home and then will input the information on a website called energysavvy.com. This site will generate a score for the home's energy efficiency. The students will in turn take this information and post the data they collected, brainstorm ways to address any energy issues, and discuss the data and ideas with their counterparts--all online. The two groups will only meet in person two times over the course of the project.

Ms. Flowers connected the merits of this project to the larger goals of the curriculum. She explained that in language arts she is teaching them how to respond to literature. "So they read something, they think about it, and they respond to it. We do this when we read a story and when we study something in science, and now we are doing it with this."

After listening to the Energy Men presentation, Natalie S., a 6th grader, said she had "already learned a lot about electricity--where it comes from and how it's used" even before getting into the assessment of her own house. Tyler H., another 6th grader, said "We learned about a camera that takes pictures of heat and energy." Yes, Mr. Grafft had with him an infrared thermography camera, and he took photos of the kids so they could see how much heat their bodies give off. Such a camera is used in the field to show hot and cold spots in a building.

Third-grader Charlotte S. likes the project so far "because we get to learn a lot about things we don't know."

Abby Z. said, "I really enjoyed going to Longfellow to meet our buddies." Olivia F. also liked the fact that she was going to be able to work with these younger kids.

Abby did note the project can be challenging for her time-wise. "Sometimes it's hard to get on the Internet to get the work done." Olivia admitted that entering the data on the computer was not her favorite task, but in terms of communicating on the wiki, "I was excited to try it."

According to Ms. Frick, the best aspects of the project long-term are "learning to collaborate online in creative ways and to expand the classroom to share ideas with other students and other interested parties anywhere in the world."

As part of the project, the students will also travel at the end of January to the Chicago Center for Green Technology, so they can further learn about local possibilities for energy efficiency and new ways to take care of our environment.

Click here to see photos from Matt Baron of Inside Edge and Ginger Yarrow. Or click here to see photos of the group's field trip to the Chicago Center for Green Technology.



 

Irving School Kindergarten students had a wonderful Architecture Adventure experience working with architects Adrienne McMullen and Dayton Castleman, learning about skylines. The children cut out and painted large scale buildings and exhibited them outside their classroom. Click here to see photos taken by Oak Park photographer David Kindler on "Pajama Day."



 

Ms. Sigunick's Beye 2nd graders, working with local artist Jonathan Franklin, created a mural about nature and seasons. Because they wanted the mural to remain relevant at all times of year, they included flora and fauna that can be found around Beye School. All images were created and painted by the students. Click here to see Jonathan Franklin's photos from the day.