Learning Unboxed

Yellowstone National Park is one of the most iconic spaces in the United States, if not the world, due to its unique geography and, increasingly, the sheer size of undeveloped land. Yellowstone also happens to be one of the most incredible classrooms in the world, and today we’re going to learn a little bit more about that. Our guest is Beth Taylor, the Youth Education Program Manager at Yellowstone National Park.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Distance learning opportunities and activitiesLearn more about Yellowstone National ParkLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Our collective unwillingness to have conversations around things like mental health, familial mental illness, and addiction is really holding a lot of kids back from making it through the day in a strong, successful way — especially this year — but the 16 Strong Project is trying to change that.Learn how you can break the stigma around mental health with Samantha Wettje and Susan Solar.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:www.16strongproject.comInstagram: @16strongprojectTwitter: @16StrongProjectLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

2020 has brought a lot of challenges. But at the same time, it’s brought a lot of opportunities to access educational resources from all around the world that were previously inaccessible to most people. And right now, there's an amazing opportunity — and necessity — to bring native voices into your teaching and learning every day.To teach us more about what it looks like to bring native voices into both formal and informal education spaces, we sat down with Colleen Call Smith, who serves as an education specialist in the National Museum of the American Indians Office of Education.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Native Knowledge 360NMAI’s resources for teachersLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Can we create #ZeroDirt beds via a repeatable process that can be utilized in almost any urban environment — and on another planet?This is the question that we wanted to answer when we started #ProjectMartian. Inspired by our previous SOIL Lab Project and a forced pivot in the midst of a global pandemic, we wanted to show the community of Columbus what STEM looks like when deployed to feed people and innovate an industry while simultaneously changing the face of agriculture and sustainability in urban settings. So we launched #ProjectMartian at the PAST Innovation Lab and our partner site, Mezzacello, a 21st Century Urban Farm in Columbus.And PAST’s own Sultan of Systems, Jim Bruner, is the project director of this collaborative urban farming project. You may not guess it from his title, but Jim is a farmer at heart, and Mezzacello just so happens to be his passion project and urban farm. So, he really gets into the weeds about what's happening at the intersection between STEM, applied teaching and learni

When the PAST Foundation travels around the country to talk to policymakers, colleges, universities, and trade schools, there’s one topic that gets brought up in just about every conversation: manufacturing. So it’s clear there’s a bigger conversation we really need to have around STEM education and the future of manufacturing jobs.To help us parse out what needs to be done to get a new generation excited about the possibilities available in manufacturing — which might be more diverse and interesting than you think — and prepare them for the task, we are talking to two guests: Rosemary Coates and Ryan Edwards. Rosemary is the Executive Director of the Reshoring Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit collaborating with nine universities across the U.S. on a mission to support companies starting, restarting, or expanding manufacturing in the United States. Ryan was a summer intern with Reshoring Institute and is currently an MBA student at TCU University, and he shares how the firsthand experience during his internship p

Today we’re talking to a few of the people who participated in one of Ohio University’s most unique teaching programs: the STEM+ for All Teaching Fellowship. STEM+ is focused on supporting individuals  with science, technology, engineering, and math backgrounds — so people who do not already have a background in education — who seek to change their careers to become intervention specialist teachers. Part of the program involves hands-on training with a mentor teacher, and we’re lucky enough to be able to sit down with both two pre-service teachers currently going through the program and the mentor who has guided them throughout the year.Our pre-service teacher guests are Sorpresa Jones and Bailey Lohr, who are both in their third term in the STEM+ for All teaching fellowship, and our mentor teacher guest is Mary Schneider, a master teacher and PAST’s School Design Coordinator.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Learn more about STEM+ Teaching for AllConnect with Mary on LinkedInListen: 044 | How

Karen Yager’s dream started three years ago when she was watching the 9th and 10th grade students at Knox Grammar School in New South Wales. Their academic results were lower than both older and younger students, and they lacked a sense of purpose. They were drifting.So she asked herself: How do we give them a sense of purpose? How do we get that passion, purpose, and mastery into their lives and really make them more agile?What they came up with was the Academy of Global Competency. Folks in the United States, in particular, should take note. This new initiative and building includes a certificate of global competency in K-12 that is achieved through microcredentials that come under the categories of agency, entrepreneurialism, altruism, advocacy, citizenship, deep learning, agility. We should all aspire to be this cool.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:“New Academy of Global Competency builds collaboration and community”Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric Fren

Prior to the impacts of COVID-19 on teaching and learning many of us likely took facial expressions, hearing, listening, and general communication for granted. But distance, face masks, and lack of hugs in elementary settings and so many more daily disruptions have made it difficult to communicate effectively with those we are trying to teach. Join Alyssa and Ashely as they talk about strategies to stay engaged. 

As teachers, parents and out of school caregivers scramble in the midst of modified pandemic driven learning - many are reporting having to modify content almost on the fly. This special edition of Learning Unboxed is packed with tips and tricks for modification in a moment! 

There has been so much angst about teaching and learning over the past six months as COVID-19 traverses the globe. How do we teach effectively in a virtual environment, how do we asses, how do we ensure relevant content and how do we effectively communicate with our students. Join Alyssa and Ashely as they talk about communication strategies while providing high quality virtual instruction.  

Today we’re talking to three guests who are involved with the Cultivating Creative & Civic Capacities project, “a 3-year research-practice collaboration between the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) and Project Zero-Harvard to investigate and document ways to catalyze young people’s capacities for creative and critical thinking and a sense of community with room for divergent perspectives, and the conditions that promote young people’s curiosity about complex issues, openness to engaging multiple, often divergent, viewpoints, and a sense of social responsibility about actions they may take.”And a lot of that comes down to answering these two questions: What does it look like to cultivate creativity toward more sustainable and equitable worlds? How do we cultivate imagination, thinking with complexity, and taking action?Our guests are Jennifer Lehe, Jason Blair, and Britanie Risner, and they have some interesting answers for those questions. Jennifer is the Manager of Strategic Partnerships of the Columbus Muse

Today we’re getting an international perspective on the evolution of educational systems. Specifically, we’ll be looking at a Finnish program called StarT that invites schools, kindergartens, families, and extracurricular activity groups from all around the world to share ideas, inspiration and the joy of collaborative learning.Our guest is Outi Haatainen, who is a doctoral candidate in the chemistry department at the University of Helsinki and one of the facilitators for the StarT program created by LUMA Centre Finland.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Learn more about StarT: start.luma.fiLearn more about LUMA Centre Finland: luma.fiLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and the world started shutting down, people suddenly had a whole bunch of new needs that they didn’t have before. As a result, people and organizations were forced to pivot and innovate so that they could not only survive the crisis but help people with their unique set of skills.So, what does that kind of forced pivot look like within a big organization? And how can we prepare kids now to be able to think more flexibly and respond positively to a crisis? That’s what we’re going to find out in this episode with Mike Wiseman, the Senior Chief Engineer of Strategic Research at Honda R&D Americas.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Check Out STEMStreaming! A FREE online resource for educators and parents to engage in virtual learning! Read: “Honda Responds to COVID-19 with Support to Customers, Honda Associates, Business Partners and Local Community Organizations”Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in C

Camp Invention is a STEM summer program for grades K-6 that turns curious students into innovative thinkers, and it’s a program that our host Annalies has a personal love and connection with — because, after her son attended Camp Invention, he came back with absolutely rave reviews.Our guest today is Krissy Hostetler, Education Team Specialist at the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) in Akron, Ohio, which hosts Camp Invention in addition to a number of other fantastic programs for children of all ages. Krissy is a problem-solving powerhouse, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Planning.Krissy also included a fantastic tidbit in her bio that we wanted to share with you, to help you get a better idea of just how awesome she is:  "There are days where I am under a desk in the dark to observe LED brightness and other days where I'm building hydraulic cranes using paper cups, duct tape, and aquarium tubing." You just have to love a girl who can make anything hap

We’re frequently talking about how we can broaden a student’s perspective of the world and their role in it, particularly through the lens of STEM education, but how do we get kids thinking about social change? And then, how do we get kids to start taking action to change the world?It was asking himself that question—how can I make an impact?—that led Adam Morris to his current career as a social impact coach who is inspiring greater social change in the world through Wild Tiger Tees and the People Helping People podcast.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:People Helping People: peoplehelpingpeople.worldWild Tiger Tees: www.wildtigertees.comInstagram: @adam_s_morrisLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amorrisTwitter: @adam_s_morrisLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Our guest and our host have something in common this week: they both started exploring technology and the world of STEM after their parents brought home a Gateway 2000 PC! It really can’t be understated how impactful just being exposed to the idea of new technology — and being encouraged to play with it — can change what you think is possible with your life.That’s why Olu Ibrahim created Kids in Tech, a nonprofit that strives to excite, educate, and empower children to acquire skills and confidence in technology through interactive after school programs. Their programs focus on helping kids develop the necessary tech skills and aptitudes to participate in and be future leaders of the 21st-century innovation economy.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Kidsintech.orgInstagram: instagram.com/kidsintechorgFacebook: facebook.com/kidsintechorgLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

We first talked about BioEYES — a K-12 science education program that aims to foster enthusiasm for science by offering students opportunities to explore life science through real-world applications using a hands-on approach to learning — back in episode 51 with the wonderful Jamie Shuda. Today, we're going to dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of the program with a conversation featuring a teacher and a couple of students who've actually lived and experienced BioEYES.Katie Benton is a 20-year veteran teacher, and she helps bring programs like BioEYES into Barrington Elementary School. Katie is joined by Louise and Evren, two rising fifth-graders who had the opportunity to participate in BioEYES in Katie’s classroom. We’ll learn what it was like for Katie to bring this program into her class, what it was like for the students who participated, and how being exposed to the program changed the students’ perspectives.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:www.bioeyes.orgFacebook: www.facebook

Today’s episode is all about the intersection of art education, joy, and critical thought. Our guests, Raygan Barrett & Nicole Clevenger, are the co-founders of Wonderment, creators of curated art experience that help educators and parents cultivate creative thinking. But the program is about more than just art; it’s a combination of connecting to the world, connecting to each other, and learning about all aspects of life through the lens of art.Wonderment is basically a combination of Nicole and Raygan’s experiences. Nicole's background in informal education allows her to dive deep into the subject matter, play off of children's interests, and encourage learning through experience. As an artist, Raygan focuses more on exploration, thinking like an artist, and the creative process. The alchemy of these two approaches and experiences is a truly one-of-a-kind learning experience, for everyone involved.Plus, Raygan and Nicole have come up with some great ideas for how parents can bring Wonderment int

This week, we’re talking about one of our favorite styles of education — one that asks students to get hands-on, roll up their sleeves, get in the weeds (among other things), and actively apply everything they’re learning. Specifically, we’re talking about Zoo Schools, which are just as cool as they sound. Our guests are Emily Cunningham, a veteran science educator and an instructor at the Columbus Zoo School, and Erin Murray, a senior at the Zoo School. We’ll learn what exactly goes on at Zoo School and why these alternative forms of education can serve so many students so much better than the traditional high school route.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Learn more about Columbus Zoo SchoolDelaware Area Career CenterLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, CA, is unique in that they’re the only nationally accredited Natural History Museum that's located on a high school campus, which also makes The Webb Schools one of the coolest high school campuses in the country.To learn more about this collaboration, we sit down with Andy Farke, a paleontologist and educator who involves high school students in every step of the scientific research process.This is an incredible conversation that offers a glimpse at how STEM education can be transformed and given life for students, even in formal education spaces, as well as how non-traditional educators can be mentors to students.To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.orgResources:Raymond Alf Museum: www.alfmuseum.orgLearn more about Andy’s  work: www.alfmuseum.org/science/research/andrew-a-farke-ph-d/Twitter: twitter.com/andyfarkeLearning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate MediaRecorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio