Kidsburgh : For Good

It's not too late to sign your child up for some great summer camps – some brand new, some long running, and some just back for the summer of 2013. Here's a guide to some wonderful camps that still have openings:
 
Mini Mad Scientist Camp at Assemble: Kids can dive into new inventions and science experiments while (shhhhh!) learning about the scientific method and the design process and meet local pros in the science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) fields. Cost is $100 per week (bring your own lunch). Each week runs Monday through Friday 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sign up here for ages 5 through 7, July 8 through 12; here for ages 8 through 10, July 15 through 19; and here for ages 11 through 13, July 22 through 26
 
La Escuelita Arcoiris, a Spanish immersion pre-school in Squirrel Hill, has one-week Spanish language and culture day camps running June 24 through Aug. 2 (although Week 5, July 22 through 26, is full). Kids 6 through 10 will learn to speak Spanish while enjoying outdoor games, arts and crafts and cultural-immersion activities. Register here for a session that runs Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. through 3:30 p.m., with an extended day option available until 5:30 p.m.
 
At the Harvest and Create: A Farm to Table Immersion camp, run jointly by Union Project and Garfield Community Farm, there's already a waiting list for a second session this summer. It introduces kids 8 through 13 to both sustainable farming and hands-on clay creations. The two-week experience concludes with a mal made from student-harvested veggies on student-made ceramics. It also includes field trips to other farms and local restaurant kitchens. Running Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. and costs $450 per child. Get on the waiting list here. 
 
MobileQuest CoLab is a one-week camp for kids who want to make and play their own games on mobile technology. They'll work toward a game exhibition on the last day, and "come away from camp as designers and makers with real-world experiences in mobile technology and game design," say sponsors The Sprout Fund. Kids in the Greater Pittsburgh area must apply by May 28. Some need-based scholarships are available by emailing here. Apply to attend the camp here; acceptance notifications go out in early June.
 
Civic Engagement Summer Camp at Community Human Services in Oakland offers six one-week camps that each "introduces 5th and 6th grade students to topics and activities that broaden perspective, engage passions, and equip young people to become leaders," they say. "With a strong emphasis on community engagement, students will interact with leaders in various fields and come to a better understanding of what impacts their lives and how they can create positive change." The camp runs 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 pm. weekdays from June 24 until Aug. 2. Each week includes volunteering and a field trip. The cost is $125 per week, but there is a sliding scale for those whose income prevents them from affording the entire fee. Contact Trevor Smith by emailing here, or calling 412-246-1615. Week one has the theme of leadership, with subsequent weeks focusing on science, arts and music, diversity, environment and government.
 
Writer: Marty Levine

This year's Girls Coalition Annual Conference on June 13 – dubbed "Girls Can Change the World!" – is all about engaging girls' voices and hearing what girls are doing to advocate for change, says Heather Mediate, program director for the Coalition.
 
It will highlight thriving girl-led initiatives, solutions to continuing issues for girls and ways to build the success of girl-serving organizations.
 
Partnering this year with The Ellis School as its host, the Coalition's conference will cover such topics as "Grassroots feminism in Pittsburgh," "Developing inclusive programming," new developments in Title IX (including Pennsylvania's recently enacted Equity in Interscholastic Athletics Disclosure Act, set to take effect in October) and the Hardy Girls, Healthy Women curriculum.
 
This curriculum, developed at Colby College in Maine, "is really about helping girls to build strong critical thinking skills," says Mediate. "A lot of it is media literacy, and helping the leaders of girls' groups deal with the problems they see all around them" – and take action. Chatham University and the local Girl Scouts of America are piloting the curriculum here.

The leader of the Philadelphia chapter of Black Girls RUN!, Deneen Young, will speak at the conference about this organization, which has 55,000 members nationwide but no Pittsburgh chapter yet, and promotes solutions to health risks in the black female community.
 
The Maikuru Project: Teen Mom Mentoring Study out of the University of Pittsburgh will also be featured. Maikuru aims to prevent repeated teens pregnancies, using young mothers or couples as mentors to provide role models in parenting, wellness and decision-making and get teen mothers connected with the resources they need.
 
The other major goal of the conference is to bring together organizations that share the Girls Coalitions' focus. Thus, the conference has sessions for local leaders on building strong organizations, training and using a dedicated volunteer force, using social media and other crucial topics.
 
"Let's start some of the work and learn what is working," says Mediate.
 
Writer: Marty Levine 
Source: Heather Mediate, Girls Coalition Southwestern Pennsylvania

Kids love being sent on journeys to get answers and solve puzzles, so the Allegheny County Library Association's online game Questyinz will be back June 1 with all new quests for children in grades K-5 to undertake this summer. The game is designed not only to promote literacy but to motivate kids to want to read.
 
Kristin Rama, the Association's youth services coordinator, says the game sent 2,741 kids last year on an average of five quests, involving 10 questions each, and they spent 2.5 million minutes reading to get to the end of their searches. In 17 categories, from math or science and nature to "Around the World," "Pittsburgh" and "My Neighborhood," each quest's queries prompted the kids to seek answers by completing real-world activities, asking questions of adults and looking up items in libraries and on the Internet to earn points and badges.
 
With funding from the Grable and Benedum foundations, the Association has devised all new quests this year and focused on adding other new features to help kids be even more successful in maintaining and developing their learning skills over the summer. One new feature is an online quest journal in which the kids can bookmark their favorite questions and quests. "With this age group, they're not big note takers," says Rama, "so it's nice for them to print something out and take it into the library." Or just to have someplace of their own to keep and examine the materials online.
 
This year the Association's mascot, the Reading Creature, will also be able to send "RC Mail" emails to kids, telling them they did a great job or earned a special badge, allowing the libraries to interact with kids and keep them motivated. A new "Read to Me" button lets the younger kids ask for the game to be read aloud to them.
 
Kids can now also add their own questions to Questyinz for other kids to answer, although these questions are not part of any specific quests.
 
The Association is continuing to partner with the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to develop the quests, which allow students to interact with these organizations. But Questyinz's developers are also hoping that schools see the impact of the program and how it might be used in their own classrooms. They believe that teachers will be interested in helping to devise quests that will promote skills that will help them in fall classrooms.
 
The overall goal, says Rama, is "to teach kids how to be lifelong learners and pursue what interests them. It models how you can go about pursuing your interests and go through your own quests in your mind, and it may even lead to kids being interested in certain careers."
 
Kids can start their game by picking up a Questyinz game card at their local library.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Kristin Rama, Allegheny County Library Association

The World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh will once again be sending a dozen local high-school juniors to as many countries on immersive trips that are "hugely transformative – it's an experience that transforms their experience of the world," says Annie M. Prucey, the Council's vice president and director of education programs.
 
The Global Travel Scholarship Program, in its 10th year, chose student from among 74 teacher-nominated applicants students who best demonstrated a passion for travelling and learning about the world, as well as maturity, leadership ability, school achievement and a need for the program.
 
"We want to make this opportunity available to students who wouldn't have the opportunity to go abroad," says Prucey.
 
Students from Pittsburgh Perry, Carrick and Brashear high schools, Pittsburgh Sci Tech Academy, and Penn Hills, South Side Area, McKeesport, Cornell and Ringgold high schools, as well as Winchester Thurston and Sewickley Academy, were chosen for three- to five-week trips this summer to Spain, Japan, Argentina, Botswana, Korea, China, South Africa, Morocco, Tanzania, Peru, Costa Rica and Italy. The program is devised by The Experiment in International Living, a program of World Learning.
 
The World Affairs Council provides pre-departure orientation and leadership training as well as the scholarship, which pays for everything but incidental student costs, such as souvenirs.
 
Prucey labels the trips "a total immersion," in which students stay with a family in their country, often performing community service, taking language training and completing projects in the arts or the environment. The idea, she says, is for the travelers to become part of the community, learning how to interact with the rest of the world – how to cross ethnic, linguistic and other boundaries outside, and later inside, the United States. "They really become close and it creates a lifelong connection to that part of the world."
 
Traveling with two adult group leaders trained to facilitate the experience and other American high school kids, the Pittsburgh students also bond with peers from all over the country.
 
Prucey has seen program participants become more competitive for college entry and gain more appreciation for what they have in this country, because of the lack of resources they often encounter in other places.
 
"But they are surprised by how much we have in common with people from other countries," she says. "I have seen tremendous growth, a lot more independence and I have seen them set their sights higher."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Annie M. Prucey, World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh
 

Doctoral students in Carnegie Mellon University's department of engineering and public policy are giving back to the community – and aiming to teach climate change and inspire science careers – through SUCCEED, a free summer camp.
 
SUCCEED (SUmmer Center for Climate, Energy and Environmental Decision-making) is a five-day program at CMU for 9th grade students, this year run by doctoral students Paul Welle and Frauke Hoss.
 
"An army of Ph.D. students," says Welle, will give students a taste of their research pursuits, but the campers will also undertake many hands-on activities and field trips. They will visit coal-fired and nuclear power plants; the Carnegie Museum of Natural History; CMU's electric vehicle lab; and CMU's intelligent workspace, or "the office room of the future," as Welle labels it, with computers controlling the lights, temperature and other aspects to make it ultra-efficient.
 
They'll conduct a variety of experiments as well, including building wind turbines of different designs to see which is the most efficient and which might be a source of better energy systems in the future. "We don't want to bring them here just to give them more school," Welle says.
 
Beyond learning about climate change, he adds, "we hope the kids get to see what science is really like [and] to see what this type of science is. We really want to introduce them to what it would be like to have a science-related career. Hopefully they'll be excited. They're young enough where they're still making up their minds. Hopefully we'll be able to help them make a decision."
 
Applications, due June 1, are available here.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Paul Welle, SUCCEED

It's too late to enter the mayoral primaries, but kids can get inspired to pursue other civic service by enrolling in this summer's Youth Civic Leadership program created by the Office of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and part of the servePGH initiative.
 
"It's a good chance for youth interested in making a difference, particularly in the public sector," says Rebecca Delphia, chief service officer in the mayor's office. Kids participating in the free six-session program, which meets two times a week for three weeks, get to do everything from exploring the training facility for the city's emergency personnel to seeing the drinking water treatment process of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) and meeting officials of the city planning department to see what tools they use in their work. The program culminates with a service project that each kid designs and executes him or herself.
 
It has its origins in the city's Civic Leaders Academy for adults, created several years ago. As a result of this youth version, says Delphia, there has been a real interest among the participants in learning about city careers and eventually seeking a post in city government.
 
Last summer, one participant learned about mini-grants for neighborhood projects available through the city's Love Your Block program. So he mobilized the sports teams and others in his school – Pittsburgh Obama – and partnered with the Save Race Street Committee in Homewood to transform two vacant lots into green spaces at Race and Collier streets. Another participant used his service project to partner with Zone 6 police in the West End for a playground revitalization, while another partnered with PWSA on storm drain stenciling, warning potential dumpers that each sewer drains to a river. One program graduate even joined the mayor's youth council.
 
Applicants must be 14-18 years old -- either entering 9th grade this fall or graduating at the end of the current school year. Application deadline is June 3; apply here. 
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Rebecca Delphia, Office of the Mayor

What better description can you give about a kids' show than this: "The performers are wildly talented and the show is a huge mess: It ends in a grand messy finale, totally safe but fun."
 
So says Pam Lieberman, who heads the Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival, about just one of the performances slated for this year's fest on May 15 through 19 at the University of Pittsburgh theaters and Schenley Plaza in Oakland.
 
None of the artists is a repeat from last year except Alan Parkinson and his Architects of Air, who will be building another luminarium. This time "Exxopolis" will be half a soccer field big and as tall as a three-story house, with colorful stained-glass effects throughout.
 
Among the artists this year from the U.S., Australia, Russia, Ireland and the UK are
Charlotte Blake Alston, a teller of interactive, participatory "African Pourquoi Tales," and the clowns who make up "Aga-Boom," who have performed with Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Brothers and the Moscow Circus and make all that mess mentioned above.

The "Dinosaur Petting Zoo" by Erth Visual & Physical Inc. of Australia in the Bellefield Hall Auditorium brings the Mesozoic alive with large-scale puppetry. "The dinosaurs look pretty darn real and they just come to life" and respond to individual encounters with audience members, says Lieberman. The UK's "Egg and Spoon," in Pitt's Studio Theatre, takes kids 5 and under through the seasons with "peek-a-boo puddles, fluffy snowflakes, blowing leaves, bursting cherry blossoms, a birdie egg that just might hatch and other splendiferous surprises," as the Festival describes it. Lieberman calls it a very intimate show and "a great way to introduce children to the theater. It is very lovely and creative and really sparks their interest."
 
For "The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly" from Ireland, in the Charity Randall Theatre, Louis Lovett tells the adventure of a girl who cannot sing but still sings loudly while the audience learns about "love, loss, [and] the reassurance of goats," in the Festival's description.
 
Also new this year are extended hours on Friday for after-school time until 6 p.m., and early evening performances, as well as free international film shorts created for 5- to 8-year-old kids, coming to Pittsburgh for the first time via the New York Children's Film Festival, plus free activities and performances in Schenley Plaza.
 
"The heart of the festival is the theater performances," says Lieberman. "The goal is to see as much theater as you can. It's the discussions that come out of it that are so valuable and spark creativity and imagination."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Pam Lieberman, Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival

Hoping to create a buzz about the new Hive Learning Network, the Sprout Fund is kicking off the Hive Days of Summer at the Warhol Youth Invasion on May 3.
 
The Hive Learning Network in Pittsburgh, launched recently, provides funding, connections and support for groups with ideas for creating new learning and creativity opportunities for teens. Hive Days of Summer represents a summer-long campaign of partnerships with local groups that already have such programs, while the Hive has already accepted its first round of proposals for new programs to roll out later this summer and fall.
 
At the Warhol Youth Invasion at the Warhol Museum, more than 350 teens will be presenting a night of art, performance, music, dance, fashion and hands-on learning and creativity. The activities include: silkscreen printing and collage in the Warhol Studio; performances by Hip Hop on L.O.C.K.; the Internet Petting Zoo created by Assemble and teen committee members; a fashion show featuring designs by youth participants; LED jewelry and textile design by Invent-abling; and a dance party featuring youth DJs.
 
Through August 3, the Hive Days of Summer will then coordinate more than 20 activities, such as camps and workshops, with the aim of making summer learning more mobile, digital, collaborative, creative and connected, says Ryan Coon, Sprout program officer. It is "a way to blanket our city with these events so that people get familiar with the Hive," he says, and "a way to look at summer learning programs in a different way."
 
Other partners for Hive Days of Summer include the Labs@CLP (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) where teens will be offered workshops and other activities centered on Web and media making, Hip Hop on L.O.C.K. for their summer music and leadership workshops, Pittsburgh International Children's Festival and others.
 
"We'll be holding the door open a bit for opportunities if people want to join the campaign," he adds. The Days of Summer will end this August with a Hive pop-up event organized by the Sprout Fund to bring together all the partner organizations and youth who have been involved so far.
 
"It's just the beginning," Coon says, with Sprout accepting funding requests in June and August. "This is a running start to kicking off the programming all year long."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Ryan Coon, The Sprout Fund

Leah Durand is excited about what she'll be able to read in this year's Ralph Munn Creative Writing Contest for grades 9 through 12 at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
 
"Last year there were these amazing short stories that were well developed," says Durand, the contest chair who works at the Library's downtown branch. "The scenes were well developed and the characters were well developed, and you were really wondering what would happen next."
 
And, she adds, "What might this person come up with next year?"
 
May 1 is the deadline for entries in this anonymously judged competition, which is in its fifth year and was named for the library system’s director from 1928 through 1964. The categories this year are short prose, poetry and screenwriting; first prize in each category is $250 and second is $100. Entrants will be invited to a red carpet event on Aug 1, at which the winners in each category will be announced. Their work and selected works of other contestants will be published in the 2013 Ralph Munn Creative Writing Anthology, which will be given to the published teens and placed in all area libraries.
 
Some of the rules are new this year, says Durand. Entrants can submit only one work per category this year – two were allowed last year – and the teens themselves must submit their work. Previously, teachers could enter for their students.
 
Screenwriting is a new category this year, replacing nonfiction and graphic novels, which had been contest categories in previous years. The libraries are still offering a few writing workshops in April to help teens prepare for the contest.
 
Durand says she is happy if this contest introduces them to the process of writing: "It's just nice to read all the entries and see kids excited about writing. The hope is that they will work on their writing skills and that they're being supported."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Leah Durand, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Museum exhibits have a life expectancy of five to 10 years, says Anne Fullenkamp, associate director of museum experiences at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, and their Waterplay exhibit was "well-loved" enough to warrant a revamp. A new Waterplay opens on April 27 with nearly 20 fresh hands-on components.
 
"We looked at this as an opportunity to rethink the concept of the exhibit," Fullenkamp explains.
"We wanted people to be aware of how much water they use. Once you use your water it's gone. It's not just this magic stuff that comes out of the faucet."
 
Making that concept clear for kids, she adds, is particularly important here, since Pittsburgh seems to be surrounded by water's endless flow.
 
When Waterplay was originally installed with the museum's expansion in 2004, the room contained standing basins of water in the center. Now kids will have to work to get the water into a waterwheel that feeds the rest of the room's exhibits. They'll need to use foot or hand pumps as well as buckets to get the water elsewhere in the room.
 
"It is a big change from what people are used to," Fullenkamp says. "But we've tried to create different zones where people really can get wet, and other options where they can do quieter activities" – and drier ones.
 
The waterwheel looks like wheels that can be seen in many an old farm or pond, but the water actually flows out of its central hub and, when kids pump it, the water returns there. Then it will flow into the beginning of the channel system that goes around the room, in which kids can float items, and ends at the spot where kids can build dams.
 
Other parts of the new exhibit will foster additional experimentation. A five-foot diameter table with shaved ice will encourage kids to mold the frozen water into sculptures and see how the LED lights embedded in the table pass through water in this form. A water vortex, resembling a drain, will constantly flow in a two-foot tall clear cylinder, into which kids can place objects to see how the objects react; they can also plug the bottom of the vortex to see how the water accumulates. A water wall, six feet long and four feet high, will have moveable magnets impeding the otherwise constant flow in different ways.
 
In revising the Waterplay exhibit, the museum also wanted to make the room more changeable, including the artwork inside of it. Waterplay will now feature the Rain Meander by Pennsylvania artist Stacy Levy. It is a 14-foot long snake-like shallow trough, eight feet off the ground and eight inches in diameter, with a hole every two inches to make it rain beneath. While this is a permanent part of the exhibit, other art will change throughout the year. The first such display will be 19 glass and ceramic insects by Joan Danzinger, viewable until November. From one to six feet long, they will be scattered along the Waterplay room's 16-foot high walls.
 
"We really hope that all of the kids will look at water differently and will appreciate how water is used," Fullenkamp says. "We're creating an experience where kids can play, but we really want to start conversations  … about how important water is in our lives. We're really excited to ask the visitors to be the active participants, the instigators, of a lot of the exhibits."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Anne Fullenkamp, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

Holly McGraw-Turkovic has spent April visiting local schools to teach kids about childhood hunger. As director of youth programs at Pittsburgh Cares, she has been using the national program called What Will You Bring to the Table? to teach them about the food problems they can see around them and those that may be invisible.
 
"They learn that when people depend on food banks they don't get the things we take for granted," she says. She has already taken the program to South Allegheny Middle School, Woodland Hills Junior High and West Mifflin Area Middle School, and is slated to bring it next to Propel Braddock Hills High School and Academy Charter School.
 
Participating kids experience educational games that illustrate how they can their time, talents and money toward the elimination of this problem. Some of the activities are designed to create empathy and illustrate the unequal distribution of wealth in the world, such as one in which one group is given a large bowl overflowing with snacks, another group is given just enough snacks for each person to enjoy a single choice and a third group is not given enough even for that.
 
The kids also hear guest speakers from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, then construct and paint a specially provided picnic table that will serve as a permanent location for, and reminder of, the school's anti-hunger project -- the last step in the program. One group's project is a "Birthday in a bag" drive, creating food-bank packages that contain cake mix and other supplies to help people celebrate family members' special occasions. Another group created "Pie a teacher to feed a child": For the donation of a canned good or a dollar, kids in their school will get to hit a teacher with a pie. Another school's "Can the principal" aims to fill their principal's office with canned goods to donate to their local food pantry, while a fourth group has simply set their collection goal at 1,000 pounds of food for a food bank.
 
McGraw-Turkovic says the program has been effective in bringing the issue of childhood hunger to the fore for these school children. "The kids describe experiences with friends and neighbors who are experiencing hunger," she says, "so they are definitely taking it personally and they are definitely taking it seriously."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Holly McGraw-Turkovic, Pittsburgh Cares

What began for Anwan Wesley with the creation of Fatherhood magazine in Pittsburgh in 2006 for young and expecting urban fathers has evolved into a nonprofit called the Street Ministry Institute, reaching an increasing number of fathers and their kids in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.
 
"We're trying to find innovative ways to get these men involved and stay involved," says Wesley, of East Liberty. "There are stereotypes of how fathers should be, and some of the men shy away from them, thinking it will make them look weak. A lot of these guys were in need of encouragement. That's what the magazine was always for -- to open people up."
 
Many of Wesley's Institute efforts use sports as the both the draw and the model for the father/son relationship. "When the men see their kids excelling at athletics, they want to be a part of it," he says. "That's a bridge they can cross. Then we try to transfer that into the schools."
 
Fathers and sons can join in his Steel City Thunder basketball teams for 3rd and 4th graders, 5th and 6th graders and 7th and 8th graders, as well as NFL Youth Flag Football for 2nd-12th grades and a baseball program as well. The fathers and team coaches also get involved in their children's school at the same time -- as a school coach should, he says.
 
Club D.A.D. (Doing it All Day) in the schools uses sports to encourage academic achievement. "My big thing is being accountable for what you learn -- because when game day comes you're going to have to [use] it," Wesley says.

"The same accountability we transfer over to schools," with fathers visiting classrooms or participating in parent-teacher conferences. "The presence of the father in the classroom is going to make the difference," because he can act as a kind of classroom coach. "If I show up in school and expect you to be doing this and this and you're not doing it, there are going to be consequences. Kids respond like they do on the basketball court -- but at the end of the day, they see their value rise, because their teachers are sending home good reports."
 
The Institute is also working with Homewood Renaissance Association on a sports-themed STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program, teaching sports-themed STEM academics at the African American Music Institute and the YMCA in Homewood. "We're trying to open our kids' eyes to other opportunities around sports," he explains, such as being a sports lawyer, doctor, trainer or agent.
 
The Institute also has an arts initiative and donates socks each December to a nursing home in Homewood. On Father's Day, June 16, it will hold its largest annual program, a Father's Day Cookout at Mellon for the seventh year.
 
"There are other programs we will unveil in the coming months to rebuild the relationship between the child and the father," Wesley says. "We can't be everything to the kids if the parents are acting [badly]. There's a lot of broken homes. The only way to fix that is to get to the common ground -- the kid and his best interest."
 
He also hopes the cookout will be the beginning of his own push against violence in the community. "There's been too much gun violence," he says. "The violence [prevention], it starts with us. If we're not there, that's when violence and chaos consume the family. If you're quiet, it's like you're being held hostage by your own people."
 
In the end, it's Wesley's three sons who keep him dedicated to this cause, he says. "I see a lot of potential in them. I know their potential won't be realized if I don't do what I've got to do and make a path for them. Knowing that they don't know how great they are makes me go harder.
 
"I've got a daughter on the way," he adds, "and I believe the Lord is going to take me to another level."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Anwan Wesley, Street Ministry Institute

When famed chef Jamie Oliver came to Pittsburgh last fall to start his 10,000 Tables program, aimed at getting more families to enjoy the benefits of home-cooked, television-free meals, Bobby Fry, one of the creators of Bar Marco in the Strip, asked him what local business owners and chefs could do.
 
"Your role is to inspire and empower people," Oliver answered, as Fry recalls.
 
"I likened it to the analogy of young musicians inspired by rock stars and taught by their music teachers," Fry says. So he decided: "Somebody in the community had to be supporting schools and school cafeterias."
 
Fry gathered other local organizations and teamed with Kelsey Weisgerber, food service director at the Environmental Charter School, to start the Cooking School movement. Their goals: "Find a group of kids, give them the tools, knowledge and experience and let them have higher standards for food, and that will change the system" toward healthier school lunches.
 
The group first approached Pittsburgh Obama 6-12. Fry knew the school had its own kitchen, but he found a dormant home-economics classroom. The group cleaned it, bought each student his or her own carving knife, sharpener and cutting board and brought in 120 cookbooks from Bar Marco's kitchen for them to choose among.
 
Lots of kids picked breakfast cookbooks, Fry says. "We realized breakfast is a problem for lots of these kids," who have to leave home too early to get it and pass nowhere along the way even worth shopping for breakfast foods.
 
Fry has been inspired by the level of interest in healthy eating that he found at the school. "I thought I'd have to go in and get the kids excited about cooking. Same with the administration. They were already really on board. Everybody is ready to change school lunches."
 
"We've got to get them skills here that will get them a job," he adds about the Cooking School effort. "For working in a professional kitchen, all you need to start are the proper cutting skills" -- but those are the hardest skills to master, too.
 
Now the Cooking School teaches at the Obama school every Tuesday afternoon and brings a new chef every week. The program is being aided by Andrew T. Stephen, assistant professor of business administration and Katz Fellow in Marketing in Pitt's Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, whose MBA students are preparing a video promoting it. Their early work is viewable here. Kids from other schools can submit proposals for the Cooking School to teach elsewhere. If applicant schools don't have a kitchen, perhaps the program will try to raise money to install one, Fry says.
 
You can help the Cooking School raise funds for cooking utensils and local produce through crowdrise and a current Facebook fundraiser.
 
Do Good:
Looking for additional ways to find out about local, healthier eating and bring the movement to your community. Check out the programs of Farm to Table Pittsburgh.
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Bobby Fry, The Cooking School

Just as with any party, you're invited to drop by or stay for the entire Biodiversity Learning Party at Assemble in Garfield on April 10, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
 
Unlike most parties, however, you'll likely come away with less gossip but more brain cells, and it's an evening for all ages.
 
"It's almost like a science fair," says Assemble founder Nina Marie Barbuto, "where we have different experts presenting their expertise and offering hands-on activities."
 
These experts include everyone from college students talking about their academic concentrations to representatives of local companies and "straight-up geeks whose expertise has nothing to do with their jobs," Barbuto says. The biodiversity party will feature presenters from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Tree Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh biology department. Also manning and womanning tables at the event will be reps from Digital Dream Labs, which teaches computer programming to children by using play to link physical and digital spaces, and Tara Rockaway and Heather Mallak, whose Digital Salad mixes art, tech, and education about farming to create educational experiences that are both interactive and edible.
 
Learning party themes this year have been mapping and music/sound, and future ones will be centered on robots and energy.
 
"It's our goal to provide access to knowledge" -- and to make it "attainable and digestible," Barbuto says. "It should be real fun, and we always have free healthy snacks."
 
Her hopes for the party, she says, "start with just having the word 'biodiversity' as part of your vocabulary and seeing how this affects the world around you." Ideally, she adds, the younger attendees will emerge thinking, "I'm interested in nutrition but I never knew this had to do with biodiversity," or "Maybe I can be a scientist."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Nina Marie Barbuto, Assemble

The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is hosting 1,000 international visitors for a kids' museum conference April 30-May 2, but their program presents a great opportunity for educators and other Pittsburghers to hear what museum officials are calling "a day of inspiration and innovation, peppered with artists, musicians and big thinkers."
 
The conference, InterActivity 2013: Reimagining Children's Museums, at the Wyndham Grand Hotel downtown, starts with a day of "Small Talks," 18-minute presentations from performers and pioneers in the education and electronic media fields that "is going to be a really fast-paced day … to spark ideas and make meaningful conversations about what these artists and thought leaders are doing," says Jessica Bowser, lead liaison for the Museum's host committee.
 
Among the day's speakers will be Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, which posits that most of the big ideas are already out there, and it's how you combine them that matters, plus The Click Moment, about taking advantage of opportunities in the business world. On the list of local presenters is Luis von Ahn, the crowdsourcing expert who invented the CAPTCHA, which prevents a lot of spam today. "He also is trying to help figure out how big groups of people can narrow down their ideas," says Bowser.
 
Also appearing will be Vanessa German of Homewood's Love Front Porch neighborhood art project; Rory Cooper, Distinguished Professor and scientist at the University of Pittsburgh and co-director of the Quality of Life Technology Center Testbed Systems, who works to improve assistive technologies for those with disabilities; Maria Rosario Jackson, senior advisor to the Arts and Culture Program at The Kresge Foundation; Shane J. Lopez, the world’s leading researcher on hope and author of Making Hope Happen; and more.
 
Through April 10, local educators can purchase a ticket to the day of "Small Talks" for nearly half price, or purchase the day of more traditional conference sessions on May 1 at a discount as well, and receive credit hours for that latter date. Those purchasing one-day tickets can also add a ticket to hear keynote speaker Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other books.
           
The day of "Small Talks" may also be purchased individually by other members of the public.
 
"It will be very fun to host our peers from across the country and the world," says Bowser of the conference. Children's Museum of Pittsburgh officials will be particularly interested to see how other museums have adapted their innovative MakeShop space, which has increased museum visitor numbers and how long they stay.
 
"One of the questions we're trying to answer is, what will it be like to experience a children's museum in the [rest of] the 21st century?" Bowser says. "Is there going to be more virtual experiences wth technology? We need to make sure we're building an environment that is fun and educational and culturally stimulating."
 
Writer: Marty Levine
Source: Jessica Bowser, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh