education – Cambridge Creativity Commons

How to Make Your Mind Move

Cambridge Creativity Commons in partnership with Catalyst Conversations invite you to the 3rd Annual STEAM Conversation April 21st, 3-5pm at Lesley University College of Art and Design.

Join choreographers/dancers Peter DiMuro and Jody Weber and scientist/dancer Terina-Jasmine Alladin from the Science Club for Girls as they demonstrate how the movement of our bodies can help us understand the world around us. Join us for a dynamic conversation followed by a dance party to express your own creative moves! This event is an El STEAM Collaboration.

Presenter at ESE Annual Education Conference

Cambridge Creativity Commons and Cambridge Public Schools STEM department presented our project, Interactive Eco-systems, at the annual State Elementary and Secondary Education conference in Marlborough, MA on Tuesday. This was to specifically highlight the Creativity and Innovation grant award and how we’ve used the new Creativity Rubric to shape and improve our project going into the second year. Thankful for the continuing support and award from DESE and CPS and excited to begin the work this year integrating art, science and technology!

IECollaboration_Tech

A STEAM Conversation: Learning Through the Lens of Art & Science – April 23rd!

Join us for a dynamic talk between scientists and designers from DeScience followed by a hands-on workshop where you can engage in the overlapping creative processes of both artists and scientists. The event April 23rd 3 – 4:30 at the new Lunder Arts Center at Lesley University College of Art & Design. CCC partners once again with Catalyst Conversations to organize and host this second annual STEAM education event during Cambridge Science Festival! Event supported by the Expanded Learning STEAM Network. 23c972_69b4a283e55a4379965447d158711744.jpg_srz_p_980_702_75_22_0.50_1.20_0

CCC & CPS in Hechinger Report on Coding and Creativity

The Hechinger Report, covers inequality and innovation in education with in-depth journalism that uses research, data and stories from classrooms and campuses to show the public how education can be improved and why it matters. Last week based on the recommendation of Ingrid Gustafson, the Cambridge Public School Instructional Technology Specialist in grades 6-12, I was interviewed to discuss ways we had integrated coding and the arts together in a science class. This article highlights some of our discussion as well as other schools ideas and innovative approaches about this topic nation-wide. Click here to read ‘Should every school class be a computer coding class?’ by Chris Berdik.

Awarded EL STEAM mini-grants!!

I’m excited to announce Cambridge Creativity Commons (CCC) in partnership with Catalyst Conversations (CC) and the East End House (EEH) has been awarded two Expanded Learning STEAM (ELSTEAM) mini-grants for events and programs aligned with the Cambridge Science Festival! this spring! Continue reading Awarded EL STEAM mini-grants!!

Eco-System STEAM learning – CPS article!

Check out the article on the Rindge Avenue Upper School website!!! http://rindgeavenue.cpsd.us/flash/ecomuve_2014

Overview
As part of 6th grade life science and ecology/ecosystems studies, Cambridge Public Schools uses a computerbased virtual environment developed by Harvard called EcoMUVE
(http://ecomuve.gse.harvard.edu/module2.html). Students are presented with a scenario related to a forest ecosystem and utilize the virtual environment in EcoMUVE to come to a solution. From the EcoMUVE website, “students work in teams to visit the two islands over a span of fifty years to see how the populations and forest structure change on each island over time.” This year, 6th grade science teacher Dave Suchy and his students at RAUC expanded upon the EcoMUVE curriculum by collaborating with Ingrid Gustafson, CPS Instructional Technology Specialist and Kyle Browne, director of Cambridge Creativity Commons (cambridgecreativitycommons.org). As a final project articulating a hypothesis and solution to a problem, students created mixed media scientific illustrations depicting the EcoMUVE web of organism interactions. Their paper based ecosystem webs were made into computer based interactive simulations by connecting MaKeyMaKey kits (http://MaKeyMaKey.com/) and were controlled by programming with Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/). Students gained practice in 21st century skills such as collaborating and creativity throughout the duration of this project by engaging in STEAM education Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. Continue reading Eco-System STEAM learning – CPS article!

Central Elements – Cambridge Science Festival! Photomontage on Mass Ave

East End House and Cambridge Creativity Commons have teamed up to provide their combined expertise in STEAM education (Science Technology Engineering Arts & Math). Focusing on the compound NaCl (table salt), 6th-8th graders learned about the period table and basic compounds… especially reactions! As a culmination of their learning, the students dyed their own NaCl and took pictures of the arrangements and art pieces they made. Continue reading Central Elements – Cambridge Science Festival! Photomontage on Mass Ave

Intergenerational Art Exhibit at Lesley University

Featuring Doffie Arnold, the inspiration behind Cambridge Creativity Commons, Kyle Browne CCC Director & Teaching Artist and the students whose learning has been enriched by CCC!

Putnam Avenue Creative Journaling Project on view NOW!

Putnam Avenue Upper School Creative Journaling Project: In collaboration with Dorothy Arnold is on exhibit now at the Cambridge Main Library!

Opening Reception
Wednesday December 4th, 5-7pm
449 Broadway in the Beech Room
Light refreshments & Student and Teacher comments at 6pm

In the 2012-13 school year 6th grade students at PAUS partnered with the Cambridge Creativity Commons to construct their own hand-bound journals inspired by Dorothy Arnold’s legacy of art journals. These journals are filled with pages that creatively express students’ knowledge across disciplines through image and text. A selection of Dorothy’s journals presented alongside the student journals will be exhibited at the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library November 23 – Jan 31.