[YL] YouthLearn Newsletter, Issue 138

Tue Aug 12 21:09:23 EDT 2008

YouthLearn
Newsletter, Issue 138 - August 12, 2008

The YouthLearn Newsletter compiles the latest entries to the YouthLearn News Blog. This innovative service to the YouthLearn community highlights youth, education, and technology news, tools, and resources. We hope this assists you in your important work. Please feel free to share this resource with friends and colleagues, and visit the News Blog often! http://news.youthlearn.org <http://news.youthlearn.org/> 

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YouthLearn Updates 

YouthLearn Team Grows in Chicago
YouthLearn is thrilled to welcome a new team member this summer. Kate Goddard has joined us as a new Program Coordinator, working across our various projects to help with materials development, training and outreach. Kate comes to us with practitioner work in youth development, media, and technology, having most recently been associated with the Science Museum of Minnesota, Phillips Community Television, and The Community Technology Empowerment Project. We are so excited to have Kate round out our group - please welcome her to the YouthLearn community! 
URL: http://www.youthlearn.org/about/staff.html <http://www.youthlearn.org/about/staff.html> 

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Funding 

Pay It Forward Foundation Mini-Grants
"Pay It Forward Mini-Grants are designed to fund one-time-only service-oriented projects identified by youth as activities they would like to perform to benefit their school, neighborhood, or greater community. Projects must contain a 'pay it forward' focus - that is, they must be based on the concept of one person doing a favor for others, who in turn do favors for others, with the results growing exponentially - to be considered in the grant making process... Mini-Grants of up to $500 are available." Deadline: September 15.
URL: http://payitforwardfoundation.org/educators/grant.html <http://payitforwardfoundation.org/educators/grant.html> 

William T. Grant Foundation Field-Initiated Grants Program
"The William T. Grant Foundation is accepting Letters of Inquiry for its field-initiated grants program. The foundation's current research interests are understanding how social settings such as families, schools, peer groups, and organizations work; how they affect youth development; and how they can be improved... To be eligible for consideration, applicants must be employed at a nonprofit 501(c)(3) institution, either in the United States or abroad; submit a project that is consistent with the foundation's current research interests; address issues that have compelling relevance for theory, policies, and/or practices affecting the settings of youth between the ages of 8 and 25 in the United States or a vulnerable sub-population of those youth; reflect high standards of evidence and rigorous methods, commensurate with the proposal's goals. The deadlines for Letters of Inquiry are September 3, 2008; January 8, 2009; April 1, 2009; and September 9, 2009."
URL: http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/info-url5243/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=646398 <http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/info-url5243/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=646398> 
Referred by: Foundation Center

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Resources 

Play, Spirit & Character Radio Program
"Stuart Brown, a physician and director of the National Institute for Play, says that pleasurable, purposeless activity prevents violence and promotes trust, empathy, and adaptability to life's complication. He promotes cutting-edge science on human play, and draws on a rich universe of study of intelligent social animals." You can listen online or download the podcast of this interview by Krista Tippet of American Public Media's Speaking of Faith.
URL: http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play/index.shtml <http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play/index.shtml> 

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Research 

Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination
"For more than 30 years, arts education has been a low priority in the nation's public schools. This new RAND study investigated the revitalization efforts in six urban U.S. communities and found progress in access to arts learning. This progress is fragile, however, and will require committed and sustained leadership, supportive policy and sufficient resources in order to be sustainable and weather cutbacks."
URL: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG702/index.html <http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG702/index.html> 
Referred by: Connect for Kids

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Activities 

PicoCrickets - Art and Technology Kits
PicoCrickets give young people the raw materials to build their own artistic creations, which they can program to respond to light, sound, and touch. It is one of the resources highlighted in the recently launched Technology Curriculum Database, developed by YouthLearn for the U.S. Department of Education-funded National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning at SEDL. Drawing on the same research base as Lego Mindstorms, the PicoCricket Kit is a robotics kit designed with greater emphasis on artistic expression, in an effort to appeal to girls as much as boys. The Kit includes a miniature computer, sensors, software, Lego bricks, craft materials, and project ideas. The user-friendly Web site provides technical support, additional ideas for educators, and photo and video galleries for showcasing creations. 
URL: http://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/afterschool/technology.cgi?resource=2 <http://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/mysql/afterschool/technology.cgi?resource=2> 

We welcome your feedback!

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YouthLearn
http://www.youthlearn.org <http://www.youthlearn.org/> 

This newsletter is produced by the YouthLearn Initiative at EDC especially for
members of the YouthLearn discussion group. Every two weeks, the newsletter is
compiled from the entries in the YouthLearn News Blog <http://news.youthlearn.org/> , including summaries
from various sources that YouthLearn staff periodically review.

Past newsletters are archived at http://www.youthlearn.org/resources/newsletter/index.html <http://www.youthlearn.org/resources/newsletter/index.html> . 

YouthLearn is a project of the nonprofit Education Development Center, Inc. <http://www.edc.org/> 
Designed for youth development professionals, teachers, educators, and other
caring adults, YouthLearn provides resources and tools for developing effective
learning programs enhanced with technology, particularly in out-of-school settings.

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