Learning, Doing, Being: A New Science of Education [Speaking of Faith® from American Public Media]
November 19, 2009
What Adele Diamond is learning about the brain challenges basic assumptions in modern education. Her work is scientifically illustrating the educational power of things like play, sports, music, memorization and reflection. What nourishes the human spirit, the whole person, it turns out, also hones our minds.
I listened to Adele Diamond's interview and you can too. There is a podcast on the link posted above. Adele is a Nuero scientist whose studies confirm the absolute necessity of maintaining a Wholistic learning/living environment to engage and maintain a child's cognitive development.
As we know, the nourished Mind and Spirit are inseperable and along with a nourished body will allow for all children to grow into responsible creative individuals who are capable of solving the challenges facing them and life on this planet.
I would challenge you to listen to the podcast and comment on how we can get together to create and expand the kinds of learning communities that would foster these opportunities for all children.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Learning Barge
The Learning Barge is one of many projects created through the talented minds working with the Elizebeth River Project.
Their home website being - http://www.elizabethriver.org/default.aspx
There is great potential to develop collaborative efforts with sister organizations such as the Elizabeth River Project. Both the Great Lakes Watersheds and the Chesapeke Bay Watershed have unique atributes and challenges from which we all can learn. Connecting the two learning environments in some contiguos fashion could provide new and exciting opportunities for all concerned.
The Learning Barge--a unique floating classroom along the Elizabeth River
The Learning Barge
National Recognition and Cash Awards
Boost Start for Floating Classroom
Unique Barge Design is Recognized by The EPA and
Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation
The University of Virginia (UVA) School of Architecture graduate student's Learning Barge design won $75,000 and the honor of being the only competitor to win two awards during the 2006-2007 EPA P3 competition. Earlier this spring, the project was granted $125,000 by the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation!
The Learning Barge is a one-of-a-kind solar and wind-powered, floating classroom with a living wetland onboard. This visionary and extremely unusual educational project will be an ideal icon for The Elizabeth River Project as the organization's first floating presence on the river. The barge can host school and other educational groups as well as workshops, field trips and more for up to 100 people. Educators are near completion on an SOL curriculum specific to the project. The Learning Barge will connect students, community, conservation and business groups to the river in a way that helps makes this vital resource more personal.
The recognition and award money will be a great boost to the project. UVA and the Elizabeth River Project are working to raise the funds needed to build and operate the barge. The barge is being developed by UVA and The Elizabeth River Project in collaboration with other partners,
See UVA's Studio Book of the Learning Barge (large pdf file), and read about the awards it has won.
Elizabeth River Project's Proposed 'Learning Barge'
Earns Major Award for U.Va. Architecture Professor
Phoebe Crisman
Highest National Education Award from American Institute of Architects Awarded for Innovative Floating Project
Phoebe Crisman, associate professor of architecture at the University of Virginia, has been selected as a 2008 recipient of the American Institute of Architects Education Honor Award for her work on the "Learning Barge," a floating ecological classroom set to be launched on Virginia's polluted Elizabeth River.
The Education Honor Awards program, created in 1988, recognizes collegiate faculty achievements and contributions to education and to the discipline of architecture. The awards will be presented in May during the AIA National Convention in Boston.
In conjunction with the Elizabeth River Project, an environmental nonprofit focused on improving the conditions of the river, plus community partners and professionals and U.Va. students, Crisman developed the idea of a self-sustaining, buoyant Learning Barge to bridge the current disconnect between the Elizabeth River, one of the most contaminated rivers in the United States, and community members in Norfolk and surrounding counties, who are often isolated from the river because much of its shoreline is controlled by industrial and military interests. The 120-by-32-foot barge promises to give both students and community members the opportunity to study an unfiltered version of a real marine ecosystem and understand their place within it.
"This has been an amazing opportunity for students to connect with a range of people with whom they might never have interacted," said Crisman. "It's has been rather stunning to see the way that the students have stepped up to the challenge and gone beyond what I thought they could do."
The vessel, a collaborative research, design and fabrication initiative of students from in architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, education, art and history, incorporates research and sustainable design principles to promote environmental education. The floating field station is powered by solar and wind energy, collects rainwater, filters gray water with native plants and utilizes recycled and renewable materials.
Crisman has cited several objectives for architectural education, including making a positive difference through design by connecting students with real communities that would not have access to design services; fostering a commitment to environmental ethics and deep, hands-on knowledge of green strategies at the architectural and urban scales; linking that awareness to formal and aesthetic research; and helping students connect their design education and daily lives as responsible citizens of their local and broader community.
The integrated educational component for K-12 schoolchildren offers opportunities to experience the river firsthand and engage in hands-on exploration and learning. Its mobility allows it to travel every few months to areas undergoing current environmental initiatives – allowing its passengers to observe oyster restoration efforts, wetland plantings or remediation of contaminated sediments.
According to Crisman, the prefabricated components will be constructed in Charlottesville this spring for eventual installation on the barge.
Even before it hits the water, the barge has received a raft of awards, including recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the American Society of Landscape Architects and the James River Green Building Council and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
It has also received financial support from the Virginia Environmental Foundation, the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.Va. School of Architecture's Public Service Fellowship Program and the U.Va. School of Architecture Foundation.
The Learning Barge
Six distinct, yet connected, learning stations
allow for small groups to do site-specific
and interactive projects on the Upper Deck, Armature Galllery, Artifact Deck, Classroom, Wetland and Story Telling Stairs.
View 2-D Perspectives from the
U. VA School of Architecture
Become a Barge Buddy!
Discover volunteer opportunities.
Background Articles
Explore the Learning Barge Project at these links:
Learning Barge Fact Sheet (pdf file)
EPA P3 Competition
Learning Barge Awards
U.VA News Release
AIA Press Release
U.VA School of Architecture's Leaning Barge Web site
This innovative floating classroom (simplified model below) offers mobile, hands-on learning for adults, students, civic leaders and others. See more about the award-winning educational concept at the links above.
Learning Barge features Solar Panels
Admirals Landing
475 Water Street, Suite 103A
Portsmouth, VA 23704
Phone: 757-399-7487
Fax 757-397-8377
Contact Us by Email
Their home website being - http://www.elizabethriver.org/default.aspx
There is great potential to develop collaborative efforts with sister organizations such as the Elizabeth River Project. Both the Great Lakes Watersheds and the Chesapeke Bay Watershed have unique atributes and challenges from which we all can learn. Connecting the two learning environments in some contiguos fashion could provide new and exciting opportunities for all concerned.
The Learning Barge--a unique floating classroom along the Elizabeth River
The Learning Barge
National Recognition and Cash Awards
Boost Start for Floating Classroom
Unique Barge Design is Recognized by The EPA and
Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation
The University of Virginia (UVA) School of Architecture graduate student's Learning Barge design won $75,000 and the honor of being the only competitor to win two awards during the 2006-2007 EPA P3 competition. Earlier this spring, the project was granted $125,000 by the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation!
The Learning Barge is a one-of-a-kind solar and wind-powered, floating classroom with a living wetland onboard. This visionary and extremely unusual educational project will be an ideal icon for The Elizabeth River Project as the organization's first floating presence on the river. The barge can host school and other educational groups as well as workshops, field trips and more for up to 100 people. Educators are near completion on an SOL curriculum specific to the project. The Learning Barge will connect students, community, conservation and business groups to the river in a way that helps makes this vital resource more personal.
The recognition and award money will be a great boost to the project. UVA and the Elizabeth River Project are working to raise the funds needed to build and operate the barge. The barge is being developed by UVA and The Elizabeth River Project in collaboration with other partners,
See UVA's Studio Book of the Learning Barge (large pdf file), and read about the awards it has won.
Elizabeth River Project's Proposed 'Learning Barge'
Earns Major Award for U.Va. Architecture Professor
Phoebe Crisman
Highest National Education Award from American Institute of Architects Awarded for Innovative Floating Project
Phoebe Crisman, associate professor of architecture at the University of Virginia, has been selected as a 2008 recipient of the American Institute of Architects Education Honor Award for her work on the "Learning Barge," a floating ecological classroom set to be launched on Virginia's polluted Elizabeth River.
The Education Honor Awards program, created in 1988, recognizes collegiate faculty achievements and contributions to education and to the discipline of architecture. The awards will be presented in May during the AIA National Convention in Boston.
In conjunction with the Elizabeth River Project, an environmental nonprofit focused on improving the conditions of the river, plus community partners and professionals and U.Va. students, Crisman developed the idea of a self-sustaining, buoyant Learning Barge to bridge the current disconnect between the Elizabeth River, one of the most contaminated rivers in the United States, and community members in Norfolk and surrounding counties, who are often isolated from the river because much of its shoreline is controlled by industrial and military interests. The 120-by-32-foot barge promises to give both students and community members the opportunity to study an unfiltered version of a real marine ecosystem and understand their place within it.
"This has been an amazing opportunity for students to connect with a range of people with whom they might never have interacted," said Crisman. "It's has been rather stunning to see the way that the students have stepped up to the challenge and gone beyond what I thought they could do."
The vessel, a collaborative research, design and fabrication initiative of students from in architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, education, art and history, incorporates research and sustainable design principles to promote environmental education. The floating field station is powered by solar and wind energy, collects rainwater, filters gray water with native plants and utilizes recycled and renewable materials.
Crisman has cited several objectives for architectural education, including making a positive difference through design by connecting students with real communities that would not have access to design services; fostering a commitment to environmental ethics and deep, hands-on knowledge of green strategies at the architectural and urban scales; linking that awareness to formal and aesthetic research; and helping students connect their design education and daily lives as responsible citizens of their local and broader community.
The integrated educational component for K-12 schoolchildren offers opportunities to experience the river firsthand and engage in hands-on exploration and learning. Its mobility allows it to travel every few months to areas undergoing current environmental initiatives – allowing its passengers to observe oyster restoration efforts, wetland plantings or remediation of contaminated sediments.
According to Crisman, the prefabricated components will be constructed in Charlottesville this spring for eventual installation on the barge.
Even before it hits the water, the barge has received a raft of awards, including recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the American Society of Landscape Architects and the James River Green Building Council and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
It has also received financial support from the Virginia Environmental Foundation, the Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.Va. School of Architecture's Public Service Fellowship Program and the U.Va. School of Architecture Foundation.
The Learning Barge
Six distinct, yet connected, learning stations
allow for small groups to do site-specific
and interactive projects on the Upper Deck, Armature Galllery, Artifact Deck, Classroom, Wetland and Story Telling Stairs.
View 2-D Perspectives from the
U. VA School of Architecture
Become a Barge Buddy!
Discover volunteer opportunities.
Background Articles
Explore the Learning Barge Project at these links:
Learning Barge Fact Sheet (pdf file)
EPA P3 Competition
Learning Barge Awards
U.VA News Release
AIA Press Release
U.VA School of Architecture's Leaning Barge Web site
This innovative floating classroom (simplified model below) offers mobile, hands-on learning for adults, students, civic leaders and others. See more about the award-winning educational concept at the links above.
Learning Barge features Solar Panels
Admirals Landing
475 Water Street, Suite 103A
Portsmouth, VA 23704
Phone: 757-399-7487
Fax 757-397-8377
Contact Us by Email
Saturday, August 8, 2009
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