Curiosity in Action - An EXPLO Blog
At EXPLO, we’re serious about fun. But we’re even more serious about rekindling the wonder of learning and helping students find out what great things they are truly capable of. We don’t just encourage students to look out over the parapet — we set up the ladder.
Our passion is education. Our mission is to make creative learning a way of life.
OUR SUMMER SITES:
Summer Site: EXPLO at St. Mark's
Summer Site: EXPLO at Wellesley
Summer Site: EXPLO at Yale
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70 posts tagged EXPLO at St. Mark's
THINGS We Love
Organized Wonder
One of our favorite new finds is Organized Wonder, a website that lets you “share and discover the best talks, documentaries, interviews, short films and various other videos scattered across the web.”
According to us at Explo, it’s a portal into the imagination; a window into the possible, the original, and the wonderful. A different kind of social network, Organized Wonder is a site for those of us who love to be inspired — and those who love to inspire others in return.
Some of our favorite videos? Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 1)” and Sir Ken Robinson’s “School Kills Creativity.” To check out these and more, visit www.organizedwonder.com.
CREATIVE Minds
The Iggy Project
They’re working with our Curriculum Department to plan courses, developing exciting projects and activities, and generally trying to get everything ready before summer begins. Oh, and our summer 2012 faculty are also taking wildly imaginative photos for the Iggy Photo Project.
The Iggy Photo Project was originally designed for students, but as soon as our faculty got wind of it, they wanted in on the action. And they delivered.
We’ve turned some of the best faculty submissions we’ve received into a slideshow, and have sent it out to our students to help get them excited for the summer.
We think you’ll enjoy it, too: 2012 Faculty Examples Video
Want to take an Iggy Photo of your own? Simply email us at iggy@explo.org and request a PDF of the Iggy logo. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
THINGS We Love
DIY KIDS
Imagine a safe space where young students could share their projects, ideas, photos, and videos with students from around the world.
Enter diy.org: an online community where young inventors, artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, photographers, scientists, and explorers can upload photos and videos of their latest projects and creations — and check out those of students everywhere. Individualized usernames and avatars ensure that students’ identities remain hidden, while parental controls ensure the site’s content stays safe for young minds.
How it works: Students sign up and create their own personal accounts, where they can share photos and videos of their projects which they can upload to the site via the website or by using the site’s iPhone/iPod Touch app. Once they’re published, the projects are live for everyone to see. And just to make sure students aren’t sharing anything that parents might want to keep private, parents have a control panel where they can monitor their child’s activity — and show their support (with stickers!).
Unleashing a student’s creativity in a safe, supported environment? We’re all for it. Check out more about DIY for Kids here: https://diy.org/
“Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We’re a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.”
Khan Academy: A free education built on a love of learning and exploration.
We don’t love this website because it almost shares our name. We love it because it fuels the pursuit of knowledge across a multi-disciplinary learning landscape — and because above all things, being curious will get you everywhere.
Start exp.loring: http://exp.lore.com
EXPLORING Education
Flipping the Classroom
There has been a lot of buzz recently about “flipping the classroom,” and not just within the world of education. The flipped classroom has been covered by nearly every media outlet, and yet many people are still uncertain about what it is, what it does, and why it can be useful and transformative.
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EXPLORING Education
NurtureShock
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman is a deeply captivating and surprising — indeed, shocking — book about what we have come to believe about a variety of issues in childrearing and teaching. And why we have been wrong.
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THE HOME Office
Checking Out Explo
Joaquim, gearing up for a one-two punch.
In Boston on business (and a fair bit of sightseeing), a family visiting from São Paolo, Brazil, decided to stop by Explo HQ to ask some questions and find out more about the programs. Their daughter Helena is interested in attending Explo at Wellesley, while son Joaquim is thinking about coming to Explo at St. Mark’s.
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FACULTY Interview
Becky Craig Fleps
She’s been an ancient Roman, a House Elf, and as you can see above (far right), a Tyrolean musician straight off the Sound of Music set… and that’s just at Explo.
As the head of the Curriculum Office at Explo at St. Mark’s, Becky Craig Fleps always brings her A game, which to us means having an amazing knack for helping faculty members create engaging and innovative courses. For Becky, it also means having an incredible imagination — and a love of making every moment fun.
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Just another day of airing out the suits and getting everything ready for summer… What’s in your closet?
CREATIVE Minds
The Iggy Project
Before our students and staff arrive on campus this summer, we’ve asked them to participate in the Iggy Project.
What is the Iggy Project? It’s a chance for our summer 2012 students and staff to get to know a little bit about each other and show everyone a little bit about themselves.
It’s also an opportunity for them to inspire one another to heightened feats of creativity — and find out just how imaginative they can be with a cardboard balloon (which they received in the mail), a camera, and the places, communities, and cultures that have helped shape the individuals they’ve become.
We had a lot of fun putting a video of this project together, and can’t wait to see the photo ideas our students and staff come up with. Check out the video to find out more: Iggy Project Video.
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FACULTY Interview
Alexandra Koulopoulos
The two qualities that best describe Alexandra Koulopoulos? Creativity and compassion. And fun. Oh, and a passion for education, a desire to work with students with special needs, and the drive to makes her dreams reality. Just as she did for her students at Explo last summer (and, we suspect, the students she’ll teach and care for this coming summer).
Why are we so excited to have Alexandra come back to teach at Explo at Wellesley this summer? Because she’s great at what she does, and because she understands that in order to be a truly great mentor and teacher, you need to be true to yourself first. (Including embracing the ridiculous that’s in all of us.)
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ALUMNI News
From Massachusetts to Paris: Friends for Life
Bridget (left) and Olivia in Paris, 2006
Bridget Fitzpatrick’s best friend didn’t grow up down the street, go to the same school, or even belong to the same extended family. She doesn’t even live on the same continent.
So how did Bridget and Olivia — both now college students — meet and become such fast friends? By deciding, one summer, that they each really, really, really wanted to come to Explo. And as 4th- and 5th-graders, they just happened to live on the same floor at St. Mark’s.
We first heard about this story of lifelong friendship from Dan Mantell, a member of our Board of Trustees. His daughter Katie, now an engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania, was the catalyst. She wanted to go to Explo — and convinced her parents that her friend Bridget just had to come, too. If not for that, well, Bridget and Olivia might never have met.
