Getting a summer education

Annette Lucksinger is an instructor at St. Edward’s University, a mom of two, and author of the guidebook and mobile app Exploring Austin with Kids. She stopped by Alt Ed Austin to share some of her best ideas for fun places around Austin to learn with kids this summer. You can find even more ideas for summer adventures in Annette’s guide, or read about her favorite places, events, and people on the Exploring Austin with Kids blog.
 

Summertime learning is my favorite kind. It’s looser, less structured. There are no alarm clocks. No tardy bells. We can stay at an activity for as long as our focus will hold, and lessons tend to be more hands-on and experiential. Learning comes as fun.

It’s a sensory season too. Blasts of heat greet us as we walk outdoors, balanced by snow cones, ice cream, and sweet plunges into springs and swimming pools. Squeals of joy, splashes, and the whistles of lifeguards fill the air, hushed by the quiet glow of lightning bugs as things wind down after long, full days.

As we jump into summer, here are some ideas for keeping kids’ minds and bodies active while making for a memorable, fun-filled summer. Even better, most of them are free!

Summer Events

View the Congress Avenue Bridge Bats by Boat
While the bats are impressive to watch by land (and free with an informational kiosk nearby), viewing them by boat makes it even more educational. Captain-led tours offer information about bats, as well as history, city planning, and the changing Austin skyline as you tour the lake waiting for sunset. Pack snacks and drinks.
When: Departures 30 minutes before sunset; tours last an hour.
Where: Book through Lone Star River Boat or Capital Cruises.
Tips: Make reservations, and allow time for parking.

Nature Nights at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
This annual event teaches young visitors about Texas ecology and its plants and animals through nature crafts, short expert-led hikes, and interactive presentations and activities. Each week focuses on a unique theme, and the new Luci and Ian Children’s Garden makes it a perfect place to spend an evening. Check the website for this year’s schedule.
When:  Thursday evenings in June and July from 6pm to 9pm.
Tips: Get there early for parking (and for a limited number of auditorium tickets when a presentation is part of the week’s event). Pack bug repellent.

Zilker Hillside Theater
Younger children can absorb the arts as they roll and roam on the hillside while older kids take it in from blankets beneath the stars. Pack a picnic and drinks. (If you arrive early, set up your blanket, then take a dip in Barton Springs Pool or hop on the Zilker Zephyr while you await the evening festivities.) It’s a nice way to introduce children to Shakespeare (Thursdays–Sundays in May). In July and August, performances shift to Broadway musicals. Free.
When: Performances begin at sundown. Stake your spot beginning at 6pm.
Tips: Pack snacks, drinks, pillows, and glow sticks.

Museums

Art, history, science, and natural history lessons for all ages can be experienced at nearby museums. Another good thing about these is that many of them are air-conditioned for those hot summer days, and all of them offer free days or times. (Museums are listed below in order of age appeal.)

Thinkery
When visiting Austin’s children’s museum in the Mueller development, add a picnic in Lake Park across the street or a swim in the neighborhood’s Ella Wooten Pool or nearby Bartholomew City Pool. For babies and toddlers, visit the museum during Baby Bloomers hours when the museum is open exclusively for ages 0–3 (Mondays 9am –12pm and Saturdays 9am– 10am). Every Wednesday from 4pm– 8pm admission is free or by donation.

Umlauf Scuplture Garden
This outdoor museum offers lush, shady places to wander along stroller-friendly paths past beautiful sculpture pieces. Ask for the scavenger hunt for preschoolers and up. Free on Family Day, Sunday, June 7th, with special activities for 4- to 10-year-olds.

Contemporary Museum at Laguna Gloria
Strolling the paths of this beautiful spot along Lake Austin, kids can seek out the new art installments added to the grounds or visit the Driscoll Villa to see European-style architecture. You can also check out an Action Pack filled with materials to engage kids during their visit. Second Saturdays Are for Families offers hands-on activities for kids age 2–11. Free every Tuesday.

Bob Bullock Texas History Museum
With plenty of room to roam among three floors of Texas history exhibits and with its two theaters showing feature films and short educational films on animals, the Lone Star state, and history, this museum is a favorite, especially on hot or rainy days. Family storytimes are on Mondays at 11am during the summer. First Sundays offer free admission and additional kid-focused activities.

Texas Memorial Museum
In this museum on the University of Texas campus, you will find three floors of animal, insect, fossil, and bone exhibits from dinosaur times to modern day, with a fourth floor to engage older children in evolution and biodiversity. Free on Saturday, June 6, with family activities 10am–4pm.

Camp Mabry Military Museum
For children interested in Texas military history from 1903 to present day, this spacious museum in Camp Mabry’s old mess hall houses a surprisingly engaging collection for kids that is worth checking out. Tanks, helicopters, and aircraft are on display outside the museum, and a nature trail and pond are also on the base. Take your driver’s license for entry. Free, or by donation.

Texas Capitol Visitors Center
Ever wondered what the white building at the edge of the Capitol grounds holds? It’s not just for tourists! This free museum offers hands-on, kid-focused Texas history exhibits, and the building itself is fun to explore, with hidden staircases and telescopes.

Blanton Museum of Art
My favorite exhibit for young children is Cildo Meireles’ How to Build Cathedrals in the Modern Art Gallery, while older children will find a variety of their own favorites. Free on Thursdays.

 
Farm Life

Boggy Creek Farm
This urban farm allows kids to see how the food they eat is grown, and with the market open Wednesday–Saturday mornings, they can taste it too. The farm also offers a glimpse into Austin’s past with its old farmhouse on the grounds. Young kids will enjoy the chickens and adjacent dirt pile for playing in.

Crowe’s Nest Farm
For a short day trip, this educational farm near Manor offers tours of themed gardens, a milking barn, and a host of animals, from those you would expect to see on a farm (dairy cows, goats, pigs, and chickens) to more exotic creatures that make their home here (bison, emus, coatimundis, and raptors). Picnic tables are available for lunch/snacks. Contact the farm for reservations. They also host a half-day summer camp in June.

Green Gate Farms
Education is central to the mission of this East Austin farm. While families are welcome to visit during market hours, kids can get a true sense of agricultural life during “Farmer for a Day” camp or in weeklong, themed “Summer Farm Camps.” Learning the skills that used to be absorbed through daily life on the farm, campers become empowered to plant, harvest, cook (in a solar oven), and preserve food. Or they might choose to tend to the livestock, build farm structures, focus on the microscopic (including fairies), or learn of farming systems from around the world. (Another bonus: workshops and “Farm Camp for Adults” are offered too.)

 Annette Lucksinger

Learn, teach, make: Education at Austin Mini Maker Faire 2015

Emily Weerts directs the Nucleus Learning Network, an organization that empowers learners, educators, and mentors to enhance Austin’s innovative learning community. She stopped by the blog this week to give us a preview of the Maker Education Village she’s coordinating at this year’s Austin Mini Maker Faire, which is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet.

In the handful of years since Maker Faire first came to Austin, we’ve seen the event change and grow in many exciting ways. As the list of participating makers expands, one trend that we’re happy to embrace is the notable increase in education-focused makers, booths, and presenters.

Making and learning are natural partners: making provides opportunities to develop confidence; increase creativity; explore science, math, and art in new ways; and investigate engineering and technology. This year’s Faire features booths from makerspaces at libraries, organizations that teach computer programming to elementary students, and Austin Community College’s new maker program. From pre-K through college and beyond, makers, learners, and teachers will come together on May 16 and 17 to share their skills, ask great questions, and forge new friendships. 

This year’s Maker Education Village is being sponsored by WonderLab, a membership-based, supplemental learning lab for children in upper elementary and middle school. Thanks to WonderLab’s generous contribution, we are able to expand the Maker Ed Lounge and run a Maker Ed Stage at this year’s Faire. Check out the Maker Ed program (below) and join us for some inspiring workshops, stimulating discussion panels, and engaging networking. Alt Ed Austin is supporting this year’s Maker Ed Stage, and Nucleus Learning Network is coordinating the Maker Ed Lounge. 

As always, Maker Faire is free for educators to attend! Tell the teachers in your lives to come to the Palmer Events Center on May 16 and 17 to learn and be inspired. To receive free admission, teachers must bring a school ID or present other proof that they are an educator at the box office. 

Maker Education Schedule: SATURDAY

Maker Education Schedule: SUNDAY

Emily Weerts

Mandalas and art as tools for personal development

I’m happy to welcome back artist and art educator Heidi Miller Lowell with a new guest post that includes some of her own artwork featuring mandalas. Heidi teaches art and storytelling workshops, homeschool classes, and camps at The Austin Artery.
 

Mandala is a sanskrit word that means circle. Mandalas are ancient spiritual and ritual symbols believed to represent the universe. Some cultures believe that mandalas are important tools for meditation. You might recall having seen monks spend endless hours pouring delicate sand designs into mandalas only to let the sand be carried away by the wind as a reminder of the impermanence of life.

In my life, mandalas have been a helpful tool for gaining insight, clarity, and becoming more authentic. Creating any piece of art is a process. When we quiet down and pay attention to that process, we learn a lot about our mind, emotions, and creative process. Sometimes the process of creating a piece of art is more important than the finished product itself. I believe that the lessons we learn in creating art can be taken back and applied in our lives, work, or relationships to help us reach our highest potential.
 

For example, I began creating this watercolor mandala several years ago with the intention of paying attention to my tendency toward perfectionism. As I painted delicate designs for hours, I began to know that my creative process was lacking the spontaneity and joy that I desired when making art. I was often tense and focused on making a finished product that other people would enjoy looking at.

After coming to that realization, I picked up my brush and begin painting dark streaks of what I imagine it might look like in the darkest corners of outer space. The painting might not look like much to a viewer. However, this mandala hangs on the wall in my studio and serves as a powerful reminder that I can let go and make art that is imperfect and deeply meaningful. This piece of art marks a very powerful moment in my artistic career.

I also often use mandalas to teach children mathematical concepts like radial symmetry, angles, division, focus, and proportion. Geometric mandalas have helped to teach me patience, focus, and discipline. These geometric designs have informed much of my current work.
 

You can learn more about making simple mandalas online. I also am hosting several workshops  on creating 3D sculptural mandalas from natural materials, as well as geometric watercolor mandalas, this spring and summer. You can find out more at theaustinartery.com.

Heidi Miller Lowell
 

What job are your kids hiring school to do?

Temp Keller, today’s guest contributor, runs WonderLab, which he founded to “reignite the love and boundless wonder of learning in both students and parents.”
 

As Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis Johnson thoughtfully argued nearly five years ago in a white paper on student motivation, “most of the ‘home runs’ of marketing history occurred when people sensed the fundamental job that customers were trying to do—and then found a way to help more people do it more effectively, conveniently, and affordably.”

The authors went on to share a wonderful anecdote about a fast-food company that was attempting to sell more milkshakes. After extensive focus groups, subsequent product tweaks, and considerable expense, sales remained flat. It wasn't until they asked the question “What job is the milkshake being hired to do?” that they started making progress. They discovered that nearly half the milkshakes sold were bought in the early morning. The “job” for which they were being “hired”? Sustenance during a long, boring commute.

Coffee was guzzled too quickly. Bagels were too messy. But the milkshake took a while to finish, and the chilly container not only kept the driver alert; it fit beautifully in the cup holder. The punch line? Once they understood the job the milkshake was being hired to do, they could build a better milkshake. In fact, they built what we now know as a smoothie.

So what “job” are kids “hiring” school to do? Christensen, Horn, and Johnson hypothesized that “there are two core jobs that most students try to do every day: They want to feel successful and make progress, and they want to have fun with friends.” The white paper makes a compelling case that many schools are not fulfilling either of these jobs very effectively at all.

At WonderLab we believe that the key to success and fun is one fundamental question: What will motivate this individual Learner to love learning? Our experience tells us that once we better understand a Learner’s unique strengths and passions, we can then help them make progress on a project that is as unique as they are—all while having fun with friends.

So for all you parents with the need for your child to be in a safe, productive place outside of school or a homeschool environment, over spring or summer break—or perhaps a new spot for a child’s upcoming birthday party where the job-to-be-done might also include making the other parents a bit envious that they didn’t think of it first—please keep in mind your child’s primary jobs-to-be-done: feeling successful and having fun with friends!

And do keep WonderLab in mind, as it’s a job that we most certainly love doing!

Temp Keller
 

My whirlwind tour of alternative schools in Austin

Michael Goldberg has been traveling the country, visiting alternative schools, and writing about them. He recently spent a week and a half in Austin and kindly agreed to share his impressions with us. You can read more about Michael’s alt ed adventures on his blog.

Michael Goldberg navigates Austin feet first on Lady Bird Lake.

From February 2 to February 11, 2015, I visited eight alternative schools in the Austin area. Seeing those schools was part of a larger project of exploring alternative education that I began in September.

Last school year I worked at a charter school in Chicago. While I learned a lot during that year, I was also disillusioned by much of what I saw—particularly by how my school’s near-total focus on raising standardized test scores distracted from students’ developmental needs and did little to foster students’ intrinsic motivation to learn. I felt that there must be a better way to educate, so I started looking into alternative approaches.

I decided that I would travel the country on a mission to learn as much as possible about alternative education. I have a blog where I’ve written about some of my experiences.

I saw some very exciting things during my time in Austin:

• At Clearview Sudbury School, I sat in on a Judicial Committee meeting. Judicial Committee is a democratic, participatory way of holding people accountable for behavior. Students or staff may fill out “complaint forms” against anyone whom they perceive to be disrespectful or breaking the rules, then J.C. (made up of students and staff) investigates the claims and votes on an appropriate response. The J.C. process strikes me as an excellent example of restorative justice.
• At Whole Life Learning Center, I took part in “rhythm gym” class. We danced, juggled, and skipped to music in a circle. Later I learned about one class’s efforts to make a film about climate change and the environment for SXSW’s short film festival.
• I learned about Radical Roots Community Schoolhouse’s noncoercive, play-based curriculum, as well as its focus on sustainability and appreciation of nature.
• I helped smash acorns into acorn flour at Greenbriar School, then sat in on geography class, and finally joined the community for a potluck dinner.
• I was immersed in the alternate reality that is Game of Village at Austin Ecoschool. Game of Village involves students taking on a specific role in an imagined community—the “village”—applying for a “bank loan,” building a model home, and putting on an end-of-the-year fair, among other things.
• At the Inside Outside School I sang along during morning circle. Later, kids learned how to smoke meat over a fire during outdoor survival class.
• I attended the Austin Alternative School Fair, where I met a lot of great people working in alternative education.
• I learned about Skybridge Academy's democratic process for choosing classes. This school seems to be on the cutting edge of offering the intellectual freedom of a college-like experience to students in middle school and high school.
• Lastly, I saw kids busy at independent work at Parkside Community School.

And there are still many more alternative schools in Austin that I unfortunately did not manage to visit.

One common thread of the schools I’ve visited, and of alt ed more broadly, is that students are not approached as being primarily minds, intellects, test-takers, or grade-earners, but rather as whole human beings whose experiences, desires, and intrinsic motivations are acknowledged and valued. That is not to say that the adults in traditional schools do not or cannot approach their students in the same holistic way, but I do believe that the policies and educational structures of many traditional schools make taking that approach more difficult to realize in practice.

So what makes Austin such fertile ground for alternative schools? I imagine it’s not unrelated to the goal of “keeping Austin weird.” Progressive parenting styles likely also contribute. Perhaps Austinites are just willing to try things differently.

I believe that alt ed in Austin, like alt ed throughout the country, has its reasons to celebrate and its challenges to face.

Alternative education seems to be growing—as more people realize that their values and approaches to parenting may not align with the practices of many traditional schools. We should celebrate the fact that people are waking up to this, that they’re feeling comfortable to question the assumptions many of us hold about education and to actively seek out and construct alternatives. And we should celebrate that many kids are experiencing formal education in holistic and liberating ways.

At the same time, alt ed is not without significant challenges. The most pressing and most important of these, I believe, both in Austin and in the country at large, is to make private alternative schools more accessible and inclusive. It’s important to keep in mind that there are many families who do not have easy access to educational alternatives. Addressing this will not be an easy task, and it will not be confined only to factors within the immediate control of alternative schools. Nonetheless, alternative schools should do everything within their power to make the education they offer as accessible and inclusive as possible.

I don’t believe that there is a single approach that works for everyone. Individuals, families, and communities should each be empowered in educational decision-making. The alternative education movement—if there can be said to be such a thing—is largely about offering such freedom of choice. And although there is work to be done to ensure educational quality and genuine freedom of choice for all families, it’s exciting to see Austin offering so many options.

Michael Goldberg
 

Using art to teach history

Tyler Merwin teaches history and philosophy and leads Socratic Seminars at Skybridge Academy. He joins us on the blog to share his experiments with making art in the history classroom.

I have always had an interest in art, whether paintings, literature, propaganda posters, or pottery. That being said, I have never been much of an artist. Even something as trivial as shading inside the lines of a fourth-grade coloring book can feel less like fun and more like the New York Times Sunday Edition crossword for me.

With this in mind, I have had an aversion to using art as an instruction method, partly because I felt that in order to properly teach something I should have some level of competency, and partly because I didn't want my students to see their 26-year-old history teacher struggling to draw something a 6-year-old could whip up during snack break. But after seeing the work that our art teacher, Johnny Villarreal, was doing to help his students navigate their anxieties with art, and witnessing students bravely posting their artwork across his classroom walls, I decided to take the leap—and the results have been astounding.

“Anyone? Anyone?”

One of my biggest concerns as a history teacher is that my lessons are going to be boring. I am always working to use humor, academic controversy, or anything else that may seem remotely interesting so that students feel fully engaged—and so that I don’t feel like the economics teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Most students are not exactly thrilled by the prospect of writing research-based papers. So how can we help prepare them for research-intensive college courses while at the same time keeping lessons fun and engaging?

One answer can be art.

For example, I’m currently teaching a class called Civilizations, which explores various aspects of many of the major societies of Earth’s history, starting with precivilized humanity and ending with the Mongols. Currently we’re learning about ancient Egypt. For the first few classes I used a short lecture along with an informative YouTube video and student-led research about Egyptian culture. Over the next few days, students wrote a historical fiction piece based on this prompt:

Imagine you are someone alive at the time of the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Write a two-page story about a day in your life. You can be the Pharaoh, you can be a pyramid builder, a merchant, or any other entity relevant to that time. The goal is to research about the time and write a short story that could have actually happened.

(These assignments can also require students to cite their sources, giving them a taste of what the academic research process is like.)

The results were fascinating. The stories’ narrators included a woman who is questioning the applied gender roles of the time, a pyramid builder planning a workers’ revolt, a Pharaoh who has become consumed by materialism and is refusing to escape his burning town in fear of abandoning his possessions, a revered cat in charge of watching over the grain stores, and a tomb thief who meets an untimely demise, among many others.

The level of effort students put into their research and writing was incredible. To create more immersion, we played ancient Egyptian–themed music we found on YouTube, alternating with a loop of construction noises (kind of corny, but actually kind of cool). To help create a sense of community, between times spent helping students as needed, I too wrote a story that I shared with them.

Being in a room with 15 high schoolers ditching their phones and iPods to work fastidiously on ancient Egyptian historical fiction pieces was the highlight of my week (which has also indicated to me that I am officially transitioning into boring adulthood; I think I’m OK with that). To finish the assignment, we shared the stories together in class, and it served as a great way for students to compare, contrast, and ask questions pertaining to the subject.

Modern cave paintings recently discovered on the walls of Skybridge Academy

Another example of using art projects to teach history also comes from my Civilizations class. In learning about the Neolithic Period, we studied the struggles that cave dwellers endured and examined their cave paintings. We then used charcoal to create original cave paintings that emulated the styles of examples from sites throughout the world. Students (and teacher, in this case) who didn’t feel competent in drawing found themselves comfortable with this assignment because of the lack of complexity of many cave paintings; they didn’t require a high level of artistic sophistication or skill. We covered the classroom walls with these simple paintings, creating a cave-like feeling in the classroom.

Propaganda posters are almost universally fascinating to high school students. So playing off of my students’ interests, in our World War II: A World at War class we spent a day discussing and exploring forms of propaganda. We also had a Socratic Seminar discussing the serious nature of propaganda in its various forms and the dangerously powerful effects it can have on a society. To finish the lesson, students independently researched posters used in World War II by all sides, looking at the artistic styles, the messages they transmitted, and their potential effects. I then prompted students to create posters that would not glorify violence or be vulgar (because allowing for these kinds of negativity, while perhaps more realistic, is a slippery slope that we discussed and decided against as a class).

The student who drew this propaganda poster wanted to depict the urgency of the Allied nations’ need for a "hero" to help fight the war.

Students took many different approaches to the posters. Those who were confident in their artistic abilities made posters that were visually arresting, using imagery that forced you to pay attention. Others chose to concentrate on the verbal aspect, creating posters with original slogans that evoked the sense of urgency associated with the propaganda of the time. Most students were very engaged, and many said they had gained a better understanding of how propaganda seeks to manipulate emotions to promote ideologies. A few students, however, were rather curmudgeonly about the idea of doing art in history class and complained that they were “not an artist” or that they didn’t “know how to start.” That’s OK. It gave me time to work with these students, encouraging them to abandon their inhibitions. I used my own work as an example of why you don’t need to be the next Gabriel García Márquez to write a fun historical fiction piece, that you don’t need to be a young Da Vinci to make an awesome cave painting.
 

The creator of this poster wanted to point out the evil nature of concentration camps. The gate reads, “Work Will Set You Free,” a slogan used cynically by Nazi camp officials.

Every couple of months I spend some time reflecting on myself as a teacher and evaluating my progress. I try to figure out what has been working, what hasn’t been working, how I can improve, how I can adapt. Implementing art into my classes has been one of the biggest breakthroughs I have ever experienced as an educator. Although I still cannot color inside the lines, I have seen major progress from my students in engagement and productivity. Art appeals to all ability levels and works for most learning styles, and this is why it can engage students in meaningful and emotional ways.

Tyler Merwin