Making the invisible visible at the Hill Country Science Mill

We’ve fallen in love with the Hill Country Science Mill, and we think your family will, too. Alt Ed Austin contributor Shelley Sperry recently interviewed the new museum’s founder. Read all about it below, and then scroll down to enter our giveaway to win four passes to the Grand Opening on Valentine’s Day!
 

Amazing things are happening in a grist-mill-turned-science-museum in Johnson City. At the new Hill Country Science Mill a team of science educators and entrepreneurs is bringing innovative, hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math education to kids of all ages.

The Mill, which opens on Saturday, February 14, will serve students in nearby rural and small-town schools as well as urban students from Austin and San Antonio. All exhibits are bilingual—with explanations in Spanish and English—and all are designed to turn boys and girls into passionate doers and makers.

“We want to see engagement! We believe all kids are born with innate curiosity. They want to explore and do stuff,” says Bonnie Baskin, a scientist-entrepreneur and one of the Science Mill’s founders. Soon after moving to Johnson City, Bonnie was drawn to the rundown nineteenth-century mill that now houses the museum. She knew that the massive structure, silos, and creek could be an ideal setting for the kind of education project she and her husband, neuroscientist Robert Elde, had long dreamed of.  

“You don’t fall in love with science by reading about it; you fall in love by doing it!” Bonnie and her team believe that middle school is a crucial time for engaging kids in science and math, so many exhibits are designed to connect with middle-schoolers’ devotion to technology and games. Each visitor gets a 3D avatar, or “science buddy” that she or he customizes. All over the Mill, kids check in at kiosks and tablets, and their avatars let them choose favorites and provide new information about the work scientists and engineers do. And then the kids take their avatars home.

“Why should a museum be confined within walls? We want to extend the experience into kids’ lives at home and at school. We want to engage students for the long term—not just for a few hours.” They can access more information by logging into the museum website, and their science buddies will join them to explore favorite topics again and again.

The museum’s grand opening is on Saturday, February 14th. Special activities and musical performances have been scheduled to help kick-off the day. Proceeds from the Grand Opening will benefit the Science Mill's Scholarship Program, which will help defray the admission and transportation costs for field trips and enrollment in science programs and camps for qualified students.

Bonnie finds it hard to choose a favorite exhibit, but one she’s especially proud of is the “cell phone disco.” Inside one of the 40-foot silos, thousands of red LED lights respond to students’ cell phones when they send texts. The interaction between their phones and the lights demonstrates the power of electromagnetic waves.

“It’s such a great example of making the invisible visible, which is just what we want to do at the Science Mill.”

Shelley Sperry

You have three ways to enter our random drawing for a family pack of passes to the Hill Country Science Mill’s Grand Opening on Valentine’s Day. The giveaway ends at midnight on Tuesday; we'll announce the winner on Wednesday morning. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UPDATE: Congratulations to the winner of our random drawing, Tammy W.! And thanks to everyone who entered. We hope you’ll make it out to the Science Mill soon, and visit Alt Ed Austin often.

Join us at the Austin Alternative School Fair!

Looking for something fun, informative, and free to do with the kids this weekend? Head over to the downtown Whole Foods rooftop plaza on Saturday between 11am and 2pm. The Education Transformation Alliance is putting on its fifth Austin Alternative School Fair, its biggest and best yet.

If you have school-aged kids, you’re probably in full-on exploration (and perhaps application) mode this time of year. That’s why you need to bring your family to the fair! With 17 unusual schools and other innovative educational programs participating, you’ll have a chance to learn about many different learner-centered approaches to education. You’ll meet some of the most creative, effective, and beloved educators around and learn how their small, nonstandard and nonstandardized programs can help develop the very best in your child.

Check out this list, which includes programs for teens, tweens, and younger children:

Alt Ed Austin is thrilled to sponsor the fair, along with the good folks at Whole Foods Market and Free Fun in Austin. Look for me at the Alt Ed Austin table. I'd be happy to answer your questions, help you find the programs of most interest to your family, and guide your kids to fun, hands-on activities they’ll love. I can’t wait to meet you and help you find the right fit for your kid!

Teri

The Six Seasons: Empowering kids to deal with climate change

That environmentalists need the goodwill of children would seem self-evident—but more often
than not, children are viewed as props or extraneous to the serious adult work of saving the world.

—Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

I recently attended a preview performance of The Six Seasons, a uniquely beautiful and moving play about climate change. Glass Half Full Theatre adapted its original award-winning show aimed at adult audiences into this brilliant production for ages seven and up. Using tiny puppets, ingenious sets made of recycled materials, gorgeous music from around the world, and simple language that made complex socio-ecological processes come to life, these artist-environmentalists earned the goodwill of the children watching with me.

Presented on ZACH Theatre’s Kleberg Stage, the story depicts people and ecosystems all over the planet coping with the very real effects of climate change: polar bears stranded by melting Arctic ice, families in Texas and Malawi forced to leave their farms because of severe drought, villages and entire islands disappearing in the Sunderbans of India and Bangladesh as sea levels rise and uproot mangroves no longer able to hold coastlines together. Heavy stuff for children, right?

Concerned parents and educators struggle to find the right tone, the right images, the right amount of detail when talking to kids about the climate crisis. Most experts agree that kids can handle scary truths, presented in age-appropriate terms, as long as they’re also given the chance to do something with that information. As Alfie Kohn, best known as a crusader for more humane education, writes in his book Unconditional Parenting, “Empowered kids are in the best position to deal constructively with disempowering circumstances.”

Zach Scott education director Nat Miller and his team are working hard to make sure that the young (and older) people who see The Six Seasons feel empowered. Immediately following both family shows and special performances for school groups, they lead “talkback” sessions to draw out questions and concerns. They’ve also created a free study guide that parents and educators can use to help kids delve deeper into the geographic, historical, social, economic, and ecological issues the play addresses.

Most importantly, the talkbacks include suggestions for specific actions that young people can take to address the causes and effects of climate change. Some of these suggestions came out of a post-performance discussion I participated in along with other invited audience members representing local environmental organizations, including Austin Citizens Climate Lobby, Environment Texas, Keep Austin Beautiful, and TreeFolks. Miller and Caroline Reck, the play’s director, writer, and puppet designer, asked these leaders important questions and listened carefully to their input on the kinds of direct action that are most effective.

Also in the audience were students and teachers from the Austin Ecoschool. This was an especially appropriate group to preview the play, as EcoSchool kids are accustomed to learning in the company of very small puppet-like figures they call “peeps” every Thursday in their ongoing role-playing curriculum called Game of Village. During their talkback, the students were engaged and forthcoming. Clearly, they not only enjoyed the play (especially the polar bears, which the kids mentioned repeatedly) but also really got it. Some remarked that parts of the story were sad. And indeed they were.

But the play’s later scenes are more hopeful, imagining futures in which people come together creatively to build more resilient communities and where concrete cities become revegetated. Finally, the puppeteers circle back to the beloved polar bears we met in the first scene, reminding us that their habitat remains precarious and precious.

Grab a kid, or a bunch of them, and head over to see The Six Seasons while you can. Tickets are available for Saturday family shows through January 31 and weekday school group performances through February 13. And let’s keep the conversations about climate change going—with our kids and with each other. 

Teri

Connecting Texas children with nature

Johnnie Smith, Conservation Education Manager at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, joins us on the blog to let you know about three great programs that help students, educators, and families learn about nature firsthand.

Texas Children in Nature

Texas Children in Nature is a network of more than 300 partners from around the state who are dedicated to connecting all Texas children and their families with nature to be healthier, happier, and smarter. TCiN reaches the many diverse Texas communities through regional collaboratives that bring together nonprofits, government agencies, businesses, and individuals to focus on the issues and solutions that are relevant to them.

Through our unified messaging, our partners help raise awareness about why kids need nature and how everyone benefits when children and families spend more time outside. No one agency or organization can get every single child outside—but together we can! In 2013 we conducted a survey of our partners; the 28 percent who responded reported serving almost 4 million youth with their outdoor programs and events. 

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children and teens today spend between 7 and 11 waking hours per day indoors, isolated, and with media. You can help stem the tide of nature deficit disorder and create real solutions to get kids plugged into nature. Find your regional leaders at TCiN! 

Project WILD

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sponsors a suite of Project WILD programs, each offering a special iteration of this outstanding, hands-on approach to learning. Project WILD is a kindergarten through 12th grade environmental and conservation education program emphasizing awareness, appreciation, and understanding of wildlife and natural resources. It is interdisciplinary and supplementary and can be used to teach basic skills in science, social studies, language arts, math, art, music, and physical education.

TPWD offers Project WILD through hands-on workshops for educators. With an unbiased approach to basic wildlife management practices, Project WILD

• teaches young people how to think about wildlife, not what to think;
• provides a set of fun, hands-on, easy-to-use educational activities;
• trains teachers and youth group leaders in an outstanding six-hour, hands-on workshop;
• includes helpful, scientific background information with all activities;
• incorporates powerful techniques and methods for teaching problem-solving and decision-making skills; and
• is kid-tested and teacher-approved!

Saving Water for Wildlife

Texans know about drought. What they may not know is that, due to global weather patterns, the chances are high for another 10 to 15 years of persistent dry weather. Our water habits must change.

Wildlife needs clean, fresh water in the habitat, in seasonally appropriate amounts. Whether that habitat be upland, forest, riparian, subterranean, wetland, or estuarine, wildlife will not survive without it. While terrestrial species require water for sustenance and for the vegetation that supports the food web, aquatic species rely on water not only for these needs but for completion of their life cycle as well.

Everything we do on public and private lands affects our natural environment, directly or indirectly. Unlike plants and animals, however, we can choose a role that determines our impact. Texas Parks and Wildlife has put together a special website with resources to help prepare both children and adults for informed, effective action in saving water for wildlife. Every positive step you take helps us all.

Johnnie E. Smith

A new home for Austin Tinkering School!

Kami Wilt runs both the annual Austin Mini Maker Faire and the year-round Austin Tinkering School, where there are big changes afoot. Kami joins us on the blog today to share the good news.

Kami Wilt at Austin Tinkering School

As some of you may know, Austin Tinkering School recently ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to create a kid-friendly, community-oriented, centrally located Makerspace. A space like this doesn't exist in Austin yet, and it seems necessary (and awesome!) for a growing, vibrant, Maker city like Austin.

Lucky for us, the Kickstarter was a success, and we were able to raise $23,000! After months of looking and, truthfully, feeling a little worried that even with that handsome chunk of change we might not find a place that met our needs, we managed to secure a fantastic spot that is going to allow us to bring many more great tinkering experiences and adventures to kids and adults than we have before.

Introducing the new Austin Tinkering School:

1122 Airport Blvd.

This place is ideally located in East Austin and is just two minutes away from Hausbar Urban Farm, Canopy, Blue Genie, Splinter Group, a playground at Govalle Elementary, and scads of awesome East Side artists and artisans we can go visit whenever we want. It has a HUGE backyard! It also has AIR CONDITIONING! I'll tell you, $23,000 sounds like a lot and it definitely is, but when you start looking at places, you realize you might have to give up on some things, like temperature control or an easy-to-get-to location.

And since we didn't know how long it was going to take us to find a new place, we decided to build a nice new outdoor workshop at Austin EcoSchool, so now we have a South Austin hub as well! We offer a Friday program there for homeschoolers and alterna-schoolers, and will be running summer camps all summer long at both locations, along with lots of great classes and workshops for kids and adults.

​2015 is a brand spankin’ new year with so many tinkering adventures ahead! Can’t wait to have you all over to the new digs. Check us out at austintinkeringschool.com.

Kami Wilt

Celebrating informal science education in Texas

Emily Weerts has been an educator and program manager for museums, preschools, special education classrooms, and afterschool classes. She has been a member of the Informal Science Education Association of Texas (ISEA) since 2011 and currently serves on its board of directors. Emily is passionate about connecting with fellow educators and believes that great learning opportunities can happen anywhere.

Frank Oppenheimer, the visionary founder of San Francisco’s Exploratorium, once noted that “no one ever flunked a museum.” As a lifelong learner, I find the sentiment resonates with me—there are countless venues rich with educational opportunities, many that celebrate a learner-driven, informal approach to attaining new knowledge.

The field of science is particularly rich with informal venues; from museums to zoos, from state parks to aquariums, there are many science-rich institutions welcoming individuals, families, and classes interested in self-directed learning experiences. The Informal Science Education Association of Texas (ISEA) was founded in 1997 to support partnerships among informal and formal science educators to improve science education in Texas.

ISEA Texas defines informal science education as providing unique learning environments that increase appreciation and understanding of science, mathematics, and technology and their applications through voluntary and often self-directed experiences for individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Those interested in alternative schooling and inspiring learning experiences will relate deeply to the educators and professionals brought together by ISEA.

The firepit at Sky Ranch, venue for this year’s ISEA Texas conference

ISEA's annual conference will be held February 18–20 at Sky Ranch in Van, Texas. This year's conference theme is “Creating Connections: Building the Future,” and Dr. Gerald Liberman, PhD, will be delivering a keynote address focused on designing and implementing successful environmental education programs. As a museum educator I've had the pleasure of attending three previous conferences, and I always gain a great deal from the experience. As the name might suggest, the ISEA conference experience is informal and friendly; topics are accessible and participants are extremely welcoming. Through ISEA, I've connected with other educators, learned new skills, and talked late into the night about new approaches to education.

This year’s ISEA conference features a number of sessions that will be of interest to members of the alternative education community. Several focus on creating successful partnerships between educational groups and their communities. Gina Higby from UT will teach workshop participants how to engage diverse audiences in STEM activities through a parachute design class. Dr. Finkelstein and Dr. Silverman from the McDonald Observatory will overview activities about stars and galaxies and advise on how to successfully incorporate astronomy content into science curricula. There's even a session for fearful grant writers; in “It Was a Dark and Stormy Grant Application,” author and educator Christina Soontornvat will apply tools from fiction to write more successful grants.

Informal science educators delving into hands-on activities at a past ISEA conference

The ISEA conference always features an incredible silent auction, with participating museums, zoos, aquariums, parks, and educators donating great swag to support scholarships for the conference. This year’s attendees can opt in to participate in a pre-conference workshop focused on crafting engaging social media or attend a post-conference field trip to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center. More information about the conference, including registration and a scholarship application, can be found here. Hope to see some of you there!

Emily Weerts