“I love science now because of [our Global Village scientist]. I wish we had more time with him. I'd trade recess for more time with him.”

“It's so cool to actually have [a Global Village scientist] who does this with you. It opens new doors, new ideas. I might even want to do this -- You know, I never knew science could be that fun.”
--District 97 4th grade girls

The Oak Park Education Foundation recently received a $6,460 grant to add 10 scientists each year to the Global Village program’s current roster of 30 scientists. Working in collaboration with 3rd through 8th grade students and teachers, the scientists will reach approximately 450 more students across the district.

Global Village makes science “come alive” for students and inspires them to consider careers in science. Our experts (all Oak Park residents) come from esteemed institutions such as Argonne National Laboratories, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and many area universities and hospitals.

Global Village scientists conduct environmental tests on area rivers, dissect sheep’s eyes and owl pellets, build and launch rockets, plan and design rain gardens, study infectious diseases, and much more. The program also includes field trips as well as the Young Scientists Conference.

This new ongoing grant is awarded by the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation’s Gunzburger Educational Fund.

The Oak Park Education Foundation is honored to be chosen by the Longfellow 2nd graders to receive the $561 proceeds from their fundraiser. They sent us the following letter, signed by every student and teacher in the four 2nd grade classes:

Dear Oak Park Education Foundation,

We, the second grade classes, are happy to be able to send you this donation for $561.00 that was raised by all four classes during our Kindness Market. Each of us made something to sell to other students and parents in our school. This helped us practice our money skills, especially learning how to make change. We also learned about economics: consumers and producers, goods and services.

Because we had just finished reading stories about kindness, we decided to donate the money we raised to worthy, nonprofit organizations. The Oak Park Education Foundation has a long history helping our schools. We are very delighted that we are able to participate in the Art Start program during 2nd grade. We really enjoyed the drumming that Mr. Atiba Jali did with Mr. Naber's class, and look forward to the work the other artists will be doing with the other classes.

Thank you very much for all that you do to enrich our education through the arts.

Sincerely,
The students in Mr. Podlasek's, Mr. Naber's, Ms. Lambshead's, and Ms. Creticos's 2nd Grade Classes

Last year 22 Oak Park students participated in this worldwide program; this year 55 kids are in on the excitement of this after-school club. Students are grouped into teams which design, build and program robots, and then compete with other teams of students in robot games.

Vex Robotics unlocks the power of imagination while increasing knowledge of physics, engineering, and computer programming. Students also develop life skills such as teamwork, persistence, and selfconfidence as they take their robots from concept to reality.

Vex Robotics coordinator Mark Pickus, who leads the Brooks program with Pat Williams says, “I get excited seeing students express their creativity in their designs and struggle to make them work. I like helping but I also like to challenge them to figure it out themselves.” Students agree. As one young designer put it, “You have in your mind what you want to make, and its fun
to see it actually work.”

The Vex Robotics program is fully funded by the Oak Park Education Foundation, in partnership with District 97 schools.

Middle school students on Vex Robotics Teams traveled to Milwaukee on December 3 to observe the 2006 WIRED (Wisconsin Institute for Robotics in Education) Robotics Challenge, where more than 24 high school teams competed with robots they designed and built. Participating students learned robotics in a setting designed to make science, math and engineering as cool for kids as sports.

Oak Park students were inspired. One student remarked, “It was awesome. They had lots of cool robots that gave us lots of ideas. We asked lots of questions about their strategies and how they made things work.”

The Brooks and Julian Vex Robotics students put their inspiration into action during the two schools' head-to-head robot competition on February 21. Ten project teams from Brooks and Julian designed and built robots that battled in an arena built by the teams. Tim Walsh, science teacher who leads the Julian program with Bob Parks, says, “The kids love it. They are very enthusiastic. They are having a lot of fun as they get ready for the competition.”