Today, Monday March 23, 2015, the White House is holding its fifth annual Science Fair. Maker Ed is honored and thrilled to be once again participating in this event!
Beyond having our Executive Director, Trey Lathe, on the ground in Washington, D.C. representing our organization at this wonderful event, Maker Ed is excited to share three ways we are taking part in the festivities today.
Maker Ed’s Nominated Student Chosen to Attend
The White House selected one of our nominated students, Sierra Seabrease to display her Jukebox Piano project at the Science Fair. Sierra is a dedicated member of the Digital Harbor Foundation, a participating site in our Maker Corps and Maker VISTA programs.
To make this project, Sierra transformed an old deserted piano into a fully functioning jukebox that pulls songs from an ever-changing Spotify playlist. It has provided hours of enjoyment and inspiration for youth and adults alike and has helped Sierra discover her own passion for interactive technology. She continually updates both the appearance and functionality of this project — most recently, she used LEDs, a microphone, and an Adafruit Flora to create interactive lights that correspond to the music being played.
In addition to being an explorer of technology through inventive making, Sierra is also an emerging leader in her community. She is a founder of and active participant in the Makerettes, a group that aims to expand the role of young women within the larger Baltimore tech community. Sierra has also given two TEDxYouth@Baltimore talks and is an active participant in tech outreach through Reverse Mentoring opportunities, such as helping new Teach For America teachers with technology questions.
Announcing the Launch of Maker Ed’s Directory
In conjunction with the White House Science Fair, we are excited to announce the April launch of Maker Ed’s Directory. Hosted on our online Resource Library, the Directory will be a go-to resource for youth and their families to discover maker education opportunities and programs, as well as an opportunity for providers of maker education programs in schools, museums, libraries, youth-serving organizations and other learning communities to promote their programs and find partners with whom to collaborate.
Maker Ed’s Directory will be a subset of the Connectory (www.theconnectory.org), which fully launches in April. Organized by the team behind the National Girls Collaborative Project Program Directory, with support from Time Warner Cable and its Connect a Million Minds program, the Connectory is a database that will include the most comprehensive collection of STEM opportunities and programs in the country.
Announcing Maker Ed’s Partnership for “Support our Science” Campaign
We are also excited to announce our partnership with the Discovery Communications’ Science Channel and Discovery Education to kick off a multi-year “Support our Science” campaign (S.O.S.), beginning with awarding two high-need schools with professional development, hands-on resources, equipment and more, with third winning school selected through a national competition. Additional partners to this campaign include the Planetary Society and Girl’s Inc. More information about the S.O.S. campaign can be found here.
We’re incredibly honored and excited to once again be included in this wonderful event.
To keep up with what’s happening in Washington, check out the links below, and follow Maker Ed’s activity on twitter today with the hashtag #WHScienceFair.
Additional Links
White House Science Fair 2015 Blog Coverage
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