Can we create #ZeroDirt beds via a repeatable process that can be utilized in almost any urban environment — and on another planet?

This is the question that we wanted to answer when we started #ProjectMartian. Inspired by our previous SOIL Lab Project and a forced pivot in the midst of a global pandemic, we wanted to show the community of Columbus what STEM looks like when deployed to feed people and innovate an industry while simultaneously changing the face of agriculture and sustainability in urban settings. So we launched #ProjectMartian at the PAST Innovation Lab and our partner site, Mezzacello, a 21st Century Urban Farm in Columbus.

And PAST’s own Sultan of Systems, Jim Bruner, is the project director of this collaborative urban farming project. You may not guess it from his title, but Jim is a farmer at heart, and Mezzacello just so happens to be his passion project and urban farm. So, he really gets into the weeds about what's happening at the intersection between STEM, applied teaching and learning, urban sustainability, and food scarcity in the midst of a global pandemic.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• "Introducing Project Martian"
• "#ProjectMartian: A Non-Profit’s Mission to Innovate and Feed During COVID19"
• "#ProjectMartian: Chapter 1 - Preparing for Launch"
• "#ProjectMartian: Chapter 2 – COVID19 Course Correction!"

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

When the PAST Foundation travels around the country to talk to policymakers, colleges, universities, and trade schools, there’s one topic that gets brought up in just about every conversation: manufacturing. So it’s clear there’s a bigger conversation we really need to have around STEM education and the future of manufacturing jobs.

To help us parse out what needs to be done to get a new generation excited about the possibilities available in manufacturing — which might be more diverse and interesting than you think — and prepare them for the task, we are talking to two guests: Rosemary Coates and Ryan Edwards. Rosemary is the Executive Director of the Reshoring Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit collaborating with nine universities across the U.S. on a mission to support companies starting, restarting, or expanding manufacturing in the United States. Ryan was a summer intern with Reshoring Institute and is currently an MBA student at TCU University, and he shares how the firsthand experience during his internship prepared him for the future of work.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• Reshoringinstitute.org
• Learn more about internship opportunities at Reshoring Institute

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Today we’re talking to a few of the people who participated in one of Ohio University’s most unique teaching programs: the STEM+ for All Teaching Fellowship. STEM+ is focused on supporting individuals  with science, technology, engineering, and math backgrounds — so people who do not already have a background in education — who seek to change their careers to become intervention specialist teachers. Part of the program involves hands-on training with a mentor teacher, and we’re lucky enough to be able to sit down with both two pre-service teachers currently going through the program and the mentor who has guided them throughout the year.

Our pre-service teacher guests are Sorpresa Jones and Bailey Lohr, who are both in their third term in the STEM+ for All teaching fellowship, and our mentor teacher guest is Mary Schneider, a master teacher and PAST’s School Design Coordinator.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• Learn more about STEM+ Teaching for All
• Connect with Mary on LinkedIn
• Listen: 044 | How to Train Teachers to Let Students Lead | with Erika Reeves & Mary Schneider

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Karen Yager’s dream started three years ago when she was watching the 9th and 10th grade students at Knox Grammar School in New South Wales. Their academic results were lower than both older and younger students, and they lacked a sense of purpose. They were drifting.

So she asked herself: How do we give them a sense of purpose? How do we get that passion, purpose, and mastery into their lives and really make them more agile?

What they came up with was the Academy of Global Competency. Folks in the United States, in particular, should take note. This new initiative and building includes a certificate of global competency in K-12 that is achieved through microcredentials that come under the categories of agency, entrepreneurialism, altruism, advocacy, citizenship, deep learning, agility. We should all aspire to be this cool.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• “New Academy of Global Competency builds collaboration and community”

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Prior to the impacts of COVID-19 on teaching and learning many of us likely took facial expressions, hearing, listening, and general communication for granted. But distance, face masks, and lack of hugs in elementary settings and so many more daily disruptions have made it difficult to communicate effectively with those we are trying to teach. Join Alyssa and Ashely as they talk about strategies to stay engaged. 

As teachers, parents and out of school caregivers scramble in the midst of modified pandemic driven learning - many are reporting having to modify content almost on the fly. This special edition of Learning Unboxed is packed with tips and tricks for modification in a moment! 

There has been so much angst about teaching and learning over the past six months as COVID-19 traverses the globe. How do we teach effectively in a virtual environment, how do we asses, how do we ensure relevant content and how do we effectively communicate with our students. Join Alyssa and Ashely as they talk about communication strategies while providing high quality virtual instruction.  

Today we’re talking to three guests who are involved with the Cultivating Creative & Civic Capacities project, “a 3-year research-practice collaboration between the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) and Project Zero-Harvard to investigate and document ways to catalyze young people’s capacities for creative and critical thinking and a sense of community with room for divergent perspectives, and the conditions that promote young people’s curiosity about complex issues, openness to engaging multiple, often divergent, viewpoints, and a sense of social responsibility about actions they may take.”

And a lot of that comes down to answering these two questions: What does it look like to cultivate creativity toward more sustainable and equitable worlds? How do we cultivate imagination, thinking with complexity, and taking action?

Our guests are Jennifer Lehe, Jason Blair, and Britanie Risner, and they have some interesting answers for those questions. Jennifer is the Manager of Strategic Partnerships of the Columbus Museum of Art, calls herself a recovering right-answer seeker, and is fascinated by how we can create the conditions that encourage discovery and curiosity in kids; Jason is an 18-year veteran arts educator who says that, every day, he learns from the creative geniuses that he teaches; and Britanie is a 19-year veteran teacher staunchly believes in children's abilities to think and act in ways that move the world to be a better place. All three are educators who should be celebrated in their own right, but together, they’re really doing something special.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• Columbus Museum of Art
• Learn more about Cultivating Creative & Civic Capacities
• "Back-to-School Creativity Resources for Teachers"

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

Today we’re getting an international perspective on the evolution of educational systems. Specifically, we’ll be looking at a Finnish program called StarT that invites schools, kindergartens, families, and extracurricular activity groups from all around the world to share ideas, inspiration and the joy of collaborative learning.

Our guest is Outi Haatainen, who is a doctoral candidate in the chemistry department at the University of Helsinki and one of the facilitators for the StarT program created by LUMA Centre Finland.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• Learn more about StarT: start.luma.fi
• Learn more about LUMA Centre Finland: luma.fi

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and the world started shutting down, people suddenly had a whole bunch of new needs that they didn’t have before. As a result, people and organizations were forced to pivot and innovate so that they could not only survive the crisis but help people with their unique set of skills.

So, what does that kind of forced pivot look like within a big organization? And how can we prepare kids now to be able to think more flexibly and respond positively to a crisis? That’s what we’re going to find out in this episode with Mike Wiseman, the Senior Chief Engineer of Strategic Research at Honda R&D Americas.

To learn more, visit: pastfoundation.org

Resources:

• Check Out STEMStreaming! A FREE online resource for educators and parents to engage in virtual learning! 
• Read: “Honda Responds to COVID-19 with Support to Customers, Honda Associates, Business Partners and Local Community Organizations”

Learning Unboxed is produced in part by Crate Media

Recorded by Eric French at WOSU Studios in Columbus, Ohio