Category Archives: Hive Member Projects

Neighborhood to Neighborhood Project

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This is a guest post by Stacy Abramson, Director Of New York Operations and Strategic Partnerships at Facing History.

  • What issues do students care most deeply about?
  • What moves them to take action?
  • How can the work born out of the partnership between WNYC’s Radio Rookies and Facing History and Ourselves align with some of the new Common Core Anchor Standards on Speaking and Listening?
  • How do we utilize these stories as text for use in ELA and Social Studies classrooms?
  • How can we do projects like these with our own students?

These were just some of the questions that educators from schools and organizations from around New York City wrestled with at the Facing History and Ourselves New York office during a recent workshop. Everyone arrived excited to watch and listen to multimedia stories that were produced as part of the Neighborhood to Neighborhood Project, born out of a Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network collaboration with WNYC Radio Rookies. The purpose of the workshop was to convene local educators interested in integrating digital storytelling into their classrooms and to highlight thematic connections in content.

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Facing History Program Associate Tanya Huelett led the three-hour workshop, which was attended by educators and professionals from: Museum of Chinese in America, Gotham Schools, Bronx Lab School, East Bronx Academy, Brooklyn International HS, Youthbuild Newark, Vanguard High School, City-As-School, Middle School for Art and Philosophy, IS 276, St John’s Prep High School, NEST, Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School, and others…

To kick off the afternoon, Tanya introduced Radio Rookie Temitayo Fagbenle from Vanguard HS – Tanya interviewed Temi and they played her radio piece on Sexual Cyberbullying: The Modern Day Letter A.

Temi then answered questions from the workshop participants about her process, about the impact that producing this story has had on her.

Then Tanya shared another Neighborhood to Neighborhood story that connected themes like immigration, identity and difference: “Mind the Gap” is about tensions between the Black and Lubavitch Jewish communities in Crown Heights Brooklyn neighborhood.

This story was followed by a Facing History 3-2-1 activity (3- questions this story prompts for you, 2-connections you can make to the world, 1-idea for using this story in your work).

A highlight of the day was a sneak peek at a current work-in-progress titled, “Losing Language,” that is being reported by two girls from Essex Street Academy. Participants began processing the 7-minute story using a feedback mechanism Facing History refers to as the Wraparound strategy, which involves everyone in the room sharing a quote from the story that resonated with them, without giving any explanation beyond the quote.

Towards the end, Radio Rookies Senior Producer Kaari Pitkin answered questions from the group and shared this DIY Video about how to conduct man-on-the-street interviews, also known as VOX Pop.

See pictures from the workshop here.

Facing History staff will offer follow-up support to help teachers integrate these stories in their work. Stay tuned here for more details about upcoming workshops in the fall or visit www.facing.org.

Maker Party Preview: the New York Hall of Science

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This is re-posted from the Webmaker blog.

Science genius rap battles and digital mosquito repellent:
get ready for Maker Party at the New York Hall of Science

Maker Party 2013 kicked off this weekend!

Participants are getting together at a diverse range of hack jams, meet-ups and code parties around the world. Here’s a sneak peek at an event happening June 22 at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI).

“It’s an awesome feeling knowing that Maker Parties like this are happening on a global scale,” says NYSCI’s Manager of Digital Programming, Anthony Negron. “The atmosphere of these events are so inspiring for everyone, and teens are really responsive to this type of format.”

New York Hall of Science + Maker Party

What will people make and learn together?
The NYSCI pop-up party will bring together teens aged 13 to 18 for music, games, food, prizes and “Creativity Stations,” several of which are led by other members of the Hive NYC Learning Network. The menu of what’s on offer is a great example of the diversity and creativity we’ll see on display throughout Maker Party over the next three months:

  • Digital photography and film-making – working with NYSCI’s Explainer TV, plus ReelWorks Teen Filmmaking
  • Build-an-Eye! –Work with Parsons The New School of Design Graduate Program in Design + Technology to make an electronic model of parts of the human eye.
  • Laser-cutting and soldering – design and print your own custom-made laser cut projects. Or use a circuit board to create a digital mosquito repellent. (Yep, that’s a thing!)
  • Beat-making and music – craft digital beats with World Up! There’s even a “Science Genius Rap Battle.“
  • Game hacking — turn everyday objects like bananas, spoons or whatever’s lying around into video game controllers with Scratch and Makey Makey.
  • And of course… webmaking! – using Mozilla Webmaker to create your own webpage, pick up some coding skills, remix YouTube videos or create your own viral meme.

“I think the Maker Party campaign really sets the groundwork for launching maker-related programming, especially to give teens get the opportunity to be exposed to so many exciting activities and opportunities to develop their interests.”
– NYSCI’s Anthony Negron

Learn more and get involved
Feeling inspired? Here’s some easy ways to get involved:

Words on Walls at Ideas City Festival

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This is a guest post by Hive NYC member DK Wright, Digital Media Manager at Urban Word NYC.

Urban Word NYC, along with partners City Lore and Bowery Arts & Science, recently culminated the first year of the Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in the New York Community Trust-supported WORDS ON WALLS program, during the New Museum’s “Ideas City” Festival. WORDS ON WALLS is a collaborative performance of music and spoken word along with poetry projections by the POEMobile. The POEMobile is a beautifully hand-painted truck covered in the calligraphy of multilingual poetry that houses an innovative, open-air text projection system. Illuminated verses lit up Mulberry Street as Urban Word’s powerful teen poets, along with special guests, explored IDEAS CITY’s Festival theme of “Untapped Capital” through poems on words unspoken, hidden connections, and invisible cities. This photo essay captures some highlights from a year of illuminated verses from teen poets across the city. Teens worked with various software and customized programs to not only layout their poems on a variety of surfaces, but also to make them move, disappear and in some cases explode!

Urban Word poet David Fasanya stands on top of his verses at the NYPL
Urban Word poet David Fasanya stands on top of his verses at the New York Public Library on November 19, 2012. This Words on Walls events featured poems that raised voter awareness and the importance of civic engagement.
Urban Word NYC poet Carol Brown performs her poem, “Foundations” at the Ideas Ci
Urban Word NYC poet Carol Brown performs her poem, “Foundations” at the Ideas City Festival. The lines of her poem created a skyline as she performs them!
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Urban Word poet Gabriel Barralaga performing “To the Women” in Tribeca in front of Treasure & Bond on October 20, 2012. Treasure & Bond is a retail store that gives all of its proceeds to charity, and Urban Word NYC is a recent recipient. Poets used the various facades of the store to show off their powerful poems.
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 All of the lights! The Words on Walls event in Jackson Heights on the Muslim holiday of Eid (October 26, 2012) was a highlight of this year’s program drawing more than 250 audience members. We filled Diversity Plaza with the voices of young poets, and community leaders and performers, and Shaheen Sweets provided free snacks and sweets.
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City Lore’s PoeMobile set up for the New Museum’s “Idea City” to illuminate the verses from the young poets of Urban Word NYC, with special guests the phenomenal Might Third Rail.