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AUGUST EVENTS ACROSS NYC ENCOURAGE YOUTH TO BECOME MAKERS

Mozilla Hive NYC “Maker Party” Events in the Bronx and Brooklyn Feature Hands-On Activities for Making and Learning

NEW YORK, July 30, 2013—We’re in the midst of a global movement that celebrates the maker spirit and encourages people of all ages to see themselves as creators vs. consumers. For young people in NYC, the opportunities are boundless, with summer camps that teach beginner robotics to week-long workshops where teens become digital animators. Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network, a city-wide lab with 56 non-profit organizations that create innovative educational experiences for youth, is hosting two, free special events this month that feature a range of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) and webmaking activities.

NYC SUMMER QUEST MAKER PARTY

Hive NYC is hosting this event for more than 300 middle school students enrolled in NYC Summer Quest, a five-week summer learning program led by the Department of Education, The Fund for Public Schools and The Department of Youth and Community Development as an effort to combat summer learning loss by engaging students in fun, project-based academic and enrichment activities. The event will feature projects ranging from stop-motion animation and HTML/CSS programming to digital beat-making and building paper circuits.

  • WHAT: Event for NYC Summer Quest middle school students to take part in hands-on STEM activities
  • WHEN: Thursday, August 1st, 11am – 4:45pm
  • WHERE: Bronx Library Center, 310 E Kingsbridge Rd  Bronx, NY
  • WHO: More than 300 NYC Summer Quest students, engaging in activities led by      Bronx Museum, Center for Urban Pedagogy, CoderDojo NYC, Exposure Camp, Museum of the Moving Image, New York Hall of Science, Rubin Museum of Art, Mozilla, WNYC Radio Rookies and World Up

BROOKLYN STORYMAKERS

Brooklyn Public Library and Hive NYC team up to celebrate the fact that stories are as much fun to read as they are to make! Participants will create online comic strips, design and playtest video games, make stop-motion animated shorts, or retell/remix their favorite stories using digital media and the web.

  • WHAT: Free event for kids focused on web literacy and storytelling-as-making
  • WHEN: Friday, August 23rd, 1pm-4pm
  • WHERE: Brooklyn Public Library Info Commons, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY
  • WHO: Public event open to kids ages 10-18. Activities led by CoderDojo NYC, Institute of Play, Iridescent Learning, and others.

Both of these events are part of Mozilla Maker Party–a global campaign running from June 15–September 15 featuring hundreds of events where people come together to realize their creative potential and become active makers of the world around them. For more information visit www.webmaker.org/party.

About Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network (Hive NYC): Hive NYC was founded through The MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning initiative to fuel collaborations between cultural organizations and create new learning pathways and innovative education practices together. Hive NYC is comprised of 56 non-profit organizations—museums, libraries, media and other youth-facing organizations—that create opportunities for youth to explore their intellectual and skill-based interests using digital media and other technologies. Network members have access to funding to support this work through The Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust.For more information please visit http://www.explorecreateshare.org or follow on Twitter @HiveLearningNYC.

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TEEN CODERS CONVERGE DURING WEEKEND WORKSHOP TO SOLVE NEW YORK CITY PROBLEMS USING OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA

Young Rewired State NYC Extends UK Model to the US, Empowers Youth to Become More Civically Engaged Using Code and Creativity

NEW YORK, June 17, 2013— Young Rewired State (YRS) a UK-based organization with a mission to support youth who are driven to teaching themselves to code, has partnered with Museum of the Moving Image and Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network to host their first event in the United States. At a free weekend-long workshop at the Museum on June 29-30, participating teens will work with each other and with mentors from the local tech sector to build digital products and prototypes using data available through NYC Open Data initiative to address real New York City civic concerns and problems.

Over the course of two days, approximately 50 teens from across NYC will have an opportunity to build their programming skills through the creative application of technology and design, while also experiencing what it means to be more civically engaged. They will work in teams with sample data sets that may include: Wi-Fi hotspots, 311 service requests, map of parks, MTA data, filming locations, hurricane evacuation zones, and school attendance and enrollment statistics. At the end of the weekend, teams will present their projects to a panel of judges (listed below).

Using the successful model developed through their U.K. program, Young Rewired State NYC aims to build a local community of young coders and mentors that will help teens cultivate the computational literacy skills necessary for college and career readiness in New York City’s digital economy. This event also offers New York City the opportunity to leverage youth interpretation of its Open Data initiative, via feedback from YRS NYC participants as well as the creative outcomes and projects resulting from the event.

YRS NYC is the first venture in “YRS  Everywhere,” a major new initiative by Young Rewired State to expand to six international locations, including San Francisco, Aarhus, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Johannesburg, resulting in a global network of youth interested in coding and programming.

WHAT:  A two-day design challenge where NYC-based teens will work with programmers, creatives and other mentors on a design challenge to use NYC Open Data to build working digital prototypes that solve real-world problems for the City of New York.

WHO: 

Participants: Young coders ages 14-18 from across the five boroughs with skills spanning from basic HTML editing to JavaScript, Python and C++.

Mentors: Professionals/volunteers with a range of skills and expertise, including teachers, programmers, interaction design experts and data scientists.

Judges:

WHEN:  Saturday and Sunday, June 29-30, 2013 from 10am until 7pm

WHERE:  Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, NY 11106

Funding for Young Rewired State NYC was provided by The Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust.

YRS NYC is also part of this year’s global Maker Party, a three-month celebration of all the amazing things we can make — and learn — thanks to the web. From June 15 to September 15, Mozilla and more than 50 partner organizations are participating in events big and small that focus on hands-on learning through making. For more information go to www.webmaker.org/party.

About Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network (Hive NYC): Hive NYC was founded through The MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning initiative to fuel collaborations between cultural organizations and create new learning pathways and innovative education practices together. Hive NYC is comprised of 56 non-profit organizations—museums, libraries, media and other youth-facing organizations—that create opportunities for youth to explore their intellectual and skill-based interests using digital media and other technologies. Network members have access to funding to support this work through The Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust. For more information, visit http://www.explorecreateshare.org.

About Museum of the Moving Image: Museum of the Moving Image advances the public understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of film, television, and digital media. Its internationally recognized education programs, which serve over 50,000 young people each year, empower youth to be informed consumers and thoughtful creators of moving image media through dynamic learning experiences in its exhibitions, screening programs, and hands-on media production workshops. For more information, visit http://movingimage.us.

About Young Rewired State: Young Rewired State (YRS) was founded in the UK in 2009 with a mission to find and foster children and teenagers who are driven to teaching themselves to code. By growing a community of peers and mentors that support their interests and skill development, and by providing opportunities through events and online challenges to create products and prototypes using open government data, they’ve grown to reach more than 1.5 million people.

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Mozilla Hive NYC Welcomes New Members; Expands NYC’s Learning Ecosystem and Opportunities for Youth to Learn New Skills in the Digital Age

JUNE 6, 2013 — BROOKLYN, NY — In the past three years, nearly 10,000 NYC-based middle and high-school aged youth have been navigating a new ecosystem of learning opportunities across the city, after-school, and on their own time. They’re developing critical skills in web literacy, media production, civic action, leadership and collaboration to prepare them for college and career success. It’s all part of a growing network, where dozens of local nonprofit organizations have come together as a coalition to offer innovative, interest-based learning opportunities to youth through the Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network (Hive NYC).

Hive NYC programs aim to help youth explore their interests and build skills and competencies in the following areas:

• STEM
• Art/Media Production
• Advocacy/Social Justice
• College and Career Prep
• Literacy and Critical Thinking
• Youth Development and Leadership
• Design/Gaming

Today, Hive NYC formally announced the addition of 15 new organizations to its membership, in an effort to broaden the network’s expertise, expand to new areas, connect with new collaborators and continue building innovative experiences that reach more youth and help build a city of learning opportunities.

“Hive NYC envisions the entire city as a lab where young people can learn anytime, anywhere, but in order for that to be successful, you need a strong network with educators and mentors working together–out of their silos–innovating, sharing with and learning from one another,” said Chris Lawrence, Senior Director of Mozilla Mentor Team and Hive Learning Networks. “By adding new organizations and expertise to the network, we’re looking forward to further incubating innovative approaches to learning that are participatory, open and production-based.”

The new Hive NYC member organizations include:

• Beam Center
• Brooklyn College Community Partnership
• Carnegie Hall
• Center for Urban Pedagogy
• Children’s Museum of the Arts
• CoderDojo NYC
• Groundswell
• Lower Eastside Girls Club
• New York City Writing Project
• NYC SALT
• Scenarios USA
• ScriptEd
• STOKED
• Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls
• WNET/Thirteen

They join 41 other nonprofit organizations who, as part of Hive NYC, have the opportunity to network, share best practices, learn about and play with new technologies, participate in and lead professional development sessions and run youth-facing events. Funding is also available to support collaborative programs through the Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in the New York Community Trust, which offers grants to Hive NYC members every six months. Click here for a list of the most recent grantees.

This summer, many Hive NYC events and programs will be participating in the Mozilla Maker Party, a global campaign that celebrates the amazing things we can make thanks to the web. Between June 15 and September 15, more than 50 partners across the globe will be promoting the maker spirit via hands-on activities.

Hive NYC Maker Party summer events include:

Come Out and Play Jam: A Live-Action Game Design Challenge
Details and RSVP here
June 15 at the YMCA Park Slope Armory
Teens will work with professional game designers to create their own field games. The top two winning games will be played at the 2013 Come Out and Play Festival on Governor’s Island on July 13th.

Young Rewired State NYC
Details and RSVP here
June 29-30 at the Museum of the Moving Image
A weekend-long event that will bring 50 young coders together with programmers, designers and other mentors to build digital prototypes that address real NYC issues, using at least one dataset available through the NYC Open Data initiative. The project will introduce youth with an interest in coding, design and civic engagement to professionals in the local creative and technology sectors, helping teens cultivate the computational literacy skills necessary for college and career readiness.

Summer Quest Maker Party
August 1 at the Bronx Library Center
A making and learning event featuring a wide range of hands-on activities led by a cross-section of Hive NYC members, just for middle school students involved in NYC Summer Quest, a three-year pilot program led by the NYC Department of Education (DOE), the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) and the Fund for Public Schools (FPS) to combat summer learning loss and deliver engaging, hands-on enrichment opportunities aligned to the Common Core Learning Standards.

See additional Hive NYC summer programs led by network members here.

About Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network (Hive NYC):
Hive NYC was founded in 2009 through The MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media & Learning initiative to fuel collaborations between cultural organizations and to create new learning pathways and innovative education practices based on the principles of Connected Learning. A city-wide lab comprised of 56 non-profit organizations—museums, libraries, after school programs and informal learning spaces—Hive NYC brings educators, designers, scientists, technologists and other youth development experts together to create a network of opportunities that prepare young people for success in the digital age. Network members have access to funding to support this work through The Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust. For more information please visit http://www.explorecreateshare.org.
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