Marketplace for Kids!
Katie's teacher has been tearing her hair out for weeks getting her class ready for "Marketplace for Kids," and on Friday I found out why. Every kid in Katie's class prepared a tri-fold display of a product or service they wanted to present. Some were fanciful (an origami service, anyone?) and some were more prosaic (rain barrels).
It looks like every fifth-grader in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area was invited to do the same, and most of them showed up:
(Katie's fourth-grade class was an unusual participant; apparently, her teacher overachieves in this department!)
This appears to be a huge program, held in sites throughout the state. It's sponsored by the state's department of education, its agriculture commissioner, and one of its U.S. senators, Kent Conrad.
"We believe the future of our state's economy lies in the entrepreneurial spirit of our children, the next generation," the program tells parents. "At Marketplace, we want to plant the seeds of innovation in today's students – the civic and business leaders of tomorrow."
Each kid's project was listed in the 44-page program:
As promised, Katie presented the Lego robot she had built as part of her TechGyrls program, and sang the praises of the program:
Katie's exhibit drew big crowds. Predictably, though TechGyrls was meant to lure girls into engineering, most of those whose eyes popped out at her demonstration were the boys. This is Katie in demo mode:
Note that the tall person to the left is Sarah, an engineering student at North Dakota State University who very kindly agreed to accompany Katie to Marketplace for Kids, and helped sell TechGyrls. I think I can safely say Katie was the only kid in attendance with an engineering department backing her up.
Katie's robot featured two independent motors which had to be programmed separately, and a light sensor. Katie made it run a maze with great precision. Here's a close-up:
It was an all-day event. Katie and her classmates presented for about an hour, then went off to three classes, one on inventing stuff, one on North Dakota agriculture, and one on storytelling. Katie was thrilled that the storyteller brought and played a guitar.
It looks like every fifth-grader in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area was invited to do the same, and most of them showed up:
(Katie's fourth-grade class was an unusual participant; apparently, her teacher overachieves in this department!) This appears to be a huge program, held in sites throughout the state. It's sponsored by the state's department of education, its agriculture commissioner, and one of its U.S. senators, Kent Conrad.
"We believe the future of our state's economy lies in the entrepreneurial spirit of our children, the next generation," the program tells parents. "At Marketplace, we want to plant the seeds of innovation in today's students – the civic and business leaders of tomorrow."
Each kid's project was listed in the 44-page program:
As promised, Katie presented the Lego robot she had built as part of her TechGyrls program, and sang the praises of the program:
Katie's exhibit drew big crowds. Predictably, though TechGyrls was meant to lure girls into engineering, most of those whose eyes popped out at her demonstration were the boys. This is Katie in demo mode:
Note that the tall person to the left is Sarah, an engineering student at North Dakota State University who very kindly agreed to accompany Katie to Marketplace for Kids, and helped sell TechGyrls. I think I can safely say Katie was the only kid in attendance with an engineering department backing her up. Katie's robot featured two independent motors which had to be programmed separately, and a light sensor. Katie made it run a maze with great precision. Here's a close-up:
It was an all-day event. Katie and her classmates presented for about an hour, then went off to three classes, one on inventing stuff, one on North Dakota agriculture, and one on storytelling. Katie was thrilled that the storyteller brought and played a guitar.
posted by Tom at 10:58 AM
1 Comments:
GO KATIE!!!
meg
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