Newsletter September 2009

From the Executive Director:
Karen L. Michaelson, Ph.D.

Tincan gets results. This newsletter chronicles Tincan's activities, often focusing on our youth programs. I'm sure most of you think, "That's nice, gives the kids something to do." But our youth programs do more than occupy teens for a few hours after school or in the summer. They are designed to teach skills and perspectives that will help the participants as they move through life. And to ensure we are having the desired impact, we don't just rely on anecdotal evidence - we measure our outcomes repeatedly. One of our favorite measurement tools is the Student Exploratory Behavior Observation Scale, or SEBOS. SEBOS measures changes in participants' "21st century skills," such as problem solving, awareness and attention, communication, and collaborative work. It also measures changes in technological fluency, such as ability to use the Internet effectively and to design a knowledge base. We use the SEBOS across all our programs, and have discovered that program impact is greatest with disadvantaged kids. Here are a few brief examples. In our summer dropout prevention program, the 9th grade boys showed improvement in all 13 categories of the scale, but there were some outstanding results: on a 5 point scale, the boys improved 1.2 points on analysis and 1.4 points on problem-solving, spoken communications, designing a knowledge base and assessing and applying technology. Those are huge gains for a 4-week summer program. Our WIBIT 7th grade girls also improved overall, but showed real gains in searching and investigating a problem (1.07), utilization of information (1.9), collaborative behavior (1.2), problem-solving (1.6), and designing a knowledge base (2.3). So it's not just all fun and games in Tincan programs - although we want kids to enjoy learning - it's real preparation for the future.

Welcome Nate: Tincan welcomes Nate Mannetter, who joined our staff full-time on September 1. Nate taught in the summer dropout prevention program and is a graduate of Gonzaga University with a background in business. Nate will take over some of James Jack's web duties when James leaves at the end of September to join his family in Indiana. He will also continue teaching the e-commerce and business components of our programs.

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Dropout Prevention Program a Big Success

The summer dropout prevention program for rising 8th graders from Garry Middle School was a real success. Funded by a grant from the AT&T Foundation, the program is based on our successful e-commerce curriculum, with the addition of a strong video component and business mentors. Students not only learned how to develop their own business ideas but they also learned valuable skills in website development, video production and business ethics. The students had exciting business ideas and what was even more notable was that they each wrote a 5-7 page business plan, a real accomplishment for students who were referred to the program because of their weak basic skills. The students also spent a lot of time learning how to give effective presentations. The students put together high quality websites that showed a real understanding of e-commerce. One of the most impressive things the students did over the whole four-week program was that they all produced 3 videos. These included two commercials for their product and one video focusing on the importance of business ethics. The program was held at the newly remodeled Rogers High School, which allowed students to become familiar with the school they will attend in the fall. Students received summer school credit for their participation.

Science Reporters Club Leaders Summer Training

Teachers from both sides of the state gathered at SIRTI for a week-long training in science journalism in early August.   Funded by the National Science Foundation, Science Reporters Club teachers from 10 middle schools showed the science journalism videos that their after-school clubs produced last year, and had the opportunity to receive feedback on both the journalism and technical aspects of their students’ work. The teachers also heard from a former Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigative reporter and learned more advanced video skills. They got out into the field to practice interviewing STEM professionals and experience making a career video. This year the clubs will add a career video and science night to the curriculum and will have additional time to do a more in-depth investigation into their science story.  The clubs will start up again at each school in September. Check the project website for samples of last year’s work as well as updates on this year’s clubs. http://www.tincan.org/sciencereporters/

Summer Wrap Up

This summer, over 100 youth and 62 teachers participated in a variety of Tincan programs that introduced them to innovative technology and interactive media. Teens participated in three game camps, including the Game Development Boot Camp, in which they learned the basics of game design and skills in using MultiMedia Fusion, a game development engine. Two more camps gave teens advanced skills, including advanced MMF techniques and a Blender camp that took the teens into the complex world of 3-D game development. A camp for middle school girls introduced game development in the context of solving a murder mystery with biotech techniques, and another introduced upper elementary school girls to the art and science of inventing new products and marketing them using e-commerce.

The video program also had an active summer. In addition to video components of the other summer programs, Tincan’s teen video program had two well-attended camps. Students in an early summer camp developed videos on responsible sexual behavior to enter into a contest being held by the Spokane County Health District. Three films with powerful themes were submitted to the contest. Later in the summer, a group of teens made science fiction videos, based in part on the “Out of This World” exhibit at the MAC. Creating special effects was the highlight of this film experience.

In addition to the science journalism workshop above, teachers participated in two advanced game development workshops, and helped lead the advanced game development camps. A number of teachers took an Eco-mapping workshop, where they learned to apply Google Earth for classroom use. Another group of teachers participated in the final workshop of the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded project focusing on bringing concepts surrounding the anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in Washington State into their classrooms.

Students of the Month

Two students supported by the Work Source Next Generation Zone worked for Tincan this summer. The Next Generation Zone provides youth 16-24 with educational opportunities to make the transition from teen to working adult.

Cody Oatman was a History Assistant. He collected and transcribed oral histories as well as doing local research on Spokane. Cody is 19 years old. His family moved to Deer Park in 2000. As a result of his summer Tincan experience, Cody plans to continue his schooling to be a network administrator, and perhaps work for one of Spokane's large banks.

Ryan Brown is a 2009 graduate of Gonzaga Prep. As Tincan's Production Assistant, he assisted with film camps this summer as well as logging hours of video from other projects. Ryan plans to attend Gonzaga University in the fall where he will major in computer science or software engineering. His main hobby is tennis, and he hopes to get back into league play in the near future. Ryan says he enjoyed his summer work at Tincan because he got to work with both computers and people frequently.