New York, April 25, 2023 –– Today, the Stevens Initiative announced iEARN-USA is one of 15 schools, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations to receive funding to run virtual exchange programs that connect young people in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. iEARN-USA’s Storytelling for Social Change builds global leaders by engaging Algerian, Tunisian, and American youth in global collaboration to tell stories about real world issues in their local communities.
Storytelling for Social Change is implemented by iEARN-USA and is supported by the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative (JCSVEI). JCSVEI is a U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program administered by the Aspen Institute.
Virtual exchange connects young people from diverse places using everyday technology for collaborative learning and interaction through sustained and facilitated engagement. Through virtual exchange programs, young people have access to life-changing opportunities that can shape their trajectories, bring new friends into their lives, and expand their worldviews. Virtual exchange is a vital learning tool with the capacity to connect people around the world on an unprecedented scale without a need for travel.
“At a time when education remains in flux in a post-pandemic world, complex global issues are front of mind, and young people excitedly return to in-person gatherings, virtual exchange continues to be an important learning tool. By fostering unique online spaces for young people to come together over shared challenges and triumphs, virtual exchange moves us toward a more connected and inclusive world. These new grantees play a critical role in making this possible, and participants of this program will undoubtedly approach the future with the belief they can impact their communities and the world around them,†said Christine Shiau, Executive Director of the Stevens Initiative.
iEARN-USA’s Storytelling for Social Change draws on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to explore the transformative power of storytelling. High school-aged youth from Algeria, Tunisia, and the United States collaborate with international partners through virtual exchange as they choose a local or global issue inspired by the SDGs and examine their personal connections to it. Participants learn a range of storytelling, communication, and technical skills through media analysis and hands-on audiovisual assignments. By developing a deeper understanding of global issues from different social and cultural perspectives, participants ultimately create a more equitable society and become active global citizens.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Stevens Initiative for this opportunity. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for learning and creating change. Stories connect people and ideas and help us learn about different places, people and cultures. Good stories can change the way we view the world and our role in it. Leveraging technology to connect students from different parts of the world who might otherwise never meet, and engaging them in an exploration of issues that impact them and their communities and sharing their stories elevates the excitement and the learning,†added Stefanie Ortiz-Cidlik, Executive Director of iEARN-USA.
The 2023 grantees will reach 20,000 young people across the United States and MENA region. Other grants include:
Amideast’s Qisasna facilitates cross-cultural exchange between young people in the United States and Yemen by providing them with the skills they need to produce podcasts on shared challenges and opportunities between youth.
An-Najah National University’s Climate Futures Exchange is a classroom-based exchange that engages students from An-Najah National University and Arizona State University to discuss a range of climate change issues and strategies to address them when designing and implementing new buildings.
Arizona State University’s Future Educators for Inclusion engages college students from Morocco and the United States through mutual discovery, shared learning, and local action to address the global challenge of disability inclusion as they prepare to become classroom teachers.
Culturingua’s Alliance of Young World Actionists engages young American and Libyan leaders focused on local and global public health challenges and their causes.
Global Ties KC’s FIRST Robotics Virtual Exchange connects participants from Libya, Morocco, and the U.S. through cultural exchange and technical sessions related to STEM and robotics.
Institute of International Education’s Harnessing Innovation through Virtual Exchange for Enhanced Results develops intercultural communication, problem-solving, and leadership skills among a diverse group of students at participating universities in the United States and Middle East and North Africa.
IREX’s Global Solutions places college students from the United States with peers in Iraq or Jordan in binational teams to collaborate on innovative solutions related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through virtual exchange.
Missouri State University’s Global Teacher Education Exchange brings new and future K-12 educators from Libya, Morocco, and the United States into a vibrant professional learning community where they engage in cross-cultural collaboration and prepare to teach for global understanding.
PATHWAYSInstitute for Negotiation Education’s Game Changers: Creative Negotiation Skills builds confidence and skills for creative negotiation, problem-solving, and leadership among university students coming together from Israel and the United States.
Plugged In Band Program’s Peace Tracks is a cross-cultural, music-focused online youth exchange that provides high school students with an unforgettable opportunity to connect with peers in other countries to get to know them, learn about their cultures, and collaborate over the course of a semester on an original song.
Smithsonian Science Education Center’s Smithsonian Youth STEM Exchange brings together young people in Iraq and Michigan, United States, to discover, understand, and find solutions to sustainability issues in their local and global communities.
Soliya’s Connect Program brings together college-aged youth in the United States and in the Middle East and North Africa for online, face-to-face dialogues in the presence of facilitators trained in dialogue and conflict resolution.
Soliya’s Global Circles are short online dialogue opportunities, bringing together young people from the United States and from the Middle East and North Africa for a face-to-face exchange around compelling global issues that matter to youth today.
Texas International Education Consortium’s Business & Entrepreneurship Virtual Exchange connects faculty from universities in Iraq and Texas, U.S., through virtual exchange, preparing them to implement project-based virtual exchanges on a variety of business and entrepreneurship topics in their courses that will develop key academic skills and cultural competencies.
World Learning’s The Experiment Digital Leadership in STEM equips high school-aged youth to leverage their interests and skills in STEM to achieve personal and professional goals while giving back to their community.
The Stevens Initiative is an international leader in virtual exchange, which brings young people from diverse places together to collaborate and connect through everyday technology. Created in 2015 as a lasting tribute to Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, the Initiative invests in virtual exchange programs; shares research, resources, and promising practices to improve impact; and advocates for broader adoption.
iEARN-USA is a global leader in virtual project-based learning for K-12 students that has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the most innovative education models in the world. Through iEARN programs, students work collaboratively across boundaries of geography, time-zones, languages, cultural differences, and educational systems to make a meaningful difference in the world. iEARN-USA is part of a global non-profit network that impacts over 30,000 schools and 50,000 educators in 130 countries.
More Information
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) builds relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries through academic, cultural, sports, professional and private exchanges, as well as public-private partnerships and mentoring programs. These exchange programs improve foreign relations and strengthen the national security of the United States, support U.S. international leadership, and provide a broad range of domestic benefits by helping break down barriers that often divide us. Visit eca.state.gov.
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Institute has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.
“…my children began with doubt, with fear of not being able to do something. However, as the workshops went on, they had more confidence and they came up with new ideas…my children grew up.†– Mildred Torres, Middle-school Teacher (Puerto Rico)
Are you looking for engaging, fun, hands-on engineering challenges for your classroom? Do you work with Latinx kids? Do you have little or no experience with engineering? Have you been looking for after-school activities for kids? Then, let us introduce you to Design Squad Latinx!!
Design Squad Latinx is a program collaboratively designed by iEARN-USA, GBH and iEARN Orillas and sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This program includes a variety of engineering challenges, or activities, in both English and Spanish to get kids (primarily ages 10-13) excited about engineering and to motivate Latinx students to consider engineering fields as professional studies in their future. Through Design Squad Latinx, kids are introduced to the four steps of the engineering design process and are challenged to solve real-world problems. By engaging in engineering projects, kids can contribute their unique knowledge and experiences while learning essential collaboration skills that empower them to see themselves as problem solvers, which is a crucial skill for any career path they choose.
By using the design process and a community and strengths-based approach to engineering, Design Squad Latinx provides opportunities for Latinx kids to solve community problems and encourages them to recognize their own existing strengths, or funds of knowledge, as a means to solve problems that matter to them and their community. Kids explore engineering through fun and energetic hands-on activities. Using recyclable materials, kids confront challenges such as learning the design process, building pulleys, creating engineering design solutions, and showcasing their project designs. In doing so, Design Squad Latinx aims to act as a bridge for Latinx kids to the more formal world of engineering.
Design Squad Latinx includes an extensive collection of free resources including educator guides, videos, engineering activities, and an interactive training for educators to learn how to use the materials in their classrooms or after-school clubs. The activities and resources were designed to be easily used by educators without any engineering background and are extremely flexible, allowing educators to pick and choose activities which can be used to supplement an existing program, to complement classroom instruction, or used in its entirety to create a new engineering club. These resources have been rigorously tested and found to be highly engaging by both educators and students.
iEARN-USA invites all educators, teachers, and anyone working with kids to utilize these free resources to engage Latinx youth to explore their problem solving abilities and recognize their potential as engineers.
Check out the free resources on the PBS LearningMedia platform in both English and Spanish!
English
https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/dsglx22-sci-latinx-training-il/design-squad-latinx-leader-training/
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Spanish
https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/dsglx22-sci-latinx-training-il-es/capacitacion-de-dirigentes-de-design-squad-latinx/
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If you want to learn how you can use the materials, know more about the funds of knowledge, and meet teachers who have already participated in this program…join us at the Design Squad Latinx: Engineering the Future Webinar on January 21, 2023!
Register for the Design Squad Latinx Webinar!
https://bit.ly/DesignSquadLatinxWebinar
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“…mis niños comenzaron con dudas, con miedo a no poder realizar algo. Sin embargo, a medida que avanzaban los talleres, tenÃan más confianza y se les ocurrÃan nuevas ideas… mis niños crecieron.” – Mildred Torres, Profesora de enseñanza media (Puerto Rico)
¿Está buscando desafÃos de ingenierÃa atractivos, divertidos y prácticos para tu clase? ¿Trabaja con jóvenes latinos? ¿No tiene o tiene poca experiencia con la ingenierÃa? ¿Está buscando actividades extraescolares para jóvenes? Entonces, ¡permÃteme presentarle a Design Squad Latinx!
Design Squad Latinx incluye una extensa colección de recursos gratuitos, como guÃas para educadores, vÃdeos, actividades de ingenierÃa y una capacitación interactiva para educadores para aprender a utilizar los materiales en sus aulas o clubes extraescolares. Las actividades y los recursos se han diseñado para que puedan ser utilizados fácilmente por educadores sin ningún tipo de formación en ingenierÃa y son extremadamente flexibles, lo que permite a los educadores elegir actividades que pueden utilizarse para complementar un programa existente, para complementar la enseñanza en el aula o utilizarse en su totalidad para crear un nuevo club de ingenierÃa. Estos recursos han sido sometidos a pruebas rigurosas y han resultado ser muy atractivos tanto para los educadores como para los alumnos.
iEARN-USA invita a todos los educadores, maestros y cualquier persona que trabaje con jóvenes a utilizar estos recursos gratuitos para involucrar a los jóvenes Latinx a explorar sus habilidades para resolver problemas y reconocer su potencial como ingenieros.
Si quiere aprender cómo utilizar los materiales, saber más sobre los fondos de conocimiento y conocer a maestros que ya han participado en este programa… únase al webinar del Design Squad Latinx: Ingeniar el futuro, ¡el 21 de enero de 2023!
DSL Engineering Club Closing – Abelardo DÃaz Morales School, Caguas, Puerto Rico (April 2022) / Cierre del Club de ingenierÃa DSL , Esc. Abelardo DÃaz Morales, Caguas, Puerto Rico (abril 2022)
During the weeks of March 7 to April 19, the pilot of the Design Squad Latinx (DSL) project was carried out by two schools in Puerto Rico, called DSL Engineering Clubs. Design Squad Latinx is a collaboration with GBH, iEARN-USA and iEARN Orillas, with funding from the National Science Foundation.
The purpose of this initiative is to create a curriculum in English and Spanish to organize engineering clubs with 10 to 13 years old, which hopes to motivate Latinx students to consider engineering fields as professional studies in their future.
The pilot project tested materials and activities in the Abelardo DÃaz Morales School in Caguas, Puerto Rico and SU Pedro Fernández in Naranjito, Puerto Rico. During the pilot period, students explored the field of engineering from their prior knowledge and family experiences, known as Funds of Knowledge. In the activity design, cases of situations to be solved are presented to a client. The solution possibilities are explored and the necessary devices are created to solve the problem, such as a pulley. Both the students’ open-module creations and the ingenious problem-solving creations are fascinating.
The enthusiasm and energy that was unleashed in the classroom with these engineering activities is captured by Rosalyn Colón Rivera, a teacher from SU Pedro Fernández School in Naranjito. She comments that the DSL Engineering Club,
“…was a very growing experience for the students and for her. The students loved the process. When they arrived they took their materials and continued working in a very natural way. If they had not finished the task, they continued working when they arrived at the room with hardly any instructions until they finished their project. They were blown away, they traveled, and they believed that they could be the engineers from the video. They loved the Cell Phone Module, the Pulley Module, and the Create their Own Engineering Challenge Module. The reality is that they did an excellent job and they liked it.†– Rosalyn Colón Rivera
Likewise, Aileen RodrÃguez and Mildred Torres, a librarian and a teacher from Abelardo DÃaz Morales School in Caguas, tell us about the impact of the engineering clubs both on them and on the students.
“Seeing our students grow, enjoying the process, recognizing themselves as great inventors, and beings capable of finding solutions to everyday problems was wonderful. After this experience, I know that the children are not the same. Neither is this instructor.†– Aileen Rodriguez
“…my children began with doubt, with fear of not being able to do something. However, as the workshops went on, they had more confidence and they came up with new ideas…my children grew up.†– Mildred Torres
With these insights from our experience and learning, we will head into the implementation phase of the Design Squad Latinx engineering clubs this fall.
DSL Engineering Club Club – SU Pedro Fernández, Naranjito School, Puerto Rico (April, 2022) / Club de ingenierÃa DSL, Esc. SU Pedro Fernández, Naranjito, Puerto Rico (abril, 2022)
Durante las semanas del 7 de marzo al 19 de abril se llevó a cabo el piloto del proyecto Design Squad Latinx (DSL) en dos escuelas en Puerto Rico, llamado Clubes de IngenierÃa. DSL, es una colaboración con GBH, iEARN USA y iEARN Orillas, con fondos de la National Science Foundation.
El proyecto piloto puso a prueba materiales y actividades en las escuelas Abelardo DÃaz Morales en Caguas y SU Pedro Fernández en Naranjito. Durante el periodo del piloto, los estudiantes exploraron el campo de la ingenierÃa desde sus conocimientos previos y experiencias familiares, conocidas como Funds of Knowledge (Fondos de Conocimiento). En el diseño de la actividad, se presentan casos de situaciones a resolver a un cliente, se exploran las posibilidades de solución y se crean los aditamentos necesarios para resolver el problema, como puede ser una polea. Fascinante, la creación de los estudiantes en el módulo abierto con creaciones ingeniosas para solucionar un problema.
El entusiasmo y la energÃa que se desató en la sala de clases con estas actividades de ingenierÃa, lo plasma la maestra Rosalyn Colón Rivera, de la SU Pedro Fernández en Naranjito. Ella comenta que el Club de IngenierÃa:
… fue una experiencia de mucho crecimiento para los estudiantes y para ella. A los estudiantes, les encantó el proceso. Cuando llegaban ellos cogÃan sus materiales y continuaban trabajando de manera muy natural. Si no habÃan finalizado la tarea, cuando llegaban al salón, continuaban trabajando sin apenas instrucciones hasta culminar su proyecto…a ellos se les vuela mente, viajan, se creen sà la pelÃcula de los ingenieros que pueden ser. El módulo del celular les encantó, el módulo de la polea, de crear su propio desafÃo de ingenierÃa, la realidad es que ellos trabajaron excelente y les gustó. (Rosalyn Colón Rivera)
Asà mismo la bibliotecaria Aileen RodrÃguez y la maestra Mildred Torres, de la Escuela Abelardo DÃaz Morales, en Caguas nos comentan sobre el impacto de los clubes de ingenierÃa, tanto ellas como en los estudiantes:
…mis niños comenzaron con dudas, con miedo a no poder realizar algo. Sin embargo, según fueron pasando los talleres, tenÃan más confianza, llegaban con nuevas ideas…mis niños crecieron. (Mildred Torres)
Con estas reflexiones de la experiencia y del aprendizaje, nos dirigimos hacia la fase de implantación de los clubes de ingenierÃa Design Squad Latinx en otoño.
The 2022 iEARN Virtual Project Exhibition, hosted by iEARN-USA, was a great showcase of student Collaboration!
We were so honored to connect with the iEARN global community at our 2022 Virtual Project Exhibition. During two sessions on May 19, we showcased outstanding project work, collaboration, and outcomes of iEARN K-12 classrooms around the world. Below are some stats that illustrate the impact of this event, which as become an annual tradition. If you weren’t able to join us, but would like to view the inspiring presentations for yourselves, links to the video recordings on our YouTube channel and images from the event are also below.
We wish to thank the following presenters, along with their students. We also wish to thank our guest hosts, iEARN member Jessie Gorant and her students, from the state of New Jersey in the United States. It was so inspiring to hear from students about the exciting project work they engaged in this past year, and how that work made a difference in their lives and communities!
Video recording of Session #1 (7:00am)
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Video recording of Session #2 (9:00am)
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If you missed out on presenting at the 2022 VPE but are interested in participating in a future one, please be on the lookout for our call for submissions next year. Keep in mind the following criteria as you prepare your proposal:
iEARN Project – The project must be an official iEARN project housed within the Collaboration Centre.
Quality of Media – If using video, try to keep the video to under five minutes, checking the audio quality. For powerpoints and photos, make sure that you have permission to use the photos and images are not copy-written.
Project Story – Does your project submission include a clear description of the activities completed and the connection with the SDGs? We encourage participants to share their whole project process including how they did the project, why the project is important, and final outcomes.
Exchange Story – Does your submission reflect your cultural exchange experience in connecting with global partners? Presentations that include project partners, examples of collaboration, and represent work completed by multiple classes are encouraged.
Student Voice – We love to give students the opportunity to present during the exhibition! If it’s not possible for students to join, submissions that include student voice, such as students recording messages or student quotes, will be prioritized.
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