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Our flag ship, Baden Academy Media Lab, celebrated this last week the culmination of the year long projects of 46 research fellows (we added a few!). We were thrilled to also partner with a teacher and complete one additional project and to recognize the Kitty Whisperers for continuing their fellows project with minimal support from the media lab!
The year has shaped us into a family, a family of superheroes!
We share a mindset – a growth mindset – that any problem is solvable when we pool our creativity and resources.
We share a mission – to Inspire Kids and the whole world with projects that make a meaningful difference in the lives of people.
And we share an experience – the experience of working hard on a project that wasn’t for a grade, wasn’t for just a learning objective, but was about taking what we were passionate about and working hard to make something that touched the lives of others and made the world a more beautiful place.
Some of us chose to create stories…
Announcing 9 Books!!!
- King Penguins of the Falkland Islands by Gavin Phillips
- Angie’s Tale: What Happened to Her Flipper? By Jaylee Duncan
- Don’t Smoke by Ava C, Brett B, and Quincy S
- A Colorful Kindergarten by Kelli Keriotis’ 2015-16 Kindergarten Class
Coming Soon…
- Max and the Tornado by Brian Curry
- Double Trouble by Veronica Judt
- The Last Butterfly by Erin Cheek
- Barbee the Bee Visits Sister Lyn’s Beehive by Alysa, Damon, Maya, and Kennedi
- Charlie the Siezure Response Dog by Ava Skender and Charlie Houston
5 websites and one mobile app!!!
- K2k Kids Activity Center by Kamryn Vilscek and Will Ritchie
- Baden Dreams by Kadie Belic, Billy Abt, and Owen Bonini
- MG Boys Lunch with Chemistry by Anthony Speicher and Christopher Denkovich
- BACS Book Reviews by Brynn Burnsworth, Kaitlyn Doerchers, and Samantha Patton
- 3rd Grade RFID Experiment by Aderyn McLaughlin
5 Aferschool Clubs
- Dragon Tag Programming Club led by Glorian McDaniel and Dru Sayre
- Future City Competition Club led by Timothy Snyder and Timmy Bayne
- Nerd Battalion led by Elise Probst, Calla Walker, and Jacob Webber
- STEM Video Game Challenge Club led by Eli Lishack and James Ritchie
- Free the Children led by Aleenia Reich
8 Vloggers and 4 Roboticists
- Kitty Whisperers: Miriam Whitacre and Jaydn Perza
- Amazing Animal Apps: Carter Catalano, Isaiah Harshman, and Hoby Schwiekert
- Cute Cooking Kids: Rylee Kymer, Julia Fawcett, and Sarah Ake
- The STEAM of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: John Ake, Nathaniel Curry, Evan Houy, and Aidan Ford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5GzUORadbY
Leah and I would like to thank the school’s administration and support staff, particularly Angela Abadilla, Lauren Bensink, Jeffrey Hackett, and Mat Davis.
The projects would not be possible without the 100s of volunteer hours of incredible mentors!
Kelli Keriotis – artist and teacher who not only worked on her own classroom book, created images and edits for the Don’t Smoke Book, and is also serving as the illustrator to Max and the Tornado.
Katy Wozniak, the lead aquarist at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium for helping Gavin in writing his King Penguin Book.
Mr. Bango and son from Photography by James for donating time and talent to create the images for the Don’t Smoke book. Photoshoots at his studio were a hoot.
Sarah van Slagen from The Marine Mammal Center. She is the chief storyteller NEED
Carrie Kennedy, the artist in residence at our own Baden Academy Charter School. Carrie provided hands on training with charcoals for the gorgeous artwork Jaylee made for Angie’s Tale.
Sr. Lyn, our resident environmental engineer and beekeeper, who worked with Alysa and Damon to get the details rights in their story Barbie the Bee visits Sr. Lyn’s beehive.
Lorren Kezmoh, vertebrate animal research specialist with the Duquesne University Animal Ethics Board who worked with Veronica on becoming a better science writer.
Kara Best, a gifted kindergarten teacher at the school who worked with Kamryn on the K2k website. She auditioned and trained kids for Kamryn’s commercials and continues to vet, test, and edit Kamryn’s games on K2k.
Ba Rae, author, illustrator, editor of all things Monarch – for her three years of support of Erin Cheek as she built a monarch way station, developed an environmental club, and began the creative writing process of a new book.
Mr. Tim Vignere, a local EMT and Firefighter, who is working with Brian Curry on the Tornado book. Brian also had several emails from survivors of one of the worst Oklahoma tornadoes who were trapped with 44 gymnasts in a basement.
Nicholas Martinez, the illustrator for Ava and Chariles Seizure Response Dog book along with Deb Davis from Paws with a Cause in Michigan
Sandra Curry, the director of STEM Education for the Franklin Center in Aliquippa and the Director of Beaver County Youth Entrepreneurship provided phenomenal support to both Kadie and her team with Baden Dreams and Kamryn and her team with K2k Kids Activity Center. Thank you Sandy!
Erin Shaffer from the Living Treasures Animal Park in Moraine was indespensible in providing images, feedback, and support for our Amazing Animal Appmakers
Our own Samantha Lesak was a great help with the rubrics and format for the BACS Book Reviews website.
Atlas and Alien Technology for donating 150 RFID tags we could experiment on.
Anna Wagenhofer for her courageous and dragon slaying enthusiasm for both the 3rd grade RFID testing and the Dragon Tag Programming Club.
Mark Bracken and Tommy Moran from FedEx who mentored Aderyn as she led the RFID experiments and Dru and Glorian in the Dragon Tag Programming Club.
Glenn McIntyre, Manager – Brick Technology, Refractory products, HarbisonWalker Int’l mentioned in Tim Snyder’s exceptional TED Talk.
Brenden Fynn, a second grade teacher at Baden Academy, mentored the first Future City Team from the school and led them as they won Best City Layout and Outstanding First Year awards.
Kim Kozicki who faithfully came to every Nerd Battalion with enthusiasm and the calm ability to bring order to chaos!
Sarah McMillen for the truly inspirational leadership and example for Aleena and all the members of the Free the Children.
Dennis Denkovich, owner of the Fairmont Restaurant, mentored the Molecular Gastronomy Boys as they learned about chemistry through cooking.
Tricia and Jim Fawcet who mentored the Cute Cooking Kids as they created Vlogs for making healthy, safe and easy afterschool snacks.
Karen Moran from the Beaver County Humane Society who mentored The Kitty Whisperers as they continue to make Vlogs to help reduce the feral cat population.
Thom McLaughlin who mentored Theatrical Robots that were used in the school’s production of Willie Wonka Jr.
FInally, Nick Schmidley, roboticists and Mindstorm expert who helped Nathaniel with the scissors mechanism.
