Weekly Media Roundup: August 7, 2019

Summer Learners Enjoy a 5-Star Taste of the Real World, The Westerly Sun (Rhode Island)

Students in the Tower Street Community Center Summer Learning Program explored culinary arts, nutrition, sustainable farming, the hospitality industry and more during a recent trip to Ocean House hotel and resort in Westerly, Rhode Island. The students toured the hotel’s various restaurants and kitchens, learned about jobs at the hotel, and discussed shellfish farming practices with chefs. All summer, the program has engaged students through activities and field trips related to food, the environment, careers and civic leadership; students also visited an organic farm and made veggie burgers from produce they grew themselves. “We try to create as many options as possible for children to have real-world opportunities, but we also want them to have fun and to play,” Joan Serra, Tower Street Community Center's director of family and community relations, told the Westerly Sun.

These Students Are Learning How to Fly Drones – And They’re Only in Middle School, Miami Herald (Florida)

This summer, Florida Power and Light (FPL), a utility company, teamed up with After-School All-Stars (ASAS) South Florida to teach middle school students about careers in technology and engineering, using drones. Students in the ASAS Miami summer program learned how FPL uses drones to tackle power outages and survey dangerous areas to assess storm damage. Then, students built their own mini-drones and practiced piloting them through obstacles such as hula hoops. ASAS provides programming year-round to introduce students to new interests and opportunities. “I think I want to be a drone pilot now that I know I can in a couple years,” 14-year-old Brandon Gutierre told the Miami Herald.

JCPS' New Summer School Program Offers Kids Lessons 'You Can't Learn in a Book', Courier Journal (Kentucky)

When students learn something new in the “Backpack League” summer learning program in Louisville, Kentucky, they document their learning ‘artifacts’ in a ‘digital backpack.’ The four-week, tuition-free program offers more than 850 third- through sixth-grade students a choice of learning “adventures” designed to strengthen math and literacy skills, including music classes and entrepreneurship activities. In one adventure called “Cardboard Empire,” students read a graphic novel about a cardboard creation, then built their own, and wrote and directed films about them. “I finally got a chance to go a little wild with my imagination,” fourth-grader Trey Adams told the Courier Journal.

Boys & Girls Club Seeks to Lessen Summer Learning Loss, Siuslaw News (Oregon)

Each day at the Summer Brain Gain program at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Lane County in Oregon, elementary school students exercise, play team-building games, learn about the planets, enhance their academic skills through hands-on activities and more. Once a week, students learn about safety from local civil servants. For example, representatives from Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue visited with a fire engine, and the Western Lane Ambulance District helped students find appropriate bike helmets. “What’s important about that as well is that we want the kids to have a good relationship with first responders,” Executive Director Chuck Trent told the Siuslaw News.