ALA Open House - September 21

Bill, Gabe, and Jonathon spent this evening at ALA for their open house instead of the normally scheduled studio time with the year 1 kids. THe purpose of the evening was to recruit new 7th and 8th grade students into the DESIGN IT program. We set up the laptops in Joyce Baker's room, who is the contact person for the project at ALA. We posted Signs all over the school for 7th and 8th grade students to come and explore the possibilities of the partnership with the Museum, and that we were set up in Joyce's room. We took examples of the Summer Institute work with us, including the Scratch Animation Film, some of the Sound Automata, the Spirograph Microworlds work, Microworlds stories and games, and the stop-motion animation films. We also made available flyers for MINDFEST, to help show parents and students what the first cycle of work was being prepared for. THe night went a little later than expected, but it seemed to be a conditional success. First i will list the positives on the night, and then i will list the elements that need to be improved if possible.
POSITIVES - we got to talk to a good number of parents and students about the museum, the project DESIGN IT, and the upcoming Mindfest. Many people seemed very interested in coming to Mindfest and exploring all the museum has to offer. We were able to meet some of the new applicants from the ALA and their families, and show off some of the work to them. THe new applicants seemed very excited about being a part of the new year of DESIGN IT. We also got to see a few of the current students (year 1 returning) and their families. Talking to them about geting ready for Mindfest and having their students intimately involved with the visitors during the event as well as during the year excited the parents. One of our students, David, even showed me one of his Microworlds projects that he has been working on away from the studio. I'll be looking into some of the issues he raised that he needs help with later today. The Museum was hyped, MINDFEST was given an incredible push, and the DESIGN IT program was encouraged among all the visitors that came through. It should prove interesting and fun to see who actually comes in to the program this year.
IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY - Most of the students and parents we talked to were 6th graders. That was a problem, because they are not eligible for the program at this time. There were many who were interested, and a few 6th grade students that could really do well and benefit from DESIGN IT, but having to iterate their ineligibility may prove to be a liability. We'll have to wait and see. Joyce Baker is wonderful as our partner, but her room and her space is in the 6th grade area of the school. We were not able to set up anywhere near the 7th and 8th grade areas of the school. The open house was part of a larger PTA meeting and the bands played until almost 8 pm - the band students are the one we are trying to recruit, and after the long night of meetings and band music we didn't get many takers in Joyce's room from new students. The location may have been more of a liability than we were aware at the time. Hopefully by next week we will have a good number of new applicants to interview for this year's starting group from ALA.

Jonathon