Sunday 17 November 2013

MozFest 2013

The past weekend has rushed past in another blur... Two of the team were whisked up to London to take part in Mozilla's annual festival at Ravensbourne (a building full of bubble shaped windows and slightly confusing lifts near the O2).



The Met Office invited us along with other hack projects started at their hackathons. We went to take part in the science fair on the Friday evening, to meet new people, to share ideas and learn things; oh, and to spread our love of plasticine hacking!

During the course of the weekend we asked people to create something which they would like to find if they went exploring. This kept them at our stand for long enough for them to ask questions about the project and for us to get them to share ideas about ways in which we could go forward.


The group from Mozilla who were working on localization (making the internet relevant to more people around the world by translating and tweaking it in their native tongue - sounds familiar,) introduced us to a site which offers a more integrated way for translators to work and monitor progress. We've been using GoogleDocs coupled with a hackpad to get our translations done so far, but now we have an account on transifex.com for all who would like to contribute to our localization efforts! You are able to create a new language if yours isn't shown and then start to translate the story in different levels (please make slight changes so that children with the same native language as you will be able to relate to the story.)

We spoke to the Badge The UK team, who are trying to create badges to reward people for achievements on the internet. In the near future we hope to be able to offer badges to both adults who contribute to the translation, content or development of the project and the children and teachers who share their work.



Super-Awesome Sylvia, a 12-year-old inventor and maker from the USA allowed us to borrow her WaterColor Bot to paint the Why? logo for our stand. She was full of ideas and her parents were willing to support her to make them a reality (although, we suspect that without the support she'd have the drive to get them made eventually anyway!)



A teacher from Scotland also came to the science fair and his class have produced this wonderful blog about finding their unicorns. It's great to see a fellow educator allowing their class freedom to explore a topic in their own way, I hope that the ideas planted in their science lessons will grow into a lifelong love of STEM!

The weekend was rounded off with a giant show and tell at the Demo Party. Here, people shared some of the things that were created during the weekend. You can see some of the outcomes from getting together a group of people dedicated to making the internet theirs here on the Mozilla site. 



UNAWE 13

The explorable story has come to Heidelberg, Germany to take part in the Universe Aware International Workshop 2013. The where are you from map had pins in over 50 different countries and a wide range of cultures and backgrounds were represented from Student Ambassadors from South America and university lecturers from Europe to outreach workers from observatories in Australia to name but a few!



We were welcomed by Pedro Russo and the UNAWE team to the highly appropriate venue of the Haus der Astronomie - a building designed in the exact shape (but not height) of spiral galaxy M53 (a surveyors nightmare, but an architecture fan's dream!) The central planetarium-come-lecture theatre is wrapped by a helical walkway connecting every level of the building and rooms with fantastic views into the forest of the mountain.


The first afternoon was an opportunity to share resources with other educators at a resources fair. A group of local kindergarteners joined us to try them out too. We had our plasticine ready and I spent an enjoyable time with the children as they used their models to show me what they would like to find if they went exploring. One child shared that they would like to fly using a rocket pack to Venus - perhaps by the time they are old enough to embark upon such missions the technology will be there! It is quite fascinating that neither of us could speak more than 4 words of each other's language yet we were able to have an exchange of ideas by connecting through our joint interest in science and playing.

For the rest of the mornings, UNAWE had arranged a series of talks on the key themes of early childhood development, global astronomical curricula development and the importance of evaluation. We also had the chance to see some of the work done by UNAWE across the globe.


I was particularly impressed by the work done by UNAWE with street children in Brazil - children who can only see the moon at night when they look up due to the levels of light and who probably don't get the chance because of their living situation. These children were being taught in a practical way to understand physics and as they returned regularly to the education setting they were offered the chance to move away from the streets. A science education was leading to them having more stability and safety in their lives.

In the afternoons we split into three working groups to look more closely at the three themes. I worked with the Early Childhood Development group to look at how Educational Psychology could help us understand how children learn through different activities. It was useful as a teacher to re-visit some of the theory I had learnt in university but also to see how the understanding of how children learn had changed since I was learning. It is always nice to refresh upon these things and to actually take time to reflect upon my own teaching - school is such a busy place there is rarely the time to do it properly.


On the Friday it was time for me to present to the conference about the Explorable Story project. My brief stint at the front of the lecture theatre whizzed past (it's amazing how much you can say in a short time when the audience listen - a contrast to some of my classes!) I managed to share how the project began as a hack with children from one of my schools and how it developed by collaborating with volunteers around the world. I even managed to recruit a few more translators for the project!

The week was very interesting and fantastic for meeting like-minded people. Many thanks to Pedro and the UNAWE team for organising the week.


Monday 28 October 2013

"Shooting Stars"

Growing up in the middle of a polluted, developing city, it needs some luck to get a glimpse of a clear starry night sky. The moon and a couple of bright stars are the only celestial beauties I get to see from my home. It is only when I am somewhere in a country-side or near a huge lake, do I realize what the night skies actually hold. It is magnificent. It is truly beautiful. Dotted with a million dazzling stars, the sky on a clear cloudless night looks like a piece of heaven looking down on earth.

So, whenever I get the opportunity, I love to gaze at the night sky and admire its beauty and mystery, with awe. It is not just peaceful, but also inspiring. Last December, on a class trip to a beautiful place nestled among pine trees, on the banks of a huge lake, I did not let the chance to enjoy the clear open night sky go in vain. Three of my friends were as interested as me and so, despite the cold weather, we decided to spend at least half the night on the wide open terrace before our room so that we can just look at the big starry sky spreading all across the lake. The trees were spraying a cool wintry breeze on us. But that didn’t stop us. We got our blankets out, switched off the terrace lights, lay down together, and just gazed up at the beauty of the night. And then, it started. Shooting stars!! And not just one or two or three! We saw some more than fifteen of those, not all together though. The others found it hard to believe. But they were not to blame, because without a clear sky and some patient focus, shooting stars may be hard to find. But it is worth it. So, when you get some time, take the chance to look at the stars up there. They will surprise you, heal you, inspire you and remind you how small we are compared to the vast universe. And not just that, you might even be able to make a wish upon a shooting star! 

Friday 4 October 2013

Exciting times!

Two exciting developments have happened today! One is that our website is ready enough for people to look at it. Check it out at explorablestory.org! There's still lots more content to be added, of course, but hopefully what's there will give everyone a clearer picture of what we're hoping to achieve with the resource. If after seeing the website you fancy writing or translating a page, please get in touch at contact@explorablestory.org!

Secondly, a lady named Joanna Grace has produced a sensory story version of our story. Someone on Twitter linked me to an article about her stories thinking I might be interested - I was! Joanna says:
 "I'm very pleased with how it's worked out in the sensory translation. I've tried creating more abstract sensory stories before and you always end up compromising on the stimuli, but for this one I've begun and ended the story with the students being asked to quite literally explore, and having various items to find at the end will provide a child with profound disabilities a way of expressing what motivates them, in a way that is meaningful to them: if they pick up a sound making toy, and a furry toy and drop the first in order to explore the second more carefully with their fingers they're clearly saying "I'm motivated to find interesting things to touch", where as if they push the smell away from them and vocalise as the sound is made they're saying "I want to find ways of making noise." I was surprised and delighted at how well it worked at this level and I can see many teachers of students with profound disabilities having adventures in their classrooms using this as a basis."
 I really hope that children with PMLD enjoy their experiences and their teachers find a way of sharing this with others via our gallery. 

On Sunday, we'll be heading to Germany to share the project with people at the UNAWE workshop 2013. I'm looking forward to getting some feedback (and trying to recruit a few more content writers,) from the astronomical educators who'll be there!

Sunday 8 September 2013

Mini Hack Day September 28th 2013!

I admit it! There's far too much work in this project for just our little team to handle - we need to expand! We need more volunteers (we're all volunteers too, so it's all fair!) to get more information and more languages. Our web designer is currently programming a brand new version of the site complete with the ability to write information for a range of abilities of reader!

What do we need?
Volunteers with good knowledge to share, willing to write one or multiple pages of information on:
  •  Science, 
  • Technology, 
  • Engineering, 
  • Maths, 
  • Exploration or 
  • Space
 - a maximum of 4 paragraphs (per ability level) for each topic and all in easily understood language!
Volunteers who are bi-lingual (with English being one of the languages spoken and the other being their native language)
  •  to lead local teams of translators or page writers in their native language.
  • or to help write or translate pages.
Volunteers who are creative (with access to plasticine or other modelling clay)
  • to create artwork to complement each page and make the site more appealing to young children.
If you would like to get involved email us at contact@explorablestory.org.
See the Hack Day Prezi for more information at: http://prezi.com/wsyv-dvnxyqe/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Join us online globally for the hack day on 28th September but if you can't join us virtually during that time you can still join us at another time.
 

Friday 26 July 2013

To do:

It's officially Summer here (the teacher's definition - school has finished!) so I've finally got some time to get things done with fewer children around to throw tangents into my thought processes. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy wandering along the tangents that children find - it's called child-led learning and often ends in wonderful discoveries and interesting things. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the almost 300 children I'll be working with in September make of my outdoor classrooms!

But I've got a few weeks where I can take a break from thinking about school and activities that suit the weather, so I'm going to try to get lots more work done on the project. My to do list is stretching every time I visit it, more things spring to mind in order to get the site accessible to all. For the moment, I'm going to focus upon making the site work for English speaking children aged 7-11 (the ones I have most experience working with). While I'm working on that, other members of the team around the world are working on versions in their native languages - sourcing websites with useful information and making them into links in our explore directory.

Another team member is currently working on an interactive game based around the concept of exploring to find information - I have a feeling it may be a while before it's ready to trial, but the bits I've seen look like they're going to be lots of fun! There is talk of making the game programmable by children so that they can create their own "room" of their local area for people around the world to explore - can't wait to see how that pans out!

If the trial is successful, we're hoping to rewrite information in multiple levels so that it is more accessible to younger children and those with learning difficulties but also so it can offer learning opportunities for children at the other end of the spectrum without the need to trawl through pages of information written for adults - a fairly monumental job! If you'd like to practice explaining things to younger audiences, drop us an email at contact@explorablestory.org

Well,  I've officially done task one on my list; write a (long overdue) blog entry. It's now time to begin task two!


Monday 3 June 2013

So we took a week off work...

The whole team is made up of volunteers, all with full-time jobs elsewhere. After a few weeks of working late into the night / getting up incredibly early, the school holidays came. A few of the other team members also took the week off, so we thought we'd use the time to do some exploring of our own! Here's what we got up to:

We had a meeting to discuss our future plans for the project - while eating ice-cream and walking around this reservoir. The good news is, everyone is still very keen to keep working on the project.
Inspired by the hardware hackers at Space Apps, we began the first team efforts to reach space, using vitamin tablets, water and Sugru (grown-up plasticine). Perhaps we may help in the efforts to #LaunchJon!
 We discovered that the main engines of the Sugruz1 rocket weren't quite powerful enough...

 
 
...so we helped her gain 4000 ft in altitude using non-photoshop cheating!


Designs are being drawn up for Sugruz2, a lighter weight design with 4 booster rockets attached.

But for now, it's back to work. We'll be back working on the website in the evenings too!


Wednesday 29 May 2013

Making connections

The whole project started as a way to get children to connect with science in a relevant, enjoyable and meaningful way. Then connections started to be made between adults, people joined the team in Exeter, followed by a few in India. It wasn't long before I was receiving emails from Canada and Mexico. As someone who's inner child has the vast majority of the brain, I found this all to be very, very exciting!

On the Sunday evening of Space Apps, the team were talking over Skype - still buzzing from the event and reluctant to get some much needed sleep. We were talking about the story and how it was interesting to see the different interpretations emerging in the different languages. Before the weekend, I had absolutely no idea that there was no word for unicorn in Greek! It wasn't long before the idea of using the beginning of the story as a starting point to compare different cultures came about. The great thing about the ending of the story is that no matter which culture a person is from, they are all united in the human exploration of space. We spend far too long on this planet, dividing and defining ourselves, we sometimes forget that we are all from one species.

Our website invites children (in our trial schools to begin with,) to read the story and interpret it in any way they wish. This could be a form of artwork, creative writing or even a piece of non-fiction work. We are hoping that by allowing children to explore each others' interpretations of the story, they will not only begin to learn about and understand some of the differences in the world, but they will also spot the many similarities between children globally. They all enjoy playing when they get the chance; not to mention they are all fascinated by and inquisitive about the world around them. When given the chance to think about things, they all have dreams - one day perhaps they will be able to help each other fulfil them.

If the trial is successful, we hope to develop the website further, taking note of feedback, to make it more accessible to a wider number of children, whilst being a safe environment for them to share and explore.


Wednesday 22 May 2013

London trip

By Sophia, Tom and Oliver.
It was tiring getting up at half past 5 this morning, especially as I couldn't get to sleep last night. I had to get up so early so that I could get ready and drive to the train station ready for 7am. I was excited because I like London.
On the train we are writing a script for the animation and are thinking up a new story to make out of plasticine and are making very good progress and its about a walrus and his friend  the narwhal and he tells him all about a treasure chest and walrus  flies into space on a rocket to find the treasure. We are doing lots of work even when were not at school!
Hi Oliver talking, writing a script at the moment about Walrus the walrus, who is on a quest to find treasure. Sophia, Tom and I will use this script for the green screen. Walrus is going to meet the curiosity rover on Mars.
Meanwhile,  Sophia is writing  a script for the green screen, its about an interview with the girl who wants to find a unicorn and will never give up trying to find it. With the green screen we are going to interact with the backgrounds ( that Tom found ) and the plasticine models. For example we are going use the script for the news readers to ask the plasticine model questions.
Thank you for reading this blog we hoped you enjoyed it and have learnt more about what we are doing.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

The website!

Since Space Apps, the team have continued the work and we have had time to refine our ideas slightly. The story is no longer just a story, it's now a gateway to exploration. In time, we'll be writing our own, child friendly, age appropriate pages of information about explorers, explorations and STEM, but for now we're busy finding links to existing sites and sorting them within the themes of exploration.

Andrew, our lead developer, has worked tirelessly on developing a website for schools to begin the project and to share their work with others. The site so far, includes links to the story in all available languages, a resources page linking to various external open source data, apps and websites for children to explore with more links and languages being added frequently.

In the future, the site will use more geo-location to suggest explorations which are local to the individual user. We hope to have a language selection very soon for the whole site, not just the story links. There will be an age suggestion along with the links to make it easier for children to find information they are able to understand. We will also be adding graphics to make the site a little more child friendly!

There is still a huge amount of work to be done, but we hope to begin a trial of the project with a few schools in the UK, India and Canada before the end of this academic year. Keep visiting the gallery page to see what has been uploaded!

Take a look: explorablestory.org and tell us what you think! If you'd like to get involved in the project, let us know! contact@explorablestory.org


Sunday 19 May 2013

Digital Futures: Urban Open Space


Some of the team (those who could manage the commute,) will be at the V&A museum in London on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd May where some of the models and the story will be included in the Digital Futures: Urban Open Space exhibition.

During the exhibition, we will be inviting members of the public to create their own responses to the story using various media. If you can get to London, come along to meet us!

Friday 3 May 2013

"Bonded By The Stars"


Looking up at the star studded sky has always left me spellbound ever since I was a kid. But little did I know that that magical and mysterious universe up there would be the reason for my friendship with some amazing people in another part of the world. Because basically, there was nothing common to us but the sky over our heads and our interest in it, and that was where our connection clicked! Through NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge, the biggest international competition ever with people from different parts of the planet taking part in it, I found myself as a member of an awesome team, whose idea was to share a story to the younger generation all over the world, telling them about the beauty and vastness of space and the need to look forward to explore it.

Keeping in mind the differences that arise due to languages and pace of development in different regions on our planet, we are translating the story to as many languages as possible and planning to reach out to children in all parts of the world. That way we will start a connection among every young person on Earth, uniting them with a unique goal, beyond every regional and cultural barriers, motivating them to come forward and get engaged together in opening the doors to a great era of space exploration. This, I believe, will not only just inspire a generation and the many others to come, into exploring the skies, but it will also teach them all the need to preserve and protect our beautiful planet and respect every living being on it.

And that’s the spirit in our team itself. Living in a planet where the current scenario is not so encouraging, with all those violence and hatred and what not, it is so nice to find team mates from across the boundaries, with good hearts and such good motives! Ending this write- up for now, I hope that like our team, one day, the whole world will be’ bonded by the stars’!!! 

Thursday 25 April 2013

Open Classroom; Open Data; Open World!

From time to time, often during a lesson where I've asked the children to respond to a question in a creative way, I find myself going to see a child with their hand up (the normal way to attract a teacher's attention here). When I reach them, expecting to help them with something to do with their work, I discover that they are handling the challenges they've been set and are answering questions showing an understanding of the concepts. I ask them what's wrong only to be greeted with:
"Miss, they're copying me!"

I start to think. Should the offending child be punished for plagiarism? Should they be made to rewrite the work? Should I move them to a seat with nobody to copy? 

The simple answer is no. As long as it isn't a test situation, I'm aware of the act and the child copying is gaining something from the process, I don't mind! I encourage the original writer or creator of the work to take pride in sharing their ideas - the other child clearly thinks they are worth copying! I ask the child who is borrowing the ideas to share why and to try to find a way to improve it. Often the work that is achieved by two children working together is far better, due to the varied skills and perspectives of multiple minds.

These moments are, I hope, the start of children learning the value of collaboration - one of the key parts of the Space Apps Challenge and, in my opinion, the true importance of open data. If we keep our thoughts, data and resources locked away, refusing to share them, we will never know their full potential for doing good.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a simple story to answer a question with one child in mind. By sharing that story, it has become so much more and the potential benefits are still something I can't quite get my head around! I was lucky enough to find myself as part of a team at the weekend, who provided fantastic ideas, created things (I was sure were going to be impossible; I'm clearly an IT novice,) and endless enthusiasm. They have pushed the story towards its limits, improving it no-end.

The simple story now exists in 12 languages with more being written, it is being made into an animated explorable digital picture book and there are plans to turn it into the starting point for a free-to-access global interactive website for schools. The website will encourage children to interpret or respond to the story in a way that makes sense to them. The different approaches could teach children about cultural differences while allowing them to connect with similar interests. More details will be posted soon as the idea is further refined. People may well be copying me, but I'm privileged that they are - the story is no longer mine, it's ours!

The story is released under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA license.

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Making the story available to a wider audience

It was clear that the story I'd written had limits. It was written in English, and while this is understood by many worldwide, there are lots of people who won't have had an opportunity to learn English. I didn't want the story to only be available for a select group with a privileged background, they already have access to lots of amazing STEM inspiring material. Could this story become something that offered something for every young child, no matter where they happened to be born?

The starting point was to get the story written again, this time in lots of different languages. We tried to find translators who were native speakers so that the flow of the language felt natural for the children who were reading. It's really difficult to read something that hasn't quite been written fluently so online translation sites, while being useful for individual words if there's no bilingual dictionary available, weren't the right option.

Luckily, Space Apps happens around the world, all on the same weekend. There might be people who would be willing to spend a few minutes translating a story to give their brains a break from writing code or piecing together hardware. We might as well ask! We also put out requests on social media sites to get even more people involved.

The explorable story inbox (whyweexplore2013@gmail.com) began to fill up with translations from all sorts of languages. We've got 12 languages so far, but that's not enough. If you know somebody who speaks reasonable English (or one of the other languages we already have,) and could write a version of their own in a different language, please do get in touch. You can find the story in English here along with a description of how to get involved:

All translators are given the option of dedicating their version of the story to a child they know; an idea dreamed up by the children in the team as a way to say thank you for their contribution.

Since the weekend, there has been another exciting idea to use the story to engage a slightly older group of children too and to connect children around the world. But I'll save that for another blog!

Languages covered so far:
Assamese, British Sign Language, Danish, Estonian, English (UK), French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Latin, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian and Welsh.

The Aim of the Story

The story of the little girl searching for her unicorn was written with the International Space Apps Challenge's Why We Explore challenge in mind. Participants were asked to find a way to express the answer to the question in the form of a presentation, video or infographic of two minutes or less.

The question "Why?" is asked most often (aloud) by young children. So we aimed to make a story which not only answered the question of why humans explore, but also gave them a way to explore the different types of exploration for themselves. We are working on translating the story into as many languages as possible in order to reach out across the planet with fiction.

The story may be simple, but it aims to inspire a new global generation interested in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education.

Too much to say, too little time!

It's been an exciting weekend at Space Apps. The team are currently trying to catch up with blog writing but keep being distracted by the potential applications of storytelling! Oh and we've all returned to our real life jobs / school study. Sleep can wait though!
There will be something more substantial written here very soon. I promise!
But for the time being: are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

The explorable story, (in not-yet-explorable form)

Once there was a stubborn little girl whose favourite animal was the unicorn. She knew they existed because she’d seen a unicorn horn hanging on a museum wall when she was 3.

As she grew, she started to look for unicorns wherever she went, taking pictures and recording the other things she found along the way. She looked high and low but couldn’t find any in her garden. So she looked further afield. And further, but still found no evidence of the beautiful creatures of which she dreamed.

When she was older, she became a scientist and despite being excellent at her job, this was a cover story because, deep down, all she wanted was to find her unicorn.


She travelled as far as she could on land and crossed the frozen seas to investigate more, but still to no avail.

She looked under the waves, where she found their cousins. But that wasn’t good enough, she already knew narwhals existed!

After searching the atmosphere, she realised she had been wrong all along. Not believing in unicorns, but in the places she had been searching.So she worked harder than she had ever worked before and pushed her body to extremes. Until one day she strapped herself into a rocket and flew to the moon. Only to find that there were no unicorns there either!

She bounced back to her craft, wondering what to do. She sat, while minutes became hours and hours became days. Then looked out into the darkness and she remembered the twinkling specks of hope that filled the night skies back on Earth. She couldn’t give up. So on she went, drifting through the vacuum.

She travelled beyond the reaches of the Earth’s technologies, so we will never know if she found evidence of her unicorns.

Perhaps her quest was misinformed, but she went anyway; finding some truly inspirational things along the way. We will never know what is out there until we go. This is, and always has been, the reason we explore: exploration is not simply to find one thing, but to see all that is there for ourselves.

What’s your unicorn?