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Visit KCPT’s Community Partners online video collection to learn more about local non-profit organization’s messages to the community.
The Write Stuff: Local PBS Kids GO! Writers Contest Winners
From Baldwin City, KS to Carrollton, MO students from all over our region put their pencils, makers, crayons, and creativity to paper for the 2013 KCPT PBS Kids GO! Writers Contest. Young authors in kindergarten through third grade mailed their illustrated stories to KCPT this spring. Last week, judges from local libraries, and children’s literacy experts read and gave points to each story based on its creativity, story structure, and illustrations. The top three stories from each grade will receive special PBS Kids GO! Writers Contest goodies, and the first place winner from each grade will have their story submitted the national contest.
Kindergarten
1st Place – The Best Snowman Ever by Ben LaCroix
2nd Place – The Baby Fox by Adele Van Lieshout
3rd Place – Mom Says by Isabelle Connealy
First Grade
1st Place – The Tale of the Talking Snake by Charlotte Tigchelaar
2nd Place – The Car by Max Ramirez
Second Grade
1st Place – Cleverina’s Fairy Adventure by Gracelynn Xia
2nd Place – Peas, Please by Ava George
3rd Place – An’s Adventure by Isaac LaCroix
Third Grade
1st Place – Where is Fish? by Avery Rahe
2nd Place – Blue the Fly by Kristeen Copeland
3rd Place – Abaloneville by Akerth Jain
Slideshow: KC High School Seniors Strut their STEM Stuff
(Kansas City, MO – Friday, April 19, 2013)
A sea of display boards and 250 local high school seniors flooded the Sprint Festival Plaza yesterday morning at Union Station for the Project Lead the Way High School Senior Showcase.
Unlike a typical science fair, many students presented not only research findings, but also innovative project prototypes and services, ranging from a blood pressure cell phone app to a concussion reducing football helmet.
“It gives you hope,” said KC STEM Alliance director Laura Loyacono. “These seniors are taking an elective that is voluntary research and their projects range from super practical projects like a dog-washing apparatus, to futuristic projects like the Sleep Pod, and then the highly personal projects like analyzing student reporting of sexual assault.”
These engineering and biomedical projects are the fruits of students’ participation in the KC STEM Alliance’s Project Lead the Way (PLTW) coursework, which provides extracurricular, hands-on STEM education to 63 high schools in both Kansas and Missouri.
PLTW participants take a STEM course all four years of high school, and spend their senior year focusing on a capstone project.
This is the second year PLTW seniors have had a chance to showcase their work and practice pitching their ideas.
“A really critical component for STEM students is explaining their work,” Loyacono said. “It’s also an opportunity for businesses and colleges to get a sneak peek at the talent, ideas, and intellect that is coming their way.”
Genetic Crystal Ball: Children’s Mercy Hospital’s Genomic Center
This week, we start with something elemental. Genomes. They’re the mechanism by which our bodies operate. They contain all the genetic information that makes us who we are.
Ten years ago this month, scientists completed work on the Human Genome Project and since then the technology to explore it further has rapidly evolved. Last year, Time Magazine noted the genomic work being done at Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital to dramatically speed up the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill infants.
Think of it as the difference between testing a patient one disease at a time versus the much broader net that genomes allow us to cast. It is an innovative example of how translational research can ultimately enhance patient care.
Media attention from the likes of Time Magazine and the Newshour is nice for Dr. Kingsmore. Even nicer was the recent $1 million grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation to help fund the Genomic Center’s activities.
Box Office Home Run: The KC Premiere of ’42′
Last Friday, the new movie 42, about Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier, opened in theatres nationwide. But the night before, Kansas City got a special preview at the Barrywoods AMC Theatre to raise funds for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. They rolled out the red carpet, and Randy Mason was on hand to see who came down it and why.
By the way, the 42 premiere raised some $200,000 for the museum, which also has another interesting project going right now. They have teamed with the UMKC Theatre Department to produce a new play about Satchel Paige and other Negro Leagues players.
It has some jazz in it too. The play is called Kansas City Swing and it will run at the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center on the UMKC campus from April 19-28, with a special reception in the lobby before the show on April 25.
You can see some photos from the red carpet event at The Local Show Facebook page. Be sure to “like” us for updates on what to look for in upcoming episodes.
