In March of 2019, HundrED released their full list of Pittsburgh Spotlight innovation submissions. Now, after two months of careful deliberation and assessment, HundrED has announced their 12 featured innovative solutions.

About the Spotlight

In partnership with the Grable Foundation and Remake Learning, HundrED’s Pittsburgh Spotlight shines a light on the educators and innovators doing extraordinary things to help students in southwestern Pennsylvania succeed. Receiving 82 individual submissions from southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia schools, museums, libraries, nonprofits, government agencies, and more, the Pittsburgh Spotlight is a great opportunity for changemakers to highlight, celebrate, and learn more about the work happening in local communities.

While HundrED Spotlights are designed to identify 10 of the most inspiring innovations that focus on a location or theme, Lasse Leponiemi, Executive Director and Co-Founder of HundrED said,

“Pittsburgh broke that mold. The response was so robust that we chose to expand our selection to 12 innovations.”

Selected Innovations

• • Simple Interactions: This research project of the Fred Rogers Center creates free tools and resources to give educators a language for noticing and affirming their interactions with young children. These simple interactions support relationships between children and adults.
• • Fabricating Change in Mental Wellness: Students diagnosed with mental health conditions work side by side with social workers, therapists, and teachers in this digital Fab Lab at Intermediate Unit 1. The results: increased participation, improved engagement, and fewer disruptions.
• • The Finch: Borne out of research about what engages and excites students in learning computer science, this robot developed by BirdBrain Technologies can be programmed to do physical actions in 9 different coding languages. A free loan program makes it widely available to schools.
• • Global Minds Initiative: Founded, designed, and run by students, this after-school program combats intolerance by fostering intercultural friendships and global understanding. Immigrant and refugee students come together with their peers in safe, inclusive spaces.
• • Hillman Academy: At this 8-week full-time summer program at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, high school students perform cancer research under the mentorship of world-renowned scientists in a rigorous, supportive, real-world STEM environment.
• • JAM: Two first-grade girls’ interest in making things to help their community has blossomed into an after-school maker learning program at Avonworth School District that is a catalyst for kindness in school and an engine for raising funds for community causes.
• • MAKESHOP: The first museum makerspace, this permanent exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh is a research-based learning environment where children and families make, play, and design using “real stuff.”  And they offer professional development, maker learning resources, and more.
• • Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild: This neighborhood-based community center is focused on educating and inspiring youth through the arts, with STEAM-based learning in four art-making studios. 98% of students who attend the program graduate high school on time.
• • Summer Dreamers Academy: By combining the academic benefits of summer school with the fun of camp, this free summer program run by Pittsburgh Public Schools reduces summer learning loss while giving Pittsburgh students fun, enriching summer experiences.
• • The Labs @ CLP Summer Skills Intensives: Part of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh‘s commitment to providing teen-driven programs and access to technology, these week-long summer programs offer teens a chance to explore topics like photojournalism, beat-making, filmmaking, and more.
• • transformED:  Allegheny Intermediate Unit is rethinking teacher professional development and support for school districts implementing innovative practices. At transformED, educators explore, discover, invent, and learn.
• • Youth Express: Students use the tools of radio to create and distribute original programming through Saturday Light Brigade‘s 24/7 radio station. Programming is based on the idea that when youth realize that their voice matters, they realize that they matter.

To learn more, visit the HundrED website.

See HundrED’s official release.

About HundrED

HundrED is a not-for-profit organization that researches, highlights, and propels K-12 education innovations in an effort to improve education and inspire a grassroots movement by encouraging pedagogically sound, ambitious inventions to spread across the world. The Pittsburgh Spotlight is one of 6 individual spotlight categories, all centered around specific regions or topics. Through this spotlight, HundrED seeks to highlight educators and innovators in our area that are doing extraordinary things to help students.

Interested in highlighting your innovative solution? Submit your innovation for HundrED’s 2020 Global Collection by June 30, 2019.

*Information provided by HundrED