Photos of Create and Discover Project in Rugby Observer - Page 14!

I have some more fantastic news!  You should read page 14.  This is in paper  - 13th September 2012.

Please open the following link - Rugby Observer Paper and read page 14.

Create and Discover project have had their pictures and story published.  This is an incredible ending for part 1 of 4!

Thank you to all tutors, students and supporters as your help is greatly appreciated! 

I can't wait to work with everyone again during part 2 of 4.

In addition I believe the project can now move forward with even greater confidence as we are now going to provide music production workshops! Music which is to be broadcast on the internet by the students.

Also the students are to learn how to make short videos by using the camera equipment and editing software!

I am extremely grateful and pleased that I was able to be a part of the project and share these experiences with the tutors, students, parents and guardians, as well as everyone else involved. 

Thank you all once again! We are all happy for all help and support.

We are also to increase all our promotional and advertising activities to raise even more awareness of this free, community-based project.


Just to let you know as part of the project all certificate holders, that is, students with first and second place certificates are now part of the children and young people committee!

This means that they now would sit on the co-ordinators and tutors discussion table.  This is so that they are involved in deciding what workshops and activities we could add to the project for part 2 of 4 in January 2013.

For example, on the blog website Abigail would be part of the children and young people committee only for the computer animation, free hand drawing, science and business workshops and activities.  So would be on the discussion table with 4 of the workshops and activities we provide.

Again well done to you students!  Remember students: Keep on going, keep on going - No one can ever reach their dreams or make them a reality by standing still.

Create and Discover: Touch Your Imagination - Produce Inspiration

Certificate Event - 1st September 2012

This video was of the students who took part in the mini-competition.

All the tutors were impressed with their focus and determination!

Jodhveer (8 years old), Key Stage 2 - 2nd place (joint) in science and technology, 2nd place (joint) computer animation, 1st place in free hand drawing and 2nd place in free hand drawing.

Darian (11 years old), Key Stage 2 at time of competition - 2nd place (joint) in science and technology, 2nd place in electronic art, 2nd place computer animation, 1st place in project management.

Dionne (9years old) Key Stage 2 - 2nd place in business, 1st place (joint) in computer animation, and 1st place in electronic art.

Abigail (7 years old) Key Stage 2 - 1st place (joint) in computer animation, 2nd place in free hand drawing, 1st place in science and technology, and 1st place in business.

There were 6 categories:-

1.  Free Drawing Art - Producing a piece of art using paper and coloured pencils

2.  Electronic Art - Creating a piece of art using a palm pad device and computer software (Sketch Book Pro)

3.  Project Management - Building the tallest tower using £1500 monopoly to buy materials within 20 minutes as a team leader and team players

4.  Science and technology - Building a radio in the shortest amount of time as a team leader and team players in 20 minutes using the available Hot Wires kit

5.  Business - Collecting rent money from property portfolio (Monopoly)

6. Computer animation - Using computer programming skills to make a computer animation using computer software called Scratch.

Watch the video and enjoy!

End of Part 1 of 4 - 1st September 2012

We would like to congratulate the students who 'created and discovered' a variety of finished products during their with us!

They gained a lot of positive experiences and we have posted a selection of their photos.

During their time with Create and Discover they have shown that they can feel fulfilled with their achievements and we have recommended to take this confidence in their abilities while at school too!

Plus they have have the certificates to prove they can achieve things!  Such as with chess, art, science, business and project management!

Together as well as individuals they - touched their imaginations (had to think creatively) and produced inspiration (finished products of high standard).

Please join us and congratulate the students for their efforts while viewing these photos!

Create and Discover: Touch Your Imagination - Produce Inspiration.

Project Management - Darian (left and Team Leader), Raymond (volunteer tutor) and Dionne

Project Management (Dionne, Team Leader)

Abigail (left and Team Leader) and Jodhveer

Raj (left, volunteer tutor), Abigail (Team Leader) and Jodhveer

Darian and Art, Free Hand Drawing

Abigail and Art, Free Hand Drawing

Abigail

Jodhveer and Dionne

Chess and Electronics Workshops

Bob Wildig (volunteer chess tutor and youth coordinator at Rugby's Chess Club) carried out a chess workshop to help enable the students discover the moves of the chess pieces and how to play chess.  For more information open the Rugby Chess Club link.

Raj (volunteer science tutor) also helped to enable the student's skills involved with creating programmable electronic circuits - for example an electronic device that would behave like a mini - traffic light system (using small red, yellow and green lights).

Watch the videos and enjoy!

Chess Workshop - Interview Recorded by Craig (volunteer coordinator and tutor)

Electronics Workshop - Interview Recorded by Dionne

Pictures and Video of Project Management-Based Activity

Students were enhancing their project management skills by discovering how to recognise and improve their communication and construction techniques.

This task is called Jelly Spaghetti and students were given £1500 (monopoly money) to buy materials and also asked team players to help them build the tallest tower possible.

Robbi and Raj (volunteer tutors) helped student team leaders to discover their own confidence in communicating ideas to their team.  This is before they start creating their own style of towers.

All tutors were very pleased by the way the students expressed their creative abilities in this task as both the towers produced were taller than the provided structures.

Students had to choose whether to copy the structures available or to discover alternative ways to produce the highest tower.

Have a look at the pictures and video and enjoy!

Robbi (Volunteer Tutor) with Omar's (Team Leader)Tower  (Omar not in picture)

Raj (volunteer tutor), Jodhveer (team leader and his tower) and Omar

Abigail's Recorded Interview of Project Management Group

Pictures and Video of Art-Based Activity

Students were introduced to creating electronic art using Sketch Book Pro.

Ray (volunteer art tutor) produced template pictures for the students to copy so as to help them identify what tools are available on the software.  This is before they start creating their own style of electronic art.

All tutors very pleased by the way the students expressed their creative abilities as these pictures were produced after just one workshop! They focused really well.

On some computers if you click on a picture then you view them on a slide show.

Have a look at the pictures and video and enjoy!

Picture Template (Raymond - Volunteer Art Tutor)

Abigail's Finished Picture

Darian's Finished Picture

Dionne's Finished Picture

Abigail's Recorded Interview of the Art Group

Pictures of Children and Young People During Activities

These are pictures of the students while they were 'creating and discovering!'

Our volunteer tutors were helping them to touch their imaginations to produce inspirational finished products.

Additionally the computer, chess, art and science tutors were very pleased with the efforts and concentration the students put into completing these tasks - so well done and keep up the hard work!

Project Management Task - Raj (Volunteer Tutor), Jodhveer (Team Leader) and Omar

Art Activity - Darian

Art Task - Abigail

Jodhveer and Dionne

Importance of Good Communication in Group Tasks

After speaking with my friends and colleagues I am to show how the Project Management task on the video clips is relevant to good communication skills to children and young people in Rugby.

Harry Maxwell was the first student from a school in Rugby to successfully be accepted onto the BBC Young Apprentice with Lord Alan Sugar.  Lord Sugar was offering a prize of £25,000 to the most successful candidate.  For further information on Harry open the Young Apprentice Link.

Harry was sixteen years old (16) when he applied for the place.  He represented Rugby, Warwickshire.

From the video clips:-
Team Cool Runnings - Jacob (10), Coby (10), and Devante (11 and Team Leader)
Team Illusion - Xavier (10 and Team Leader), Immogen (14) and Tiana (9)
Team RTC - Rhianna (9), Tristen (13 and Team Leader) and Charlie (15)

You can notice that these students are not that much younger than Harry Maxwell so if they keep practicing they too could get a chance to represent Rugby and try and win £25,000 towards their own business!  Harry had good communication skills. Watch the video below.

I was extremely pleased with all their efforts so please join me in congratulating these talented children and young people!  Well done students and keep up your hard work.

Additionally watch the video below of the Young Apprentice team leaders - Lewis Roman (16) and ; Gbemi Okunlola (16) in the BBC series and observe how well they communicated their ideas in their pitches to the retailers - times 9min.15secs and 10min.15secs are their first pitches.

Rugby West Indian Association - Promotion Event

Create and Discover promoted 2 of the activities we can provide during the Rugby West Indian Association's (RWIA) Jamaica Independence Family Day.  So a big thank you to Lorna and everyone else at RWIA for the support as it is much appreciated.

Even though we had a heavy down pour of rain and hailstones 3 teams took part in our Project Management competition - Jelly Spaghetti.  The prize was £12 and each team had to be made up of 3 students aged 7 to 16 years.  Have a look of the 2 videos below.

Once the consent forms were completed as we were to record videos and real prize money was available each team had 10 minutes to build the tallest tower with the £1500 budget (monopoly money) and materials available.

The 3 teams were:-

A) Team Cool Runnings - Jacob, Coby and Devante (Team Leader)
B) Team Illusion - Xavier (Team Leader), Immogen and Tiana
C) Team RTC - Rhianna, Tristen (Team Leader) and Charlie.

Congratulations to Team Cool Runnings!  They completed the task and built the tallest tower.  The team leader worked really hard and also shared out the prize money with his team mates.  So great effort team Cool Runnings!

Also teams Illusion and RTC did exceptionally well as they did communicate their ideas during this task although Cool Runnings had slightly more communication during the building of the towers.

All 3 teams are more than welcome to improve their Project Management, art or science skills at our Create and Discover sessions at Benn Partnership Centre.

Watch these 2 video clips of the competition below and enjoy!

Third Session - 4th August

Today the students continued developing their chess skills with Bob.

After this they continued to develop their computer animations.

Following lunch they took part in the Project management activity (Jelly Spaghetti).  As this was their first time completing this activity they did very well building towers out of the materials available, using a budget of £1500 and in 15 minutes.

Well done students - keep up the hard work!

Second Session - 28th July

We had another great session at Benn Partnership centre on Saturday.

We continued on following Bob Wildig's chess activity and the students completes chess using the chess boards (kindly donated by Rugby Chess Club) and chess on the internet (www.chess.com).

Following this the student's started their workshop for creating their own computer animations! They picked up the techniques after a short time so well done students!

After lunch we continued with the business activity (Monopoly) - with 2 teams, teams lightning and thunder!  Team lightning did well as they made a profit of £500 as a group and individually they made £210 and £290.

Overall it was a great session - great work students! Well done.

New Workshop - Second Part of Project

Hi!

I have spoken to a great person called Richard who has lots of film making experience, and who has experience with completing projects with students.

So as well as playing music on the internet radio the students can also have fun recording, editing and playing the films they make.

CWFN, Coventry Warwickshire Filmmakers Network - is a company in Coventry.

For more information - please open the cwfn website.

Thanks!

First Session of Re-launched Create and Discover Project

Hi!

I'm proud to say that our re-launch session on the 21st July 2012 went very well.  We had 4 students arrive on the day!  The aim is to grow the numbers of students to a minimum of 8 up to a maximum of 16 (or more once more volunteers become available).

Overall the students were very quick to learn and enjoy some chess concepts from Bob Wildig.  Bob is the junior chess player coordinator.  They were simulating playing chess after only 30 minutes of being taught by Bob so a big thank you to Bob.  For more information please visit the Rugby Chess Club link.

During the art session the students had fun exercising their creative side with the art templates by developing their free-hand drawing techniques.

Additionally, the students enjoyed and communicated well during the electronics and computer program activity.  They were set a challenge and all students put forward their ideas.  What was great that one student gave and answer that was almost the correct answer - after only one session!

Overall we were happy to work with this group of young people as they behaved really well and we were glad to be part of their development and enhancing of their natural abilities - so a big well done to the group.  

Keep up the great work!

Update of the Business Side of the Project

Following the completion of an on-line Criminal Records Bureau or CRB application I am pleased to say that the following volunteers have received a cleared CRB application:-

Bob Reeve - CRB liaison officer.  Bob Wildig - volunteer chess tutor.  Raymond Woolery - volunteer art and business tutor.  Rajen Mistry - volunteer science tutor.  Robbi Jugganadum - volunteer computer tutor.  Craig Davis - volunteer business and science tutor.

This is the first part of the Benn Partnership Centre's and Ellie at Warwickshire County Council's requirement of safeguarding for children for any community projects.


So a big thank you to them for their support especially with the help for writing the governance policies, which include child protection policies and anti-bullying policies.

In addition, the volunteers complete an application form as part of an interview before they start their trial period coordinating the workshops and activities.


Overall, I am proud to be working alongside the volunteer tutors - thank you for your support with this community-based project!

Internet Radio Station - Unsigned and Signed Music Radio

On 14th September 2012 after the school summer holidays and end of this pilot project, we are to re-launch the internet radio station.

This is going to be a very exciting time for us as the internet radio station is part of the Live365 Radio website and it is to be linked with the create and discover project!

As an additional activity for the second installment of this community project the students would be able to express their communication and presentation skills.

It is on the blog site as the blue and red radio player - Live 365 Radio.

Students would be able to practice their radio presenting skills as well as develop their much needed researching skills for school in a fun and interactive way!

One example for utilising the radio activity would be for interviewing guests only.  Another example is to produce a short radio show that includes radio presenting, music and interviews.

These shows would be broadcast onto and available on the internet for friends and family to listen to!

For further information please open the Live365 Radio link.

Science, Technology and Helping the Environment

One of the science workshops involves the use of solar power.  With create and discover we help the students to understand the idea that they too can help the environment in many exciting ways!


One example is with Richard Branson who launched the Virgin Earth Challenge - please open the link to find out more.

Social Enterprise and Create and Discover's Vision and Mission

Social Enterprise and the Create and Discover Vision and Mission are linked to helping communities achieve more.  The project is currently focusing on children and young people 7 to 16 years and their families.

OUR VISION - A West Midlands without unfulfilled students.  We are starting in Rugby, Warwickshire, which is a small and important part of the West Midlands.

OUR MISSION - To promote the benefits of becoming a multi-talented student.  Working together to enjoy having a positive impact on society.

Our methods of combining art and science-based activities and workshops can help build up the student's confidence to concentrate at school.

Additionally we help the children and young people see that they can benefit by working together and have a positive impact society by understanding that schools are an important part of society.

Cost of Each Session and Social Enterprise

You may be wondering what is the cost for taking part in this new project - well guess what?

If you made a guess that all these sessions are free then you were correct - well done!

This is a pilot project so we are providing children and young people a taster of the project we would like to start with and how we plan to develop it.  The project is to be held on each Saturday during the school summer holidays 2012.

Once the project is completed we are to complete surveys with each family that took part, if they would like to do this.  They do not have to if do not want to and this is fine.

By using the surveys gathered we would use them to help write a business plan for adapting the create and discover project into a social enterprise business after 1 or 2 years after providing this service.


This would be done by discussing the idea with the families and the students involved with the create and discover project.  So as to confirm whether this would be a suitable way forward with the project.

Also for further information regarding what a social enterprise business and how they benefit communities please open this social enterprise link.

Create and Discover at Benn Partnership Centre

For more information about the facilities at Benn Partnership Centre please visit the website.

As well as a computer suite for creating the computer animations and games there are tutorial rooms where we are to hold the other activities and workshops.

Please open the Benn Partnership Centre link for more information.

Also a big thank you to everyone at the Benn Partnership for all your help and support with this community project as it greatly appreciated!

Executive Chairman of Google and Make Britain Count

Executive Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt has was interviewed by the Telegraph and the article published on 24 May 2012.  He said that Britain can no longer maintain the traditional divide between arts and science.

He would also like to rescue us from the bottom of the class when it comes to maths.

Read the telegraph link for more information.

With the Create and Discover project we have similar aims to help improve the achievements of students.

Supporting Students to Catch-Up

BBC news reported that 58.2% of high school students achieve the benchmark 5 GCSE's.

Read this BBC news link for further information

With the create and discover project we provide a variety of science and  art-based workshops and activities to help build the confidence of students - whether they are in high school or for preparation of primary school students.

So if they would like support to achieve 5 or more GCSE's regardless if student is from a less advantaged background or not the activities and workshops would help develop a sense of achievement.

This sense of achievement can be carried with them to school to help build more confidence to concentrate more in lessons.

About Scratch - Computer Animations and Games

Scratch is a software program that helps children and young people learn how to make computer animations and games.

Please open this scratch link to see the 2 videos describing what can be achieved.

Also open this you tube link to see an example.

Another interesting benefit is that on 17 April 2012 BBC news reported the plan of the use of the Scratch program in primary schools.  Open BBC news link to find out more.

This is a plan supported by the education secretary - read the guardian news link for further information.

Examples of 3D Model Making (CAD - Computer Aided Design)

Examples of Illustrations on Sketch Book Pro (Electronic Art)

Examples of Certificates of Achievement following Competition

Grouping of Age Ranges and Structure of Saturday Sessions

Description of Activities and Workshops

Timetable of Workshops and Activities

Test Embed of You Tube Videos

Poster Information

This poster is to give an idea of some activities and workshops we are providing.

Re-Launch of Create and Discover Project

After receiving some complimentary comments and feedback from an exhibition in Overslade Community Centre in Rugby we are re-launching the dates for the create and discover project so as to include the school summer holidays.

We look forwarded to you joining in these activities and workshops so as to achieve as much as you can and hopefully much more than you expected!

See you soon.

Cancelled Dates for the Project

Just a quick note to say that the sessions are not running at Benn Partnership on April 21st and May 5Th.

We look forward to seeing you when activities re-start on May 19Th.

See you soon!

Timetable of Workshops and Activities

Our timetable is packed with a fun collection of activities and workshops for the children and young people to help them achieve a great sense of achievement.

Create and Discover: Touch Your Imagination - Produce Inspiration

Our theme of 'Create and Discover: Touch Your Imagination - Produce Inspiration' is also for society not just individual students.

The recent riots in London and other parts of the country demonstrated that if unfortunately some children and young people feel that they do not have a good sense of achievement, some can go away and produce devastating violence and destruction rather than something constructive and inspirational.

Please note that we are not saying that the create and discover project is only for the students who may have the potential for causing trouble.

This project is for students who would like to achieve more at school whether they are struggling or would like to have more confidence to achieve more than 5 GCSE's.

How we are different to other projects is that we would help students become more aware that they can take part in a variety of art, maths and  science projects so as to help them gain more confidence.  They can build on this confidence to help them concentrate more in school.

This should help them achieve more in school and believe they can have a positive impact on society too.

We provide activities that can help students to understand that they can work together and produce inspiration in their activities and workshops so that society can enjoy the positive impacts they can create.

Create and Discover: Touch Your Imagination - Produce Inspiration 

About Create and Discover

Hi and welcome to our website!

To help you better understand why we are providing these activities we are to show the related question - "Do you think that students (children and young people) are always fulfilled with their lives at school?"  By this we mean do students feel that they have a good sense of achievement when at school.

If you answer was - 'not always' - then this is understandable as it was similar to our answer.

We want to work with parents and guardians to help meet some of the needs of children and young people aged between 4 years and 16 years of age.  Activities and workshops are at the Benn Partnership Centre, Railway Terrace, Rugby.

Our vision or ideal picture - 'A West Midlands Without Unfulfilled Students'

Our mission or purpose -  to help and enable students to understand the advantages of being multi-talented.  As well as to help the students decide that they can work together to have a positive impact on society.

So if know of any students who you feel would like the chance to achieve more and have a positive impact on society then view the poster and contact us either by e-mail, text, phone or the website.

Create and Discover: Touch Your Imagination - Produce Inspiration

Create and Discover Poster