WizKidz Science and Technology Centers in conjunction with Georgia Tech receives $490,000 from National Science Foundation for S.T.E.M research for disabled Students

WizKidz Science and Technology Centers and Georgia Institute of Technology has received $490,000 from the National Science Foundation to implement computing learning institutes for students with disabilities.

Increase the number of students with disabilities interested in computing disciplines

The major outcomes of this project are focused on alternative programming tools that transform computing technologies into accessible modules for students with visual or physical impairments. The project will establish Robotic Institutes at the Center for the Visually Impaired and with the National Federation of the Blind to assess ability to engage students with visual impairments and establish Robotic Institutes in conjunction with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to assess ability to engage students with physical impairments. Teacher training kits and documentation will be created to provide teachers with modules that can be used for incorporating students with disabilities in the classroom environment nationwide.

Robotic Institutes and Multi-Modal Interfaces to Engage Students with Disabilities

The PI/Co-PI Dr. Ayanna Howard of Georgia Tech and Rayshun Dorsey of WizKidz Science and Technology Centers have extensive experience in encouraging nontraditional students to pursue computing careers through robotic activities. Rayshun Dorsey founded and currently coordinates Project S.T.E.A.D.Y (Science Technology and Engineering Academy for Disabled Youth) a series of summer workshops that expose visually impaired students to educational robotics. Dr. Ayanna Howard currently serves as Associate Professor for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech and is the founder of the Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Lab at Georgia Tech whose research is centered on the concept of humanized intelligence, the process of embedding human cognitive capability into the control path of autonomous systems.

WizKidz Science and Technology Centers

Human-Automation Systems (HumAnS) Lab at Georgia Tech

 Center for the Visually Impaired 

National Federation of the Blind of Georgia

With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States.  The NFB improves blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence.  It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nations blind.  In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind. The National Federation of the Blind of Georgia has committed their time, staff and support to the AroPability project by providing us with the resources needed to successfully implement the project.

WizKidz Science and Technology Centers in conjunction with Ga. Tech selected to host the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Science Summer Camp

The ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Science Summer Camp expands to 30 Universities, to include the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Engineering

Atlanta, Ga.March 16, 2009 Fifty students from the Atlanta Public School district and surrounding areas will be selected to take part in a two- week residential summer camp based on “Lunar Robotics and Colonization” located on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Former astronaut Bernard Harris and the ExxonMobil Foundation have announced 30 university campus locations that will host the 2009 ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camps this June through August. The two-week residential camp will offer a innovative robotics and computer science program which will enhance middle school students' knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) while encouraging youth to stay in school and fostering leadership and citizenship.

The ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp (BHSSC) is a free, academic program which takes an active role in shaping education in students entering grade 6, 7, or 8 in the fall of 2009. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are critical to society’s infrastructure for the 21st century and preserving that future requires an investment in our youth today. This camp program was originally developed as a collaborative effort of the Harris Foundation, the HoustonIndependentSchool District, the University of Houston (UH) and the Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), designed to support historically underserved and underrepresented students with limited opportunities.

About WizKidz Science and TechnologyCenters

 WizKidz Science and Technology Centers is a 501(C) (3) non-profit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia whose mission is to close the digital divide in science and technology for at-risk and underserved youth. The initiative offers a variety of programs and activities uniquely designed to give students hands-on experiences not available in the formal classroom while addressing national and state standards in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Match (S.T.E.M). The initiative offers hands-on, after school and summer academic enrichment programs for K-12 students while offering a pre-college learning structure that outline concepts that are important in the understanding of science and technology.

About The Harris Foundation

 Founded in 1998, The Harris Foundation (THF) is a 501 (c) (3), non-profit organization based in Houston, Texas, whose overall mission is to invest in community-based initiatives to support education, health and wealth. THF supports programs that empower individuals, in particular minorities and economically and/or socially disadvantaged, to recognize their potential and pursue their dreams.

The Education Mission of the Harris Foundation is to enable youth to develop and achieve their full potential through the support of social, recreational, and educational programs for grades K-12. Through two primary initiatives -- the Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp and Dare to Dream -- the Foundation encourages math and science education, motivates youth to stay in school, fosters youth leadership and citizenship, as well as instills the values of responsibility, fairness and respect.

The EMBHSSC at Ga. Tech is scheduled to take place June 21- July 2, 2009. For camp inquires, please contact Rayshun Dorsey –President of WizKidz Science and TechnologyCenters and Executive Camp Director for the BHSSC at Georgia Tech.

For more information please visit: http://www.theharrisfoundation.org/programs/summersciencecamp/camp_GT09.htm 

More information on WizKidz Science and TechnologyCenters initiatives can be found at www.wizkidztech.org for more information on The Harris Foundation, please visit www.theharrisfoundation.org

Congratulations to our Co-Chair, Dr. Ayanna Howard and the (HumsAns) Laboratory "SnoMote" research project. Click here for full story.

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Bot'oberfest will be held at the Atlanta Girls School on September 28,2008.
This is a FREE event offered by many volunteers from Georgia who
value the FIRST Lego League program and what it offers our students.
We will be instructing the Programming/ Introduction to NXT Software and
Functionality class. Click here for more information. 

                                    

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Students Signatures from WizKidz Science and Technology Centers along with J.C.Young Middle School and Martin Luther King Middle School Prepare For Upcoming Space Launch

Students from J.C.Young Middle School and Martin Luther King Middle School located in Atlanta, Ga. participating in the WizKidz Science and Technology Centers Robotics and Aerospace program will become part of a space mission when their personal signatures are launched aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-120 scheduled to launch Tuesday October 23, 2007. The event is a culmination to the students’ participation in the NASA and Lockheed Martin sponsored Student Signatures in Space® program, a key component of the Lockheed Martin Space Day celebration held annually on the first Friday in May.

Last May, students signed Space Day posters. Their signatures were then scanned onto a disk that will be carried on the Space Shuttle Discovery scheduled to launch Tuesday October 23. This mission marks the 120th Space Shuttle flight and the 23rd Space Shuttle mission to go to the International Space Station. “The initiative marked a special day in history for both schools and will be used as a model for more schools and future participation” said Rayshun Dorsey, Executive Director of the WizKidz Science and Technology Centers.

Mission STS-120 will be commanded by Retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy. A veteran Shuttle pilot, Melroy is the second woman to command a Space Shuttle.

“It was exciting to see the enthusiasm that WizKidz Science and Technology Centers brought to the students” said Brenda Muhammad, Board of Education member for Atlanta’s school district 1.

After the signatures return from space, the posters will be returned for permanent display to J.C.Young Middle and Martin Luther King Middle along with a flight certificate and picture of the crew that carried the signatures into space.

Since the program began in 1997, more than 4 million students have participated in Student Signatures in Space. There is no cost for schools to participate. The program is limited to approximately 500 schools a year.

The WizKidz Science and Technology Centers is an initiative to introduce Atlanta Public Schools and the local college community to an after school program that pairs college mentors with students and introduces the students to activities that involve robotics, engineering, aerospace, paleontology, forensic science and advanced chemistry. For more info on WizKidz Science and Technology Centers and Martin Luther King Middle School and J.C. Yong Middle School participation or to make arrangements to cover any of the above events, please contact Rayshun Dorsey at 678-914-4535

If you or someone you know is interested in organizing a robotics, space exploration, science, aerospace, or Space Day event and how to register your school to participate in Student Signatures in Space, Contact Rayshun Dorsey/ Executive Director of the WizKidz Technology Centers at 678-914-4535 or email him at rdorsey@wizkidztech.org. For more info on the Student Signatures in Space program, please contact April Tensen at (540) 384-7809. For more info about Space Day, please contact Barbara Reinike at 301-897-6601. Please visit the official Space Day web site at www.spaceday.org