The KLRU Board Education Committee will meet on Wednesday, June 27, 3:00 pm, at the law offices of Boulette Golden & Marin LLP, 5th floor, Vinson & Elkins Building, 2801 Via Fortuna # 100, Austin, TX 78746, USA. This meeting is open to the public. Advance notice of attendance is encouraged – please send your commitment to attend to bkramer@klru.org or call 512.475.9050.
Author Archives: Ben Kramer
KLRU Educational Services receives grant funds from Summer STEM Investment Hub
Central Texas Summer STEM Investment Hub
For the fourth consecutive year, KLRU Educational Services will work alongside 12 other partners to provide quality STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) summer experiences for low-income youth in Central Texas. The Central Texas Summer STEM Investment Hub, a collaborative of 13 funding partners, has dedicated not only funding, but professional development and research expertise to tackle two important challenges: a summer “slide” in skills for low-income youth relative to their higher-income peers, and the desire to grow a local workforce for future Central Texas STEM-related jobs.
KLRU has three chief roles in this Summer STEM work:
- to determine how KLRU’s digital assets, including equipment and digital media resources, can complement the work of each partner for on-site use
- to provide resources to youth and their families to extend the learning achieved into the remainder of the summer through our vast collection of online and app-based resources
- to hold discussions with youth and their families about summer screen use. We know that screen use goes way up during the summer months. We wish to help families strive for a healthy balance of “smart” and “silly” screen time, along with other activities for all members of the family.
The grantees are:
| Design Connect Create |
| UT Austin TACC |
| UT Austin Dell Medical School |
| UT Austin UTeach Outreach |
| AISD Eastside Memorial Vertical Team |
| AISD STAARburst |
| AISD Akins High School |
| KLRU Educational Services |
| Campfire USA |
| Girlstart |
| Hill Country Science Mill |
| Harmony Science Academy |
| Welcome Table |
The Central Texas Summer STEM Investment Hub partners are: KDK-Harman Foundation, KLE Foundation, Webber Family Foundation, Topfer Family Foundation, Andy Roddick Foundation, Austin Community Foundation, Intel Foundation, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and IBM.
KLRU Kids Writers – more stories every day!
We are receiving stories in the mail every day and are publishing them as fast as we can! Check every day for the next week to see our collections grow! Click here.
¡Estamos recibiendo nuevos cuentos en el correo cada día y los estamos publicando tan rápido como podamos! Chequea cada día esta semana para ver crecer la colección. Haz clic aquí.
Literacy Links provides PBS resources to Oak Springs Elementary students
The Austin Chapter of The Links, Incorporated Literacy Links Program was a huge hit with the 1st – 3rd graders at Oak Springs Elementary School of Austin ISD. On December 19th, members of the organization shared Electric Company magazines and resources from klrukids.org with 120 students in 7 classrooms. The materials were 
STEAM-focused and intended to equip students with resources for continued educational development over the Winter Break. Students who brought their completed magazines when they returned to school in January received special recognition for the accomplishment.
The Austin (TX) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated is committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry. They serve the Travis, Williamson, Hays, Blanco, Caldwell, and Bastrop counties. The Literacy Links Program’s goal is to emphasize closing the elementary achievement gap by promoting effective literacy practices.
KLRU and Community Partners: Families Creative Learning workshops
KLRU has partnered with the Thinkery, Boys & Girls Club, and Communities in Schools to bring Families Creative Learning workshops to low-income families with young children. Parents bond with their children as they both learn to code. Using the Scratch Jr. PBS app, the families animate their favorite PBS characters. The parents have the wonderful opportunity to be active participants in their children’s learning. As supportive collaborators, parents encourage their children to problem solve and experiment while being persistent in their creative process.
Walk into a session and you’ll see friendly families sharing a meal. Afterwards, it’s time to reflect on what has been learned. Then parents work together with their children to create a project that tells a meaningful story. It’s neat to see how imaginative the children can be as they express themselves using technology. The final projects are shared amongst the group and include animated greeting cards, stories about their family, and other wildly creative animations.
What’s great is that families receive a tablet at the end of 4 weekly sessions. These tablets are a gateway to more learning using the many free PBS kids apps available. Families also receive books that they can enjoy at home as a vital component of at-home learning.
Educational experiences such as this empower parents to continue engaging in their children’s education. It inspires children to continue to explore and discover new ways of self-expression in today’s digital world.
Families Creative Learning is part of the Community Collaborative for Early Learning and Media, funded by the US Department of Education and administered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
American Graduate Champions celebrated at Austin Chamber of Commerce
A packed house at the Austin Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 12th honored four Austin-area American Graduate Champions. In addition, KLRU was able to preview PBS Spotlight Education Week and point attendees to the local American Graduate resources to help educators, parents, and youth. The following Champions were recognized:
- Denise Hernandez – Attorney and Mentor, Con Mi Madre
- Bavu Blakes – Musician and Teacher, Decker Middle School, Manor ISD
- Chaka – Musician and Mentor, E4 Youth
- Cortney Jones – Youthbuild Counselor, American Youthworks
See the video shorts of all four Champions
See KLRU’s list of over 200 local Champions
The event coincided with PBS Spotlight Education Week, a series of programs that highlight the current challenges and promises of education in America. Our four local Champions will be featured throughout the week on-air; in addition, Saturday at 1 pm marks the fifth annual American Graduate Day, a four-hour block of national programming with a particular focus of recruiting mentors to assist students on the road to high school graduation and beyond. Following the broadcast, KLRU will premiere AISD Champions, a one-hour showcase of student-created films celebrating peers, teachers, coaches, and counselors who are making a difference in student lives.
Local support for Spotlight Education Week comes from Austin Community College. The national multi-year American Graduate initiative is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
KLRU Summer STEM Resources
KLRU is a proud partner of many summer STEM camp providers in Central Texas. We have built this collection of PBS and other amazing and fun resources for participants in these camps and for anyone to use!
Audiovisual and interactive resources available through PBS MediaLearning:
- Adaptation
- Animation & Graphics
- Architecture & Walls
- Aviation
- Baseball Physics
- Bridges
- Civil Engineering
- Coding & Programming
- Compost
- Cinema + Digital Storytelling
- Dams & Hydroelectric Power
- Design Squad Nation
- Electronics
- Elementary Math
- Elementary Literacies
- Environmental Engineering
- Failure & Misconceptions
- Fashion
- Financial Literacy
- Food Production
- Forensic Science
- Game Design
- Glacial Change
- Half Lives
- Healthy Living
- Human Systems / Humans as Machines
- Inventors
- Landscapes
- Life Sciences & Biology
- Logic & Probability
- Magnets
- Math/Engineering with Music
- Math Applications
- Math through World Cultures
- Nutrition
- Ocean/Marine Life
- Oil / Fossil Fuels
- Penguins
- Pets
- Physics
- Pollution
- Renaissance
- Robotics
- Secondary Biology
- Secondary Math
- Sink/Float
- Solar Power
- Solar Cars
- Space / Solar System
- Statistics
- Underwater Exploration
- Wireless Communications
- Waste
- Water
- Water Cycle
- Watersheds
Web platforms and interactive games outside PBS that can be used in learning activities:
- Code Studio (coding)
- Code Academy (coding)
- Game over Gopher (elementary math)
- Ratio Rancher (secondary math)
- Tinker (coding)
- Zeega (cinema + digital storytelling)
Software resources outside PBS that can be downloaded and installed on local computers:
Summer Learning Day with KLRU Kids!
KLRU Educational Services visited three partner sites yesterday to deliver summer learning fun to kids. All received an armful of fun summer learning materials, including PBS Kids activity books, picture/chapter books, puzzle cubes pointing to free KLRU/PBS Kids apps and websites, and Pete the Cat headbands!
Summer Learning Day is a national event led by the National Summer Learning Association designed to highlight the importance of keeping kids learning, safe and healthy every summer.
#keepkidslearning #klrukids
Resources for the dog days
If you have been hearing this as of late (or maybe since school let out), realize that letting kids remain bored for a while can actually lead to them developing their own creative solutions. If you have given that a try and a) your home is damaged as a result; or b) they really need help finding something new to do, check out this link:
http://www.pbs.org/parents/summer/
KLRU Kids Cake
We a
re amazed at this three-tier “chocoflan” from the kitchen of Anacleta and her daughter Adriana. They made it to help celebrate their graduation from KLRU’s Play to Learn program at Padrón Elementary in Austin.
This school year, we have had over 200 participants in Play to Learn, a ten-week program for adults and their children ages 2-4 in which they explore a variety of ways to have fun together in activities that are great preparation for future school life. Along the way, they pick up lots of resources to continue the fun at home and on the go, including books, paints and markers, and a Samsung Galaxy Tab loaded with educational apps.
We love Play to Learn, we love Anacleta and Ana, and we love cake!
