www.EDUCATIONUPDATE.com AwardAward Volume XII, No. 6 • New York City • FEBRUARY 2007 Winner FOR ParenTS, EDucaTORS & STUDenTS PRESIDENT ERNEST CSA LOGAN U.S. POSTAGE PAID U.S. POSTAGE V P PRSRT STD. PRSRT OO ermit No.500 RH EES , NJ NEW PRESIDENT COUNCIL OF SCHOOL SUpeRVISORS & ADMINISTRATORS 10 SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS ■ EDUCATION UPDATE ■ FEBRUARY 2007 HS Students Create Winning Businesses at Virtual Enterprises business plans to a panel of judges in hopes were winners in the eyes of Virtual Enterprises, the other business firms. This experience has been of winning a place in the national competi- group that came in third place was VE Law from very motivational for all students and an oppor- tion so they can have the opportunity to win New Dorp HS, second place The Printing Depot tunity for them to network with the right kinds of $25,000 as the final prize. Students develop from Fort Hamilton HS, and first place, Universal people and gain all sorts of skills. From building their business plans and are responsible for Promotions from Edward R. Murrow HS. Cheers a business from the ground up to being able to every aspect of its success including the resounded throughout the room, as winners were stand in front of judges and make a presentation, funding, problem solving and international announced. all Virtual Enterprises students have benefited trading for their businesses. Many of the competitors will be given intern- from this highly educational competition and are The final round of the BusinessFOSS_5 Plan xships 10_bw with ad Deloitte 6/28/06 & Touche 2:36 as well PM as Pagemany 1 all champions.# Competition took place at sponsor Deloitte & Touche’s corporate offices at 2 World Financial Center with 14 teams and 6 finalists from FOSS® (Full Option Science (L-R) Joseph Delaney & Iris Blanc various high schools from around the city. Well-articu- We wanted to System™), the most popular By HEATHER MAHER & JUSTINE RIVERA lated students presented their plans with the aid of a power research-based science Ten years ago, the superintendents of several point presentation and were then know the most program in the nation, springs New York City high schools teamed together to questioned by the panel of judg- develop a practice system in which their students es, which included Martha Stark, from research conducted at could develop business skills and get hands-on Director of NYC Department of successful experience in a simulated business world that is Finance. Some of the questions the Lawrence Hall of Science. judges asked included: “What This research has guided the development are your firms’ greatest financial way to learn challenges, and what will you of successful active-learning science curricula do to overcome it?” And, “If you for more than 25 years. Studies show students were given a large amount of science, so money, how would you spend it using FOSS outperform students who don’t. to best prepare against competi- tors?” Teams were well prepared we asked the and gave effective responses as to how their firm would deal with the situation at hand. classroom experts! Once all presentations were given, judges began the tabu- lating. Before the winners were completely student run with the guidance of a announced, Director Iris Blanc and teacher and a business partner. Now this idea has Director of tri-state relations for Don’t just open books become Virtual Enterprises, International with Deloitte & Touche, Joseph Delaney, OPEN MINDS a competition every year for the most well pre- gave rousing compliments to the pared high school groups to present their firm and teams. Although all the students A “LIVING FOSSIL” TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN By JOAN FREILICH, Ph.D. For the past 96 years, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has provided New Yorkers and visitors with not only a beautiful and restful green haven from the bustle of city life that surrounds it, but also with specialized horticultural experi- ences that were the first of their kind—the Japanese garden, the fragrance garden, the children’s garden and a garden designed for the visually impaired. This winter a new Botanic Garden “first” reaches back to the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. President Scott Medbury proudly President Scott Medbury shares with guests a record number of & Fossil Tree visits with plans for a new interactive sign program, new visitor center, and models commercialization initiative has begun. for a green institution. Royalties from sales are dedicated to The Garden has added to its public plant conservation efforts. The Garden is display a newly acquired Wollemi pine offering a small number of the cultivated tree, a plant that was believed to be extinct trees for sale, so that visitors can become for two million years. In 1994 a small part of the living history of the Wollemi grove of Wollemi pines was discovered in and other ancient endangered plants, Australia’s Blue Mountains, near Sydney. while aiding conservation efforts. Since making this find, scientists and horti- The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which culturalists have been studying the Wollemi occupies 52 acres in the heart of Brooklyn pine to learn how this ancient species was and is home to over 10,000 types of When you contact us mention Lawrence Hall of Science able to survive through 17 ice ages. plants, offers numerous classes, programs and receive a free FOSSweb CD-ROM! The Botanic Garden’s Wollemi pine and events for adults and children of all is now displayed in the Steinhardt ages. Planning is underway now for the Conservatory’s Trail of Evolution, which 100th anniversary of this historic, urban traces the development of plant life from garden in 2010, with several replications its origin four billion years ago to the planned in Washington DC as well as present day. The Garden is offering fun, other parts of the country. The Garden instructional activities for children and is proud of being the only one that their families that will teach them about includes high school interns in its Garden the Wollemi and the role of such ancient Apprentice Program and gives students trees in the evolution of plant life. a participatory role in laboratory work. University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 Because fewer than 100 Wollemi pines For more information, visit the Garden’s exist in the wild, a plant-propagation and website: www.bbg.org. FEBRUARY 2007 ■ EDUCATION UPDATE ■ MUSIC, ART & DANCE ABC 11 the imagination had in their lives and their work. Some of them were surprised Imagination in the Classroom to find that it had any place at all in their By SCOTT NOPPE-BRANDON as empathy, defined in simple terms as the abil- careers; a diplomat, for example, thought In 2006, Lincoln Center Institute created an ity to put yourself into other people’s shoes and of himself as fact-driven public servant; Imagination Award. The award is to be distrib- feel what they feel. Our world has always been a “imagination” sounded frivolous in his uted annually to a selected candidate among place of turmoil as much as of joy, and without mouth; yet he came out of the seminar public schools that meet specific criteria designed the nurturing of that ability, I shudder to think having discovered that he often relied to show that these schools value imagination as what sort of people we would have become. on his imagination for the most delicate a tool that can be used in shaping young minds. Would we care about Darfur, about the victims of decisions. Candidate schools must both teach with imagina- hurricane Katrina, about anything outside of the Imaginative problem-solving is hardly tion and promote learning with imagination. narrow parameters of our lives? limited to the classroom. There is never The idea of the Imagination Award has received In his song Imagine, John Lennon asked all of a “grown-up time” when we don’t need wide support. We hope to extend the competition us to imagine a different, better world, a world it: think about seeking employment; think nationwide, but more than that, we hope that the without war and fear. about parenthood. Among the children idea of the imagination as central to education To us at Lincoln Center Institute, imagination who study in a Lincoln Center Institute will have a life of its own: for instance, we’re is all of those things: the special energy that goes environment, there are those who will talking with Eric Liu, author of Guiding Lights, into the creative process of artists, and certainly apply imagination to the way they live an inspirational volume on mentorship, about a a way to create a better world. Both begin with their lives day after day. I believe that the possible book about the meaning and importance imagination. Institute’s approach to teaching and learn- of the imagination. It’s an important step for It is important to understand that the imagina- ing can help them do it productively. Some the Institute, an important step for the world of tion is a skill that can be taught and applied. The will become artists or businessmen and ideas. world will not change if we merely imagine it next to your imagination and you’re still doing businesswomen, others will dedicate their time to In my discussions about imagination with changing—it is necessary to know how to trans- windmills through the air when you’re forty, their families or the preservation of nature—all of friends and colleagues, I find that sooner or later late our imagining into action. people will laugh at you. them will carry in them the endless possibilities we ask ourselves a basic question: What exactly That is the Institute’s basic belief.