Struggling Schools Benefit from Adding Arts to Learning...!?

Struggling Schools Benefit from Adding Arts to Learning...!?

In most cases, the day they enter first grade (sometimes earlier), public school kids' creative and experiential education ends, and worksheets and standardized testing begins. Fortunately, this is NOT the case at EK Powe and DSA (both public), where my kids go to school (in Durham, NC). But I know full well that we are an anomaly in a sea of schools that house American children for the majority of their lives between 5 and 17 years of age…

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With the lack of public school funding, the need for school districts to facilitate (not just permit) PTA's is long overdue.

With the lack of public school funding, the need for school districts to facilitate (not just permit) PTA's is long overdue.

“We will need help from families, partner agencies, and communities,” states Durham Public Schools Superintendent Bert L’Homme’s February 5th commentary regarding DPS’s challenges in meeting the educational needs of low-performing students (LHomme_DN_Feb2017). By ‘help’, DPS means ‘We need you to keep your children in our schools.” I get that. But parents don’t want their kids in schools that don’t sincerely welcome parent involvement…

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Advanced Reader's Copy: *Eddie the Electron Moves Out*

Advanced Reader's Copy: *Eddie the Electron Moves Out*

I received my ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) of Eddie The Electron Moves Out (the sequel to Eddie the Electron) today! I got tears in my eyes when I read it - seriously. I can’t get over the incredible quality of every aspect of the book. Harry Pulver's illustrations are PERFECT…

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Protect and Improve Affordable Care Mental Health Coverage

Protect and Improve Affordable Care Mental Health Coverage

It pains me to think of all the mentally ill persons languishing on our streets or in our prisons. So many are uniquely brilliant in ways we are only beginning to understand. What's more, the NRA and supporting politicians argue that we don't need better gun control, we need better treatment of mental illness. So it is completely irrational and incomprehensible to me how someone could be against gun control as well as against the treatment of mental health issues made possible by the Affordable Care Act…

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“Eddie Moves Out”, Picture-Book Sequel to “Eddie the Electron”

“Eddie Moves Out”, Picture-Book Sequel to “Eddie the Electron”

If you're looking for an educational stocking stuffer this Christmas, please consider buying the first in the Eddie series if you haven't already done so. Whether you do it via *Eddie the Electron* or another avenue, the earlier you introduce your kids to science, the better for their (and our) futures…

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Fun Science: Easy Hands-on Chemistry Lesson
Children, Education, Essays Melissa Rooney Children, Education, Essays Melissa Rooney

Fun Science: Easy Hands-on Chemistry Lesson

This is a picture of my 6YO son's “back-to-school Magic Crystals”, obtained after immersing dolostones in vinegar (with a little orange food coloring). I've never made mushroom crystals before, so we were both truly enthralled. Dolostones (which can be purchased from Educational Innovations) are dolomite rocks, which are primarily composed of calcium magnesium carbonate or CaMg(CO3)2…

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Your Village

Your Village

In organizing children’s events this summer, I’ve talked to several science museum directors and staff, mostly about how to ensure that people actually attend the events. It’s not a matter of young people wanting to be there. It’s a matter of their parents getting them there. Turns out it’s one of the biggest challenges for education directors across the country…

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The Danville Science Center - A Unique Experience for Kids of All Ages
Children, Education, Community, Relationships, Essays Melissa Rooney Children, Education, Community, Relationships, Essays Melissa Rooney

The Danville Science Center - A Unique Experience for Kids of All Ages

I spent last Saturday bonding with young people, pre-school through high-school, via my hands-on children's book readings at the Danville Science Center (DSC). While driving to Virginia from my home in Durham, NC, I worried that my kids, who accompanied me, would get bored in one place all day and would consequently interfere with my program and my sanity. Boy, was I wrong!

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Middle- and High-School Strings Students Amaze at Animazement in Raleigh, NC, this Weekend

Middle- and High-School Strings Students Amaze at Animazement in Raleigh, NC, this Weekend

Yesterday, the Duke University String School's Youth Symphony Orchestra yesterday performed an Anime Symphony (entitled Space Brothers) at the 2016 Animazement Convention in Raleigh, NC. The symphony was written, designed and conducted by renowned Japanese movie composer and record producer Toshiyuki Watanabe, who flew in from Japan just for the event…

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Durham's Bionomic Education and Training Center program and the Future of our Youth

Durham's Bionomic Education and Training Center program and the Future of our Youth

In April, 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency calculated that fifty-five percent of monitored waterways in the United States are impaired by pollution, meaning they are too polluted for healthy recreation, public drinking water and subsistence fishing. Twenty-five percent of the nation’s beaches are under advisories or closed at least once per year due to water pollution.

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