Taking kids to work at Wallenberg Hall

While most students who experience Wallenberg Hall’s advanced resource classrooms are in their late teens and early 20s, April 28 was a lively exception. This year’s Take your Sons and Daughters to Work Day marked the seventh year of Stanford’s participation, and the third time kids from 10 to 15 years old had a turn at the high tech Webster white boards, joined in a video conference and tried their hand using one of SCIL’s research tools, Kiddie Diver.

From first thing in the morning until noon, boys and girls who accompanied their parents to work attended activities across campus, ranging from athletic events to science labs and performances. Last year nearly 300 kids attended. Those who chose Wallenberg Hall as their destination spent the three-hour event in classrooms unlike their own.

This year’s 10 to 12 year-olds experienced the classroom of the future under the direction of SCIL Executive Director Sam Steinhardt.

“Just like the past two years, this event was a great opportunity for us to expose young students to some of the tools we are developing that will, within their lifetime, make a real difference in the classroom,” says Steinhardt, who has three children of his own.

“We hope we got them excited enough to share what they’ve done and seen with their peers and their parents.”

After trying out some of the classroom technology and taking part in their own videoconference, the young visitors particpated in actual SCIL research, The Health Education Learning Portal, a program supported by the Wallenberg Global Learning Network.

Each child had his or her own laptop computer to try out new educational software that is aimed at increasing knowledge of healthy living in today’s youngsters. In collaboration with the Virtual Labs Project (http://virtuallabs.stanford.edu) and the non-profit organization, H.E.L.P. for Kids (Health Education for Lifelong Partnerships; (https://www.stanford.edu/group/help/who_we_are.html), SCIL researchers are developing interactive computer-based learning modules to complement curriculum currently used in Redwood City public schools.

To wrap up their day, the young visitors climbed to Wallenberg Hall’s fourth floor, where researchers demonstrated Kiddie Diver, a video software tool that is being tested at Bing Nursery School on campus. The software is aimed at actively engaging children’s minds with video for storytelling. Researchers believe it may eventually replace the passive viewing of video with an interactive and educational experience.

For more information on Take Your Kids to Work Day: http://worklife.stanford.edu/

For more information on Diver: http://diver.stanford.edu/what.html