Ypsilanti Community Schools is a district with serious challenges, from a shrinking population to negative perceptions. Dr. Benjamin Edmonson is taking them all on with gusto. Here's what YCS's new superintendent has planned for the struggling schools.
Here's something for older folks to grouse about: a phone app that rewards students for better study habits. Can't you almost hear them say, "How about good grades? Isn't that reward enough?" Oh, grandpa. Excerpt: "Students earn points for activities such as meeting with a tutor or success coach, attending campus events and more. Points accumulate and can be used to “purchase” items in a prize store or used at the end of the year to bid on major benefits such as free tuition, housing, a meal plan, a tablet device or gift cards to the campus book store." Read the rest here.
Eastern Michigan University was handed a $3.26 million gift from long-time supporters William and Delores Brehm. The philanthropic couple are dedicated to growing the university's special education programs and have, over the years, donated more than $8 million to the school. Excerpt: "Dee Brehm, herself a graduate of EMU’s special education program, says that their objective is to help train special education professionals and researchers who will lead the way in supporting people with disabilities as well as those who can benefit from music therapy." Read the rest here.
Technology is helping to reinvent the way we interact with libraries. U-M's Taubman Health Sciences Library just under went a a $55 million overhaul... and major rethinking of how it functions best. Excerpt: "Hundreds of thousands of books were moved to an offsite location and are available on demand for delivery, and by becoming "bookless" the school said that frees up space for medical student education. The facility on the school's Ann Arbor campus officially reopened over the weekend." Read more here.
Six months ago, Amanda Edmonds was elected Ypsilanti's mayor with 97% of the vote! Concentrate checks in with her on how things are going so far, and what she's got planned next.
Given all the accolades and advantages U-M as as the fourth-ranked public university in the United States, you'd think it'd do a better job of educating low income students. Excerpt: "U-M has one number it’s probably not proud of: the smallest share of low-income students among Michigan’s public universities, and one of the lowest rates among public universities in the country." Read the rest here.
Backyard Brains has been chugging along for years, making a nice little business out of neuroscience testing kits with cockroaches. After five years it has hit $500,000 in revenue, but has its sights set on a much bigger number. "We want that to increase to $1 million," says Tim Marzullo, co-founder & chief science officer of Backyard Brains. The Ann Arbor-based company is getting ready to embark on a national marketing campaign to close that gap. Marzullo likes to say that when he or members of his sales team show off the company's insect neuroscience kits for grade-school education products, like the RoboRoach, they become instantly popular with teachers and students to the point orders are placed on the spot. "It shocks us when we go to a neuroscience conference and people haven't heard of us," Marzullo says. Which is a bit surprising because Backyard Brains is an international firm with a growing office in Chile. It has made five hires over the last year and now employs a team of about a dozen people. Marzullo hopes that team will be able to really make a name for itself this year. "We want to expand beyond word of mouth," Marzullo says. "We're selling every day but not the numbers we need to be selling." Source: Tim Marzullo, co-founder & chief science officer of Backyard Brains Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
A former EMU creative writing student decided to start a locally focused blog. She describes it as: "Unpublished" is the journey of discovering Ann Arbor and everything it has to offer. It is exposing interiors; offering a deeper look at places I frequent. It is the gathering of recommendations from locals and my experiencing them for the first time. "Unpublished" is spreading Michigan roots in food, fashion, art, music, coffee and local business territories. Her latest slice of local goodness is the nonprofit 826Michigan. Onward robots! Excerpt: "Having a relationship with creative writing all of my life, and working with children for half of it, I am confident in saying that 826michigan is probably the coolest nonprofit organization. Ever." Read the rest here.
After years of dwindling enrollment, Ann Arbor's Northside Elementary School fully embraced the concept of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) integrated learning. The result has been a dramatic upswing in student admissions and performance. So much so that the school is expanding to a K-8 curriculum in 2016.
Each year the Kennedy Center hands out Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards to teachers who make a difference in the lives of their students. This year 13 were awarded, 3 were awarded to Michigan teachers and 1 was Pioneer High School teacher Jim Robert. Excerpt: "Be the change you want to see in the world!" I entered the teaching profession to inspire my students accordingly. What I didn't anticipate was how being in the presence of adolescents would thoroughly change me. For 27 years they have been teaching me to listen and inside that listening I have learned to teach." Check out the list here.
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