The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association, selected 25 innovative teen programs to be featured at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference and included in a sixth edition of “Excellence in Library Service to Young Adults.” These successful programs focus on addressing new or ongoing teen needs or interests in innovative or unique ways.
For the past three weeks, we have been working on dowels with rubber bands, marble run, SAM Animation with clay at Rondo, Rice Street and Arlington Hills Libraries. With the dowels and rubber bands, we had youths ages from three to thirteen experiment and built towers based on their knowledge on geometrical shapes. The most successful tower based on geometrical shapes that the youths built was the triangular prism in which they built more triangles on top of each other. Another project that the youths experimented with was marble run. Using a peg board, short dowels of two different sizes, tubes, pipe cleaners, and other materials, the Teen Tech Crew challenged the youths to make their own maze on the peg board using these materials. The goal of project was to get the marble to get through a series of tubes, papers and other materials that the youths made and to get the marble into a cup. The most recent project we have done at the libraries was SAM Animation with clay. We helped the youth to make butterflies, people, and other models to take series of photos to make a video. The video was composed of photos that make the model look like the they are moving. These activities and projects have not only been fun for both the youths and the instructors, but also provide a wide varieties of technologies in the form of art, music, and mathematics.
“I believe that these activities provide a new and more interactive approach to technologies because the youths are not only having fun, but also can apply these skills to real world situations whether they know it or not.” - Naly, TTC Member
Building with dowels and rubber bands at Rice Street Library
Playing with dowels and rubber bands at Arlington Hills Library
Marble Run at Rice Street Library
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We did light photography this week. Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. Its fun for all ages and anyone can go.
For more info go to: https://www.facebook.com/TeenTechCrew
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The Teen Tech Crew is a high school youth crew led by high school students who teaches youth at three different library branches about computer based and hands on technology projects. The crew works on various projects such as Scratch, Sam Animations, and Conductive play dough. Our goal is introduce youths to various kinds tech by exposing it through art and technology. There are nine high school students which are divided into three groups at three different Saint Paul Public libraries to teach every week. We empower the youth to understand that the technology they use everyday is capable of doing so much more.
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