Gaming for Good

Cleveland Institute of Art and Case Western Reserve University students developed a iPhone game called ChromaWaves, where players try to shoot colored paint balls at moving targets, in the process creating a splatter paint effect on the screen. While offered an opportunity to profit from the game, the students decided to pay forward the generosity of a local company called iNomadics, which donated many of the resources the team needed to build the app, and have assigned all proceeds to benefit Child’s Play, a charity that donates toys and video games to children’s hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic and Akron Children’s Hospital.

Read the full story at Doing Good  and the game in action in the video

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Kansas Teens Build Record-Breaking Electric Car

From Wired:

The coolest thing about this electric car isn’t the Lola racing car chassis, or the clear plastic bodywork or even the fact it gets the equivalent of 300 mpg. The coolest thing about this car is the kids who built it.

The car was a class project at the Automotive Design Studio at the DeLaSalle Education Center, an alternative high school in Kansas City, Missouri. The school serves those kids who fall through the cracks, and most of them live below the poverty line. A lot of them have seen some violence in their lives, others have kids, others have drug and alcohol problems and many of them struggle with basic educational skills. It’s an amazing opportunity for them to follow up two years of work in a class called Creative Studio and Entrepreneurial Studies by designing and building a record-breaking electric car.

Read the full story at http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/student-built-ev-defies-the-odds-may-break-a-record/#ixzz0yc6yViY5

Click on photo or visit  http://www.necn.com/08/22/10/Students-spend-summer-building-electric-/landing_scitech.html?blockID=295315&feedID=4213 to see video.

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Oregon Students Work for Sustainable Change

The New York Times reports:

…Roughly 600 University of Oregon students in 25 classes will devote 80,000 hours to Salem during the coming year. The novel program, part of the university’s three-year-old Sustainable Cities Initiative, will focus on making Salem more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Students in architecture, planning, law, journalism and business classes will explore how Salem could nurture green business clusters, reuse industrial byproducts, connect parks with bicycle paths, redevelop brownfields and design energy-efficient municipal buildings, among other things. Just as important, the students will consider market and regulatory barriers to implementing their ideas.

“If there isn’t a lot of economic activity and ability to make these kinds of substantive changes in the built environment today, then it’s the perfect time to be laying out the ideas and plans for the future,” contended Marc Schlossberg, a planning professor and co-director of the Sustainable Cities Initiative. “We like to call this tilling the soil.”

Read the full story at  http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/08/23/23greenwire-in-oregon-students-seek-key-to-a-sustainable-c-87835.html

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How One Good Turn Creates Another… and Another, and Another…

Donations have now totaled over $100,000 , and it all started with one act of kindness…

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Congrats TEDxNext Generation Asheville on a Great Event!

From Citizen-Times:

The message of the TEDx Next Generation Asheville forum Saturday was pretty clear: Passionate young people benefit communities.

And a handful of kids and teens sowed the seeds of progress as more than 260 people gathered at The Orange Peel. The event featured 11 speakers, from kids as young as 11, who talked about issues ranging from what’s wrong with the food system to environmental activism to — what was billed as the most controversial topic on the agenda — using video games in education.

Chase Pickering kicked it off by demonstrating how organizations can successfully engage young people in the decision-making process, particularly with groups serving youth.

“We have so many great organizations that aim to serve youth or to empower youth or engage youth yet they are so disconnected to what is actually happening in their own ground,” he said. “What better way to know your audience or get to know your audience than having one of them as part of your team.”

Read the full story at http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100829/NEWS/308290057/1003/ARCHIVES

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They Might Be Giants Happily Geeks out over Electric Cars

The surest way to green tech is fun music! Check out They Might Be Giants’ latest…

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21 Year Olds Win Seats in Oklahoma State Legislature

Youth in Oklahoma took active roles – and seats – in recent elections. Youth and others got out the vote for college student Elise Hall, a Republican, who won 62% of the vote and all 10 precincts in House District 100, as well as for Republican Josh Cockroft, 21, won the House District 27 runoff and Democrat Eli Potts, 21, won the House District 66 runoff and will face a run-off opponent in November.   Kudos to all of them for doing their best to be the change they want to see!

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Ideas Worth Sharing are Spreading!

We inspired TEDxYouthSeoul - How about YOU!  Check out our video invitation on YouTube and send us your Idea Worth Sharing – or better yet, how about an Idea Worth Doing ?!

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Chelsea Baker Featured on CNN

13 year old Chelsea Baker is back in the news, this time on CNN (Female phenom pitcher strikes opponents out, one boy at a time) , featured for her recognition by the National Baseball Hall of Fame for pitching two perfect games – the rare ability of a pitcher to allow no hits and no walks in a game – in the even rarer situation of being a female pitcher against all male teams.   Chelsea is now participating in Baseball for All – an organization that advocates for women in the sport — playing on a touring all-girls team made up of players from around the country, and hopes to continue playing baseball for a long time to come. Go Chelsea!

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Teen Seeks Going Above Borders, Ideology and Conflict in N. Korea

Thirteen year old Jonathan Lee, of Ridgeland, Mississippi, journeyed to North Korea recently, to try to persuade authorities there to establish a “children’s peace forest” in the demilitarized zone, where children from North and South Korea could come together to play.   (CNN: Teen’s Peace Mission to North Korea).  His suggested motto for the park: “Above politics, above borders, above ideology, above conflict.”

While welcomed warmly, he was told the forest wasn’t a possibility without a peace treaty with South Korea. Lee, founder of I.C.E.Y. – International Cooperation of Environmental Youth, was disappointed but not discouraged, and plans to continue his efforts.  

It’s all about giving hope to the people and children around the world,” he said.

Visit http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/19/korea.peace.mission/index.html to read the full story.

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