What should we do?

Hey readers!  We're looking for ideas on how to get more students to be involved with Splash.  What are some ways that you can think of to let students know about Splash?  A lot of people haven't heard of Splash and we're trying to get the word out.

Post your ideas by commenting below!

Top three ideas will get free T-shirts!

Look who won a T-Shirt!

SPLASH! T-shirt competition results!!

A while ago we polled all of our past students to tell us about their experiences during SPLASH!  We've rated them and pick one to win a free SPLASH!  T-shirt!  Congratulations Yessenia Moreno!  

Below is her SPLASH! experience that won her a free t-shirt.  

Splash was a great experince for me. I had never attended Splash and I regret that because it was a really fun experience.  I went as a Senior, which unfortunatly means that i can't go next year, but if I could do it again, I would. You get to meet a lot of new people, no matter what age they are, it's still fun to get to know them. My favorite classes would have to be Sign Language and Frisbee. I really enjoyed both because they were really fun and I got to interact with others :) I was a little bad at Sign Language, but it was still fun to see that I was not the only one struggling.  There were times when I got lost, expecially when I had to get there, but it was still fun.  One of the wacky experinces I had was that I took a Music Theory class when I had never seen a music note or learned about them. Thanks for giving me the chance to be there.

 I would recommend this to anyone, it's fun and at the same time you learn new things.             

-Yessenia Moreno

The Pekin Art of Opera Face Painting

Exciting Classes At Splash:

Pekin Face Painting

Taught by Emily Song

Learn about the Ancient art of Pekin Face Painting!  This facial make-up is applied to distinguish different roles and reveal their dispositions and moral qualities.  Red stands for courage and loyalty and white represents brutality and cruelty. Students explored intriguing facts about Chinese culture and learn the application of face painting!

Awesome Learning Spaces: Wallenberg Hall

This Fall, Splash started a partnership with Wallenberg Hall to provide hi-tech options for our teachers. Besides obvious applications like programming classes, Wallenberg's flexible classroom environments create new opportunities for non-techie teachers to present their material in a more interactive way. We strongly encourage experienced teachers to consider designing curricula with technological solutions in mind. Because there can be a steep learning curve, Wallenberg staff have agreed to meet one-on-one with teachers who want to use their space. Check out http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/teachingandlearning/ to see more about the advantages and difficulties of teaching in a hi-tech space or http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/resources/index.html to see the rooms themselves. We've reserved rooms 120-127 and the Learning Theater.

Crazy Bikes!

Exciting Classes At Splash:

H511: Unusual Bicycle design and construction techniques

Taught by Tom Kabat

Students in the class learned about how to make very unique bikes. After an explanation of different design strategies and construction techniques (cardboard designs, wood designs), the students worked in teams to design their own bikes. These designs were reviewed at the end with ergonomics, integrity, and uniqueness in mind. Check out more classes here!

Music Theory!

Exciting Classes At Splash:

P452: Intro to Music Theory

Taught by Michelle Zeman

Students learned about how to read treble and bass clef staffs, identify keys, learned notes and time signatures, and how to construct simple chords. The solfege system (do-re-mi) was taught and students participated in some simple sight-reading exercises. The kids got their MUSIC ON!

Can You Predict the Future?

Feats of Students:

Bridge Failure Prediction

During this two hour class the students reviewed the Labor Day reconfiguration of the Bay Bridge. A girl gave an opinion as to why a certain eye-bar cracked. This same girl, noting that this reconfiguration was unintentionally putting large stresses on undeserving bridge components, predicted that the bridge would fail in a specific way. The amazing part is that later the same week THIS EXACT FAILURE OCCURRED.

You might ask: can I use the knowledge I gain from Splash to keep the rest of the world safe? One student, who took a class by Michael Daly (E479: San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge Project - an Overview), did just this.
	So by just taking a simple class at Splash, a student was able to understand and apply the knowledge she gained to a real-life situation and predict a bridge failure. "It's too bad the CalTrans Officials didn't take this class" Daly Wrote. Too true, Michael, too true. There are no limits to what you could potentially learn at Splash, and you'll just never know when it will come in handy!