Submit a Proposal
Applications close January 30th 2017
Submit using this google form here --> Proposal
Free Your Mind 2017: A HIP HOP Education STEMposium (April 27th and 28th)
Free Your Mind: A HIP HOP Education STEMposium brings Hip Hop as critical pedagogy (HHCP) and STEM together in an exploration of innovative educational practices that seek to enhance the engagement and achievement of all students. This dialogue between HHCP and STEM also seeks to critique traditional educational methodologies that fail to connect to students and prepare them to engage with the world around them in critical and meaningful ways.
Why HIP HOP and STEM?
HIP HOP is a dominant and influential youth culture. Hip Hop as critical pedagogy (HHCP) is a methodology that explores how this culture can be mobilized to challenge inequities and provide transformative education and re-education.
STEM is another educational methodology that emphasizes inquiry, problem based learning and the use of technology to nurture students’ creativity, collaboration, and innovation.
Free Your Mind aims to mobilize the power, popularity and potential of hip hop culture, as well as the effectiveness of student inquiry, problem based learning and technology as a platform for transformative education and re-education. We invite students, educators, parents and communities to join us as we explore the many possibilities for innovative and inclusive education that induces the natural genius of young people.
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CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS (Deadline January 30th, 2017):
We invite community educators and artists, social justice organizers, cultural workers, activists, students, teachers, media makers, and human rights advocates to submit proposals for interactive 75 minute workshops aimed at audiences between Grades 6 and 12 (11 -18 years old). Submitters should have experience mobilizing hip hop culture, technology, and student inquiry to explore topics related to identity, power, resistance, and other social justice themes with middle and high school age youth.
Proposals should clearly indicate how the themes of Hip Hop, STEM and Social Justice will be mobilized in ways that foster student inquiry, creativity, problem solving, and the use of technology. Submissions are encouraged on a wide range of topics.
We can only accommodate 16 workshops. Proposals receiving priority consideration must include:
• A hands-on or highly interactive component (not lecture style)
• Exploration of some aspect of Hip Hop culture
• A focus on student inquiry - problem posing and problem solving
• Explicit exploration of one or more social justice themes
• Strong connections to the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)
• The use of technology
• Exploration of the arts as a medium
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: January 30th, 2017 (submit by completing the form below).
Submitters will receive notification of their acceptance on or before March 1st, 2017. Successful applicants will be offered a $100 honourarium for each workshop they facilitate (Note: school board employees cannot receive honourariums for workshops they deliver during hours of school operation).