Press release from Rumson School District

The students and faculty of the Rumson School District were excited to be involved in the recent Environmental Springfest at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School. The April 23 event was dedicated to sharing information on the environment, mixed in live music, eco-friendly vendors, food, and other fun activities.

Mrs. Robin Yaeger and her Art Enrichment class at Deane-Porter Elementary School painted butterflies, dragonflies and owls on newspaper canvases that they had created. The bright colors and designs were eye catching to an environmentally crafted scene.

The Forrestdale School Art Club, taught by Mrs. Amy Lepping, created a colorful wall hanging of the Serengeti by fusing together recycled plastic bags. Their work was creative and inspiring to all.

The week of April 23 also saw library and computer classes at Deane-Porter Elementary School participate in a Global Day of Design Challenge, as part of an international initiative co-founded by John Spencer, author of LAUNCH and Professor of Education Technology at George Fox University.

Deane-Porter teachers Liz Waters and Mark Panas teamed up to bring the Global Day of Design program to Rumson, as one of 450 schools to form a partnership with the GDD group. Over 40,000 students participated worldwide, including over 400 at Deane-Porter.

Focused on using the Design Thinking Process in school, the goal was to inspire a transformation in schools around the world to incorporate design into an everyday practice with young learners. A Marshmallow Challenge found the library students competing against the computer class students through video conferencing, to design the tallest structure with limited resources in a fixed amount of time. Each small group of students was given 20 pieces of spaghetti, 3 feet of string, 3 feet of tape, one pair of scissors and a marshmallow that must be placed at the top of the structure. Students were given 18 minutes to work cooperatively to plan and build their free-standing design.

“Design comes in many shapes and sizes,” said Mark Panas. “Critical thinking is becoming an important part of everyday life. We’re excited to expose students to the design process through the Global Day of Design.”