BuildBPS Open House to Showcase Future of Boston Public Schools

Interactive, hands-on two-day event examines 10-year facilities and educational vision of BPS

BOSTON - Thursday, October 27, 2016 - This weekend, on Saturday, October 29 and Sunday, October 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Bruce Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington Street in Roxbury, Boston Public Schools (BPS) will host the BuildBPS Open House focusing on the district's 10-year educational and facilities master plan. This event will have exhibits, activities, discussions, and more for community members seeking to learn about the long-term educational and facilities vision for the city's public schools.     "The Boston School Committee is excited to see our students and their families get involved with these exhibits, activities and discussions," said Boston School Committee Chairperson Michael O'Neill. "This event allows everyone from our community to weigh in and come together to share their opinions." The BuildBPS Open House marks the first time BPS has held an experiential event of this size for a major district-wide initiative.     "Innovation is key to the success of our students and for the growth of our schools," said BPS Superintendent Tommy Chang. "This open house allows our community to see the future of BPS and explore the various ways our growth will make our school system competitive in an advancing world."   In addition to Build BPS activities, the Open House will also host early voting on Saturday from 12:00-6:00 p.m. BuildBPS was launched on September 29, 2015 by Mayor Martin J. Walsh to provide a strategic framework for facilities investments, as well as align the Mayor's vision of fostering exemplary teaching in a world-class system of innovative, welcoming schools. Activities include: On Saturday and Sunday,hands-on challenges with LEGO Education North America and the Latino STEM Alliance, in which participants will be challenged using LEGO's robotics platform while engaging in classroom tools and learning how to code. Interactive Art and Play Activities with Reimagine Play: Reimagine Play, in collaboration with BPS, will feature interactive art and play activities using its newly designed play structures, including a giant slackline nest, LED stackable light cubes and a box art maze, as well as the classic geo-dome climber. Activities are designed to encourage movement and creative imagination. Attendees will have a chance to learn how to slackline, climb the structures, build mini geodesic domes and decorate the maze. Emerson Engagement Lab Hosts Student Activities: Emerson College's Engagement Lab will hold a workshop on "Emerging Citizens," its newest suite of digital and media literacy games. Each game encourages students to engage with culturally and politically relevant topics that affect their daily lives while focusing on a specific 21st century digital modality - hashtags, memes, and hyperlinking. The workshop will focus on how game-based interventions fit within the larger context of digital and media literacy discourse. Science Experiments and Activities with Vertex Pharmaceuticals: Stop by and hear from our partners at Vertex! There will be interactive lab experiments with pipettes, tubes, DNA origami - an activity that allows one to fold a piece of paper into a double helix and model the structure of DNA - and more with our community partner, Vertex. Discussions include: Equity and Excellence (Discussion): How does equity and excellence flourish in the same space? Understanding the Long-Term Financial Plan (Discussion): What financial choices must be made in Boston Public Schools to enable the rich academic offerings that Boston students deserve? What are the tradeoffs associated with each of these potential choices? Design Your Future: Footwear Industry Exploration (Discussion): How might BPS create pathways into industry that levels the playing field- particularly for students of color? Summer Jobs vs. Summer Careers (Discussion): How can BPS create a pathway with summer options that leads to more productive and better supported future career opportunities? Resilient City/Resilient Schools (Discussion): With race relations at the forefront of our national and local media- how do we interrupt this unrest and ensure that Boston is a leader in creating healing partnerships? STEAM Innovations (Discussion): How should BPS prepare its students to fully engage in opportunities that expose them to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts/Design and Math), and what are the innovations we might expect from those experiences? Youth Voice (Discussion): How can we amplify student voice in the design of the future of BPS? Why Innovation? (Discussion): How do we solve for who gets to innovate once we bring our schools into the future? The full BuildBPS Open House agenda is available on the Boston Public Schools website.