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Leadership Frisco launches youth science academy
By Ann Marie Shambaugh, Staff Writer
Some of the city’s most industrious minds will be at work next week building hovercrafts, creating social networking Web sites, and producing Hollywood-quality special effects.
These creative individuals will be hard at work when many of their cohorts are taking it easy, as many students do the first week of summer vacation. These bright engineers are graduating sixth- and seventh-graders, putting their brains back to work to learn about math and science disguised as fun.
Leadership Frisco Class XI presented its strategy to get middle school students excited about math and science at the Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly luncheon sponsored by FC Dallas and Pizza Hut Park on Friday at the Marriott at Legacy Town Center in Plano. Mindbender Academy, which will run from June 9 to 13, is the class project of this year’s Leadership Frisco participants, who graduated last week.
He said that the space race in the 1960s generated interest in science among students, but that today’s students are more interested in other types of non-technical jobs.
“At this point we’re really left with kids who want to be things that are not necessarily going to help solve world hunger or cure cancer,” Lofgren said. “It really frightened us as a group, and the more we talked about it the more it became clear that we wanted to make a difference there.”
The Academy will run from 8:30 a.m. until noon at Fowler Middle School and is open to Frisco ISD students going into the seventh and eighth grades. Cost is $100, and each day will provide a new opportunity for the students to learn about science and have fun at the same time.
The first three days of the academy will feature projects presented by Raytheon, which will include building a model race car, a hovercraft, and a robot, respectively. Students will learn how to create their own social network on Thursday through a presentation from Cisco, and on Friday the academy will wrap up with a presentation from Janimation on movie special effects and conclude with a pizza party.
Sanyo presented a $20,000 check to Mindbender Academy at the chamber luncheon, which will help grow the program. Chamber President John Land, who is also a graduate of Class XI, said that the program is expected to expand from half days this year to full days next year.
Leadership Frisco is a nine month program that gives potential leaders a chance to learn about the history of Frisco, meet city leaders, and learn about different departments and their projects. Graduates have been members of the City Council, Planning and Zoning Commission, Frisco Economic Development Corp., and other boards and commissions. It is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.
Each class must complete a project, and past projects include the Frisco Cares Chidlren’s Clinic for low-cost medical acute care, a Teen Court system, and the Clean It & Green It tree planting program.
“Over the last 11 years, every Leadership Frisco class project has either directly or indirectly benefited the young people of Frisco ISD,” Superintendent Rick Reedy said at the quarterly luncheon. “It’s a marvelous program and we always look forward to the education value where we can share a little bit about our school district.”
The next Leadership Frisco class will meet one Friday each month from September to May 2009. The class is limited to 20 participants who are at least 18 years old and have lived or worked in Frisco for at least one year before Sept. 1 of the current year.
For information contact the Chamber at www.friscochamber.com or 972-335-9522. For information on Mindbender Academy, visit www.mindbenderacademy.com.
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