[IAEP] Gould grant statement of work

[Walter Bender]

I was asked to repost the Statement of Work for the Gould grant. Please see
below:

Description of the specific project for which funding is requested,
including goals and objectives.

This grant would support Sugar Labs in implementing a pilot of the “Sugar
on a Stick” program at the Gardner Pilot Academy (GPA) in the Allston
neighborhood of Boston. Sugar itself is in use in tens of thousands of
classrooms around the world, but this would be the first school to make
Sugar available to children using inexpensive USB memory sticks instead of
laptop computers. If successful, it will serve as a model that will greatly
expand the reach of Sugar and the pedagogical models upon which it is based.

Sugar Labs has created a system that can store Sugar and a computer
operating system on a 1GB USB (memory) stick. Each student will be provided
with a preloaded stick, which they can simply insert into any computer,
restart, and be immediately connected to their personal suite of
collaborative, creative and Web 2.0 learning tools. Students will have “any
time, any computer” access to learning. A server at the school will store
and back up student's work allowing students to easily receive a new USB
stick in case theirs break or is lost. Sugar on a Stick also comes with
journal and portfolio assessment components that allow teachers and parents
to monitor student work.

If funded, our Gould Foundation project will allow us to provide each
student at Gardner Pilot Academy with Sugar on a Stick. Students at the
GPA, as at many other US schools, need greater and more affordable access
to computing. Sugar on a Stick allows students to use Sugar on computers in
the classroom, at home, at grandma’s, anywhere and everywhere there is a
computer. By deploying it on a USB stick we believe we have the potential
to easily reach an order of magnitude more children than are currently
being reached by one-to-one laptop programs.

Sugar is a completely different visual experience and so we recommend that
you watch a demo of the program in action to get a feel for how it's
different from other computing experiences. We offer you a link to the demo
created for an exhibit on design at the Museum of Modern Art:
http://www.sugarlabs.org/index.php?template=gallery&page=media_01

There are hundreds of different, free, open-source activities and books
that can be added to Sugar (www.activities.sugarlabs.org). These include:

word processing

artistic expression by creating graphics and rich media

journals and portfolios to use for reflection, assessment, and discussion

web browsing and interactive web activities

playing as well as making movies and music

reading electronic books

creating and playing games with other students in their class

programming


The Gardner Pilot Academy is the flagship full-service community school
within the Boston Public Schools (BPS). The school's vision is to educate
the minds and develop the characters of all students in partnership with
families and community. To achieve this GPA provides high quality teaching
along with a range of social, emotional and enrichment programs delivered
by means of partnerships with an array of community organizations and
individuals. Over the past twelve years, GPA has developed strong
associations with four universities, several health and mental health
agencies, the YMCA, and various organizations teaching visual and
performing arts. As one of just 20 pilot schools in the BPS, GPA is exempt
from district mandates. Therefore, GPA has autonomy in the areas of budget
and personnel, along with the freedom to implement innovative curricula,
assessments, and interventions.

GPA is located only a few blocks from Harvard Business School and so is
convenient for project development participants who may be students at one
of Boston’s many universities.

The school currently has a single computer lab with older computers running
Windows 2000. We will be soliciting donations of used equipment from local
business to supplement these existing resources. Sugar can be used at all
elementary levels and curriculum areas.

Sugar is free software, based on Linux and licensed under the Gnu Public
License (GPL). All the software, documentation and curriculum we create
during this project will be freely available to anyone to use, improve, and
redistribute.

regards.

-walter

--
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org
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