Polet Espinoza’s favorite memory of her East Oakland school’s new STEM lab was creating her own version of the mobile video game “Flappy Bird.” The 12-year-old placed individual pixels to form images, transforming obstacles in the game from green pipes into snow-covered trees, and adding mountains and vines to the background. The game’s iconic yellow bird became a white duck with three eyes. “I learned how to do pixel art and learned how color theory works,” Polet said. “It was…
Children shrieked and ran from puzzle to puzzle, their parents in tow, faces covered in blue cotton candy. Expecting worksheets or practice tests, they were excited to engage in the colorful math activities displayed across seven tables in the Laney College student center Friday evening Among the favorites was a game of colorful plastic shapes that children snapped together to make three-dimensional figures. One child made a hexagonal box with a top that opened and closed so he could put…
For the past year, an exhibit at the Oakland Black Panther Party Museum has educated visitors about the community school model that was launched by the Panthers in 1973 and has since been incorporated into every Oakland Unified School District building. Recently, the exhibit’s reach was expanded, thanks to the efforts of a Madison Park Academy student and the nonprofit Ocelotl, which worked to translate the exhibit into Spanish. “The Black Panther Party, they brought communities together, and I feel…