Scribble Animation | Matt Nassar

Meet Matt Nassar, a Chattanoogan, an accomplished brand designer, and 3D animator who has worked with startups and Fortune 100 brands. From Nike to Snickers, Matt has led the art direction and animation for various campaigns amongst much more.

Scribble Animation is his community project. In partnership with CCA, Dynamo Studios, Tech Goes Home, and the city's Youth & Family Development centers, he will target high school students at Howard and CCA as well as low-income and historically marginalized learners of all ages.

With what? A creative, forward-looking curriculum and project-based learning coursework to teach them 3D animation skills. Our grant will be used for two main things: $2,395 will pay for a 6-month subscription to Disco, an online learning platform. Disco will allow Matt to create interactive course materials with online lessons, quizzes, multimedia, learning assessments, and track student progress and engagement.

The other part of the grant will be $450 to pay for a 2-month subscription to Maya, a professional 3D animation tool. The course itself will make use of Spline and Blender, both free and widely accessible 3D animation tools. This approach ensures the course remains free to all learners in Chattanooga who have access to a computer and an internet connection.

Bring on the tech!

The 21st Century Classroom | Nathan King

Nathan King is an elementary classroom teacher in Hamilton County, and a recent graduate of the Project Inspire Teacher Residency Program with the Public Education Foundation. His residency has helped him to imagine teaching and learning experiences that go beyond conventional classroom expectations. What does this mean? Well, our $3,000 grant will go to supply his classroom with 30 pairs of headphones and technology for three years via a subscription.

In his 5th grade classroom at Harrison Elementary, students will use high-quality headphones to adequately access critical content and learning materials in The Avantis World. Sounds cool, right? It’s an educational virtual reality theme park subscription which can be utilized in all core four subject areas: math, reading, social studies and science to provide an innovative approach to state-aligned standards. There are countless ways to utilize virtual reality to create engaging learning experiences that will spark imagination and curiosity in the minds of students.

Let's Get Digital | The Enterprise Center

As a program of The Enterprise Center, Tech Goes Home runs digital literacy programs throughout Hamilton County, partnering with schools, churches, and other organizations. They are focused on getting the residents of Hamilton County connected to the internet, at a time when being connected is more crucial than ever. For instance, Hamilton County Schools have switched to distance learning, but thousands of students can’t get online at home. Their work to get them online has involved close coordination with EPB and the school district to make sure each neighborhood has free Wi-Fi locations and that students have computers at home.

Another $1,250 went to 5 Chromebooks for students at Chattanooga Room In The Inn, a non profit who assists women and children who are experiencing homelessness. These Chromebooks will be used in a learning space to make sure that the children are able to continue their remote schoolwork. But it’s not just students who are affected by social distancing and the digital divide. $1,000 went to distribute 10 tablets to the AIM Center for members to access the services they need.

La Sala Digital | La Paz Chattanooga

La Paz Chattanooga is the leading Latinx and Hispanic community organization in Southeast Tennessee. Their mission is to empower and engage Chattanooga’s Latinx population through advocacy and education. They do this by connecting community members to resources that help them thrive, gain skills and become engaged in our community. Over the past two years, La Paz has expanded its classes and programs to include digital access and equity. Connecting low-income parents to digital tools ensures equal access to learning opportunities for their family. Barriers facing Latinx families extend into the realm of digital literacy. We can close the digital literacy gap and help individuals overcome barriers by providing Chattanooga's Latinx community with a mobile computer lab named La Sala Digital (The Digital Room).

La Sala Digital will have 20 Chrome books, thanks to a partnership with Tech Goes Home, the Enterprise Center’s digital inclusion program, complete with a charging station, projector and screen. The first project using the new equipment (plus an instructor of course) is a Citizenship Interview Preparation course in partnership with Tennessee Immigrant Empowerment Solutions. This is a 30 hour naturalization course that will be offered over 15 weeks and will help permanent residents prepare for their naturalization test. The second is the Plaza Comunitaria (Community Plaza) — a program in partnership with the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta. It will help United States based Latinx’s learn to read and write in Spanish and finish elementary and intermediate level education.

GreenSpaces | Green Prix

Ladies and gentlemen, start your (quiet, efficiently built electric) engines!

The UNFoundation is proud to partner with GreenSpaces to support Green Prix, a successful collaboration with eight local schools that began in 2017 and had teams of students building and racing electric karts.  The emphasis was on developing STEM skills and on the participants learning team building, electrical and wiring, alignment, and aerodynamics. Students at each school received a base Greenpower USA kit car with a chassis, wheels, motor and batteries with instructions to assemble the kits and then create a shell of the car using as many recycled materials as possible. We are excited that they are expanding to connect with 20 schools in the 2018-2019 school year and impacting more students in Hamilton County! Click here to watch the youtube video.

Proud Voter // Know Your Vote

Election season living in the South can be tough. We want to see progress for our neighborhoods, cities, counties and state. But sometimes it feels too slow and painful. We're doing two things to help make this November more exciting.

1. Proud Voter will use our $650 to help propel their efforts to get young Chattanoogans registered to vote. It's important. Did you know Tennessee is 40th in voter registration and 50th in voter turnout? The Proud Voter Campaign, is a non-partisan coalition of Tennesseeans, community groups and organizations supporting citizens through voter registration and voter participation initiatives. How exactly will we do it? Marketing. Buttons, flyers, tablecloths for the many events these volunteers already plan to attend before the upcoming election.

2. Know Your Vote will use our $2,350 to create and market an app, built by local tech powerhouse Skuid, to collate data and make possible the ability to compare candidates on key criteria to produce more informed CHA voters with the ease of their nearest tech device. Many voters in Hamilton County have a difficult time finding information on local candidates. We know we do. There is no centralized location with links to candidate websites and other sources, and traditional methods are reaching fewer younger voters.

Rivermont Elementary STEAM Lab Weather Station

Rivermont Elementary, a Title 1 school, is in the process of converting 2 unused classrooms into a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) lab where the kids and teachers can build, create, tinker, explore, and learn together—think science lab meets art studio. Construction of the lab is generously being provided by Strauss Construction with design by COGENT Studio and behind all of this is an illustrious principal named Nikki Bailey.

Our grant will fund the purchase of a Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus weather station. It combines science, technology, engineering and mathematics to deliver real time, real life daily lessons. This one station will track rain, wind, solar radiation, UV radiation, temperature and humidity data. The data will be available in every classroom allowing teachers to use the data in grade-appropriate lesson plans and tie the data into the school's gardening program, promote public speaking [enter weather newscaster] and ultimately make hardcore science approachable for young kids. $1,370 well spent.

Toyvention: An Adaptive Learning Toy Workshop

The Enterprise Center, in an effort to show off the new Edney Building have fueled something amazing. 225 toys were hacked to help disabled children of Chattanooga. Partnering with Signal Centers, Art/Dev, and PEF, The Edney Center hosted a day-long workshop to adapt new electronic toys for use by children with disabilities. During the workshop, volunteers took the toys apart, install adapted switches on them and then reconstructed them.  All 225 toys at the November 12 Toyvention workshop have been hacked and will quickly be placed in the toy lending library of Signal Centers, making them available for holiday distribution to families of children with disabilities.

The UNFoundation grant played a role in purchasing toys for this event. Even though our grant couldn't fund the entire project we were so pumped to be part of this inspiring and heartfelt project.