Introducing Binikou ~ The Human Powered School

[turil.livejournal.com]

Binikou is an innovative and award winning educational program, based in Somerville, that is founded on the principle of helping young people apply their natural passions, interests, and abilities towards finding simple, practical ways to raise the quality of life for everyone on the planet, so that we're all healthy and able to be as AWESOME as possible!

Binikou will support teams of people, of all ages, locally and globally, as they work together to RESEARCH, DESIGN, and SHARE solutions to helping people get more quality nutritious food, clean water, fresh air, warmth, and light, and to find ways to more effectively use extra human resources. The plan is to offer both local workshops as well as an online global wiki full of solutions to share with everyone in the world.

Think of it as a combination of Wikipedia, Instructibles, and one of those cool science-geek camps for kids. Binikou is open to all ages, with a focus on giving young people age 4-19 a space to be as amazing as they want to be.

We're having a free Human Powered Workshop at the Somerville Public Library on August 21st from 2-4pm, if you, or some kid you know, wants to explore science for a better world!

The main website is coming soon, and for now, check out the blog at www.binikou.org for more information.

Comments

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

I'm not able to access the blog right now, but this is interesting.

We have a daughter who will be school-aged in 2 years. Does this take the place of a traditional education cirriculum (e.g. instead of sending her to public school, would this be a full time school option)? Is there a tuition?

What is your acceptance criteria?

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

typo in subject line

[turil.livejournal.com]

Whoops! Thanks for letting me know. :-)

[turil.livejournal.com]

"The plan is to offer both local workshops as well as an online global wiki full of solutions to share with everyone in the world."

I'd love to see whole schools use this as a platform for their classes, but Binikou itself is more of a traveling program, and soon-to-be online space for all ages to teach and learn together.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

no problem! :)

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

If this school is "human powered", what are other schools powered by?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Puppy power. Scrappy Doo had to find something to do after he was fired.

[turil.livejournal.com]

It depends on how you look at it. Human Powered School is simply a name, really, indicating that the focus is on the power of humans to do awesome stuff. :-)

But if you want, you could go deeper and think about it as being in contrast to schools that are structured by bureaucracy and governments and such. Or you could take it more literally and think of it as a school where the goal is to use human power more than other kinds of power (petroleum or coal, for example) while people are teaching and learning. Though that's probably only a tertiary element of the program right now, especially since much of the program is going to be on the internet.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

It's been well established that Scrappy Doo became addicted to meth after he was fired.

Other schools are clearly gerbil powered.

[ron_newman]

I see some overlap with other local projects such as Sprout and Corvid College and Artisans' Asylum

[anyee.livejournal.com]

This sounded really cool, as something for a math and science teacher to do. Then, I noticed it was turil's project and it became anathema. Can you dissociate yourself from it so it isn't bad?

[turil.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, people who know me online don't know much about my kids/teaching stuff, which is indeed pretty cool.

As for disassociating myself from it? Not until my baby is strong enough to make it on it's own. :-)

[blinkidybah.livejournal.com]

Lol that was EXACTLY my thought process.

[bombardiette.livejournal.com]

Mine too. I posted before I saw the OP. It would have been an interesting concept, especially if it supplanted a traditional schooling method (why I like Montessori...but can't afford it), but the fact that is' associated with this individual makes me disinclined to learn anything more at this time.