June 30, 2005

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

Cure for the common summer: ‘Extreme Learning’

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

In this era of reality TV, there are plenty of extremes. A glance at any night’s viewing pleasures offers whole-body makeovers, extreme sports, extreme home remodels and even extreme choppers.

Kenny Calhoun likes it—that is, the Extreme Learning animation class.

But one school in Almaden is taking extreme to the next level. It’s called “Extreme Learning” and it has the students of Simonds Elementary School urging their parents to sign them up for summer camp.

“I’m delighted to have this program available to our Simonds families and those throughout Almaden,” said principal Linda Kakes. “Technology is such an important facet of our program and of our students’ lives. It’s great to see our Silicon Valley kids keep up with the exciting opportunities technology provides.”

The extreme summer camp gives students the opportunity to explore the worlds of science, technology, art and academics. Extreme Learning Center is contracted by San Jose Unified School District and Simonds is one of six in the district to offer the dynamic program which promises to “ignite passion for learning” and “a cure for the common summer.”

Offering a wide variety of program Simonds students learn robotics, animation, Web design, digital photography, computer programming, math besides good old reading and writing.

“It’s really cool,” said student Ajay Nichani. “We each have our own laptops and we’re working on a Web site. We even published it on the Internet. It’s great.”

The Extreme Learning Center provides the laptops, digital computers, software and all the equipment needed to make the summer camp an enriching experience for the students. And with instructor to camper ratios of one to 10 or fewer, the hands-on experience provides extreme academic support.

Fifth grader Brent Jones is excited about returning to summer camp.

Brent Jones is all smiles and excited about returning to Simonds’ extreme learning summer camp.

“I was here last year,” said Jones. “I wanted to take animation and Web design. We built a robot in robotics last year. I want to do that again.”

In the digital photography class, students become experts in the medium. The savvy kids take photos around the Simonds campus and are now busy creating digital scrapbooks, postcards and calendars with Adobe Photoshop elements software. Seventh grader Michelle Wang is fine-tuning a perfect yellow rose photograph she took of the campus garden. She plans to create a postcard to send to a friend.

“It’s a cutting-edge software program,” said Extreme Learning Center manager April Worley. “We use top of the line technology for all our classes. Simonds is really focused on enrichment of the students’ academics.”

Many students sign up for the robotics curriculum. After the eager students build their custom automated vehicles they program the miniature autos with a computer program. Sensors direct the vehicles; stopping at black lines on the race track, some even enhanced with musical programs.

Mitch Goble and Andrew Nelms formed a partnership to work on their robotic auto. Back and forth it speeds with a flip in the middle. They call it “the acrobatic.” Competition in the class is fierce to see whose vehicle will run the longest without breaking apart.

Next these kids will be navigating a rover on Mars and all from behind a computer. Now that’s extreme learning.