In late January, Chiaravalle Middle School students kicked off the first Media Arts Unit in partnership with the MetaMedia studio at the McGaw YMCA.

Chiaravalle Art/Maker Space Specialist Sarah Laing worked with Sam Phillips, MetaMedia Manager and fellow at Stanford University's FabLearn to create the foundation of a curriculum which integrates arts/design ed and new media. Students will gain experience with digital and fabrication tools while also exploring their own interests.

Day 1 of the 6 week unit started with a general overview of the program which will include woodcarving, photoshop, CAD, 3-D printing, digital animation, and green screen work. The kids designed portraits that then were scanned into computers and learned a program called Carvey and had their portraits carved into a digital wood fabricator.

MetaMedia is a free resource for students in grades 6-8 after school. Sarah's hope is that after this introduction, Chiaravalle students will take further advantage of the tools and resources to continue with personal projects on their own time.