News

March 14, 2009
Make: Day at the Science Museum
Saturday, March 14 is Make: Day at the Science Museum! This event will feature makers from around the Twin Cities and projects and hands-on activities presented by IDEA Coop youth. The event runs from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Stop by and see us!

February 25-27, 2009
ITEST Summit
Kristen Murray and Kristen Poppleton represented IDEA Cooperative at this year's ITEST Summit. The Summit was a meeting of all of the ITEST-funded projects across the country (over 100!). It was a great opportunity to learn and share from others who are doing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education projects, both in school and out of school.

While there, we met with staff in the offices of Senator Klobuchar and Congresswoman McCollum to talk about the work we're doing at the Science Museum, and the importance of STEM education during after-school and summer time.

May 5, 2008
Open House at Saint Paul College
It's been a busy spring, and we're looking forward to celebrating moving into the new IDEA Lab space at Saint Paul College and showing the cardboard furniture made by Invention Crew on Wednesday, May 21, from 3-5 p.m.. Find out more.
Design Team Recruitment Continues
Group interviews for youth interested in joining the Design Teams this summer are coming up the week of May 12. Interested youth going into 8th or 9th grades should call Kristen P at 651-221-2516.
Invention Crew Sketching and Building
Invention Crew just completed a two-day workshop on drawing and using Google SketchUp software, hosted by Carlos Perez and Eric Ketelsen. They are currently working on designing and building modular cardboard furniture for the IDEA Lab space.

March 27, 2008
Getting Up to Speed on the News
The last three months have flown by with the hiring of the inaugural members of the high school team, as well as two youth program managers. Dan Haeg is working with the high school team and Kristen Poppleton will be working with the middle school teams that begin this summer.
Move to St. Paul College
On Tuesday March 11 we made the official move up to our space at St. Paul College. It is an exciting time as we pull together furniture, computers and other personal touches that will make the space ours. Currently Invention Crew is perfecting the art of cardboard furniture design for use in the room.
Americorps
We are in the recruitment phase of hiring two Americorps volunteers to work with us for the summer and one that will be working with us throughout next year. If you know anyone that is interested they can find out more at
CTEP's site.
Middle School Recruitment
During the last week of April and first week of May we will be working on recruiting two volunteer Design teams of Middle School youth from Cleveland, Washington, Battle Creek, Hazel Park and Humboldt Junior Highs. If you know of any youth that may be interested please contact Kristen Poppleton at 651-221-4532.

January 12, 2008
IDEA Cooperative staff are scheduling interviews for the first Invention Crew (high school) team, after receiving a lot of great applications. The team will be starting up in early February!