Flying Cloud Institute announces $2,500 in funding from the Agnes M. Lindsay Trust to provide scholarships for its Sâ¢Mâ¢Art Summer Studio program. The funding will provide week-long explorations in art, science, and nature for five students, ages 6-14, residing in Berkshires County, who meet income requirements for financial aid.
The program runs June 28 through July 30 at Greenagersâ April Hill property in South Egremont and founders Jane and Larry Burkeâs farm in New Marlborough. Child-led projects and activities include ceramics, science investigations, visual art, dance, theatre, outdoor exploration and play, engineering, and robotics.
Flying Cloud Institute seeks to raise additional funds from individual donors to make summer program experiences possible for more children, regardless of their ability to pay. Visit flyingcloudinstitute.org/donate to make a donation of any size to help children in need.
PITTSFIELD â Maria Rundle has been a big-city union organizer, a small-town school committee member, the development director for a residential therapeutic facility in the Berkshires and an instructor in an alternative education program at a public school in Ithaca, N.Y.
That s a pretty varied educational resume. But, it has come in handy at Rundle s current position. Since 2017, the Richmond native has been executive director of the Flying Cloud Institute in Great Barrington, which provides a variety of educational programs for young people in various formats that use science and art â two seemingly contradictory disciplines â to inspire creativity in its students.
The Flying Cloud Institute is offering its Young Women in Science summer program from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, Aug. 2-6, at Berkshire Community College. The week-long exploration will give female-identified youth, ages 9 to 16, the opportunity to investigate science and engineering topics, alongside peers who share a love of inquiry and discovery.
Participants will engage in science, technology, engineering, and math topics in a professional laboratory setting, with guidance from practicing, women STEM professionals. Girls will be encouraged to engage with science topics, from chemistry to ecology to engineering and physics, on a deeper, more creative level as they develop their own research design and work through hands-on projects to solve problems and explore hypotheses.
South Berkshire Art & Science Sessions Available for Children
This summer, Flying Cloud Institute will once again offer sessions of the S•M•Art Summer Studio program at the Greenagers’ April Hill property in South Egremont and founders’ Jane and Larry Burke’s farm in New Marlborough. Sessions begin June 28 at the April Hill campus and run through July 30 of this year. Programs start at 9:00 am and end at 4:00 pm each weekday during one or two-week sessions.
The curriculum is geared toward children aged 6 to 14 years. Child-led projects and activities in the program may include ceramics, science investigations, visual art, dance, theatre, outdoor exploration and play, engineering and robotics. Students may sign up for more than one session without repeating projects.
STEM in the News - Berkshire County
Berkshire Eagle reports on Middle School Fairs in Berkshire County
Berkshire STEM Pipeline and its partners participated in the first annual MA STEM Week during the third week of October, 2018. See coverage here, here, and here
Northeast Public Radio covers BCC STEM Program open houses for STEM Week including MassTeach, a joint STEM Educator initiative with Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
Berkshire Eagle reports on the inaugural year of the Girl s Inc. Eureka! summer science program, which was in part supported by MCLA and the STEM Pipeline, August 3rd, 2018