14 of the Most Inspirational Kids of 2012

Hello boys and girls,

  I found this great list of 14 of the most inspirational (and certainly innovative) kids in 2012. As I read more about these kids, I realized that some of the accomplishments happened in 2011, so the list isn't totally accurate, but it's so good, I had to share!

  Take some time to watch the slideshow and/or click on the links below to learn more about the kids Mashable deemed the 14 most inspirational of the year. You'll certainly recognize their #1!

  Do you agree with their list? Who else would you add? Would you change the order?

  I was thinking, maybe this could be the topic for our next news show...what do you think?

1. 10 year old American Caine Monroy - the namesake of one of our degus and a personal hero in Room 209 - created the inspiration for our Cardboard City, the Cardboard Arcade! People donated nearly $250 000 to a scholarship fund in Caine's name and a charitable foundation pledged to match those donations, dollar for dollar, to help start the Imagination Foundation!

2. After Hurricane Sandy, 11-year old American, Jacob Hughes heard that kids in New Jersey and New York couldn't go trick or treating. He took all his candy, packed it up and sent it to them!


3. Kelvin Doe lives in Sierra Leone and gets electricity in his town once a week, if he's lucky. He has had NO lessons or instruction in engineering and is completely self-taught and loves inventing. He created a battery from metal and wire scraps to "power lights in people's houses".

4. 17-year old American, Nithin Tumma is a teen scientist whose reserach on slowing the growth of cancer cells will lead to better treatments and maybe a cure for breast cancer!

5. 15-year old American, Clara Ma wrote an essay to NASA and got to name the Mars rover! She is responsible for choosing the name "Curiosity"! Her essay is below.

Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. When I was younger, I wondered, 'Why is the sky blue?', 'Why do the stars twinkle?', 'Why am I me?', and I still do. I had so many questions, and America is the place where I want to find my answers. Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder. Sure, there are many risks and dangers, but despite that, we still continue to wonder and dream and create and hope. We have discovered so much about the world, but still so little. We will never know everything there is to know, but with our burning curiosity, we have learned so much.

Do you think Jack was excited when he won one of the world's largest Science Fairs?

6. 15-year old American Jack Andraka invented a low-cost, non-invasive, ultra-sensitive test to identify pancreatic cancer in its early stages.



7. 12-year old Justen Beer from the Netherlands is a breakdancer whose short film went viral this summer. He plays a young boy who was having trouble at home and at school and turned to dance. His appearance in a short film is stunning and reminds us how important the arts are for ALL kids to express themselves.

Adam Cudworth, his camera, his contraption and one of his incredible photos!

8. 19-year old American DIY engineer-photographer Adam Cudworth launched a camera 20 miles into the atmosphere with a high-altitude balloon and took amazing photos of the Earth. He shows us that almost anyone can do space exploration with a little ingenuity and not that much money!

9. 14-year old American Julia Bluhm started a online petition urging Seventeen magazine to stop editing photos of young girls. She collected so many signatures that Seventeen magazine's editor in chief listened and agreed to never change the shape or size of a girl's face or body in their magazine! That's serious Girl Power!

10. 16-year old American Marian Bechtel shared her Landmine Detection Research at the White House Science Fair! Hip Hip Yeah for girls and Science!

11. 4 young Nigerian girls, Duro-Aina Adebola (age 14), Akindele Abiola (age 14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (age 14) and Bello Eniola (age 15) created a urine-powered generator that can turn a litre of water into six hours of electricity! Quadruple Hip Hip Yeah for girls and Science!

Cardboard City - a Work in Progress!

We finally "broke ground" on our Cardboard City after a long "City Council" meeting on Wednesday. Each student or group of students had carefully planned and proposed an attraction for our target audience, the four Kindergarten classes in the school. The Room 209 students came up with incredibly creative and innovative ideas and supported one another with great suggestions and pieces of advice. After the meeting, the students were thrilled to get their hands on the cardboard. We dug in and below, you'll see the beginning stages of our Cardboard City.

Just a few days before school began, Matt helped me get the room set up. Once upon a time, it looked like this.

...and now. it is FULL of cardboard!

Thanks to all the wonderful donations from families and friends of Room 209, we accumulated an immense amount of cardboard for our Cardboard City.

Kaleigh hard at work, painting the backdrop for "Pond Domination".

Pat, surrounded in what Tiiu, our classroom neighbour would later describe as "the most epic classroom mess" she'd ever seen! Remarkably, we got it all cleaned up, only to do it all again a few days later!

Reilly's working on a ticket dispensing machine.

Millie is making a stable.

This is the team constructing Jomel Arcade.

Camden and Jack are making an art game.

Wait until you see how amazing this Safari ride is looking now!

Haydon was just getting his creative juices flowing here. Things got really good next time he got working!

Believe it or not, these are the beginnings of a spaceship.

It's a little difficult to get at the cardboard, there's so much of it!

After Shauna's box cutter blade broke, the kids were on their own with scissors. It was much slower going that Shauna (or our Guest Teacher, Eric) whipping through the thick cardboard with the blade. Shauna's mission this weekend - get a new box cutter!

This creative process takes a lot of concentration!

...and teamwork!

...plus, some flexibility!

Innovator - Caine's Arcade

Welcome to your first period in the computer lab, students! When you come in to the computer lab, there will be tasks for you here on our class blog. Some of you watched this video "Caine's Arcade" last year. Please take 10 minutes to watch it once again or for the first time today during class. Caine inspired so many people that there has been an updated film made and a foundation started in his honour. Check out what the "Imagination Foundation" is up to. How are YOU inspired by Caine's arcade? You can leave a comment here and share your ideas of what you can do now that you've been inspired by this amazing nine-year old innovator and inventor!