Education

Visit WSKG Education at STEAMfest

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Build a robot, make a fidget spinner out of recycled plastic bottles, listen to plants as they make music, create a flying critter with LED light-up eyes, explore fossils, 3-D printing or discover how to power Broome County’s carousels with the wind! STEAMfest 2018 brings together afterschool/out-of-school-time providers, makers, business and industry to highlight Science, Technology, Engineering Art/Agriculture and Math career pathways for young people and innovation throughout our region. STEAMfest 2018 features a huge variety of fun, interactive “maker” stations where young people can learn about exciting STEAM careers through hands-on activities and learn what they need to study in school and college to prepare for these careers. STEAMfest will be held Saturday, October 20, 2018 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Oakdale Mall, Johnson City, NY. Be sure to visit the WSKG station featuring a Bob the Builder inspired activity! This is a free event open to the public.

amy dickinson
Books

Celebrate ‘The Great American Read’ with Amy Dickinson in Owego, NY

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You’re invited to a special event celebrating the hit PBS series The Great American Read! Amy Dickinson

Join us on Wednesday, October 10th for a one-hour screening of upcoming episode ‘Other Worlds’, mingle with literary-minded guests, and hear remarks from author and Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me panelist Amy Dickinson. Partner organizations including Riverow Bookshop, Tioga Arts Council, Family Reading Partnership of Owego-Apalachin, and School Librarians of the Southern Tier East. This event takes place at Ti-Ahwaga Performing Arts Center, 42 Delphine Street Owego, NY. Doors open at 6:00pm.

Education

'Being Poor: Dope, but no Hope'

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The Connect: NY series explores statewide issues of critical importance with monthly, one-hour panel discussions. This episode, ‘Being Poor: Dope, but no Hope’, continues to focus on poverty by looking at those with drug addictions and continuous illegal drug usage and how their situations often spiral into a circumstance where they are living in poverty.  While much of New York State, and much of the nation has been dealing with an opiod crisis, young people in the Southern Tier face the additional burden of a stagnant economy.  Many attribute the staggering rise in opioid addiction and deaths to a lack of hope about the future. Panelists joining the show:

Dr. Indu Gupta, Onondaga County Health Director/co-chair of the Onondaga County Opioid Taskforce

Professor Dessa Bergen-Cico, Fellow of the American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders, Associate Professor Department of Public Health, Syracuse University

Alexis Pleus, Mother who lost her son to drug addiction/Founder of TruthPharm, Inc., a national advocacy 501c3 non-profit organization. Truth Pharm, based in Broome County, is working to raise awareness and reduce the stigma associated with substance use disorders, and advocating for policy change to improve treatment options

Stephanie Campbell, Acting Executive Director, Friends of Recovery – Albany, New York. Watch this new episode on Monday, March 27, 2017 at 9:00pm. 
Join us as we uncover compelling and unexpected stories throughout New York State and the history and systemic forces influencing current realities. Connect: NY is produced by WCNY (Syracuse, NY) and aired in partnership with WSKG.

Education

'Being Poor: Real Stories of Poverty in 2017'

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The Connect: NY series explores statewide issues of critical importance with monthly, one-hour panel discussions. This episode, ‘Being Poor: Real Stories of Poverty in 2017’, takes the viewer into the world of poverty to look at the choices both the urban and rural poor must make every single day. Watch this new episode on Monday, January 30, 2017 at 9:00pm. 
Join us as we uncover compelling and unexpected stories throughout New York State and the history and systemic forces influencing current realities. Connect: NY is produced by WCNY (Syracuse, NY) and aired in partnership with WSKG.

Education

Food Bank of the Southern Tier's 'Backpack Program' Honored for Helping Students

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Champions are the people or organizations that care for and believe in our community’s youth.  The Food Bank of the Southern Tier is recognized as a local American Graduate Champion by WSKG for its work on the BackPack Program.  The Backpack Program began in 2005 with the mission of filling the gap left on weekends when children are not able to access meals through the National School Breakfast and School Lunch Programs.

During the 2014-2015 school year, the BackPack Program™ served 41 school districts in Broome, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, and Tompkins counties. Over 2,500 children received packs each week. A total of 89,783 packs were distributed. Here are a few highlights from the BackPack Program’s 2014-2015 Executive Summary:

“I liked getting this because we don’t have much food at home.”

Education

New Data on National Graduation Rates Point to Need for Community-Based Solutions to Dropout Crisis

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New data on high school graduation rates released by the U.S. Department of Education underscore the continued need for innovative, community-based solutions highlighted by American Graduate, a local/national public media initiative focused on improving high school graduation rates. The Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics showed that the graduation rate for the nation’s class of 2014 reached a record high 82 percent, an increase of 1 percentage point from the class of 2013’s graduation rate. Graduation rates for several student demographics rose as well from the class of 2013 to the class of 2014, except for American Indian and Alaskan Native students, for whom rates remained virtually flat. But significant gaps remain, particularly between white students and their black and Hispanic counterparts, and economically disadvantaged students. The data follows the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (or ESSA) on December 10, 2015, the first major national education overhaul since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.