Next.cc and the creative minds behind this comprehensive resource have provided impactful learning experiences for youth at the Chicago Public Library for several years. These thoughtful and inspiring DIY lessons and resources can be used in a variety of ways to engage youth around environmental and design issues. The content here is nearly boundless and provides such an inspiring way to explore both what and how to learn. Linda Keane, the mastermind behind this resource, is a powerhouse educator and thinker who has brought so much energy and passion to environmental education.
I began working with Next.cc years ago while in college in Milwaukee, and am now an interior architect in Chicago. Design is strongly present in both my professional life and personal hobbies, and I love that this website shares design and imagination with others. It is a fantastic tool for everyone, especially our upcoming generations! It's interactive and enjoyable to use - and teaches such incredible information. Chicago and Milwaukee are lucky to have this as a resource
Next.cc is an online e-learning non profit platform which helps all the teenagers across the world. By attending a lot of workshops the Next.cc lead, I met a lot of talented young teenagers from different backgrounds to work on one project together. No matter where they come, they all get inspirations here. At Next.cc, I see teamwork, creativity, kindness and care of environment. I believe this is what we need for current learning and design environment.
Next.cc is a helpful website. The website is a great tool to explore outside of ones personal's profession. As a lighting designer, I always work with other professionals, but I don't really understand what they think. Next.cc helped me to understand other profession's language and not be left behind. Also, with the variety of journeys, it makes me think how I can improve our living environments and societies.
NEXT CC is an amazing organization, I was lucky to be a volunteer for NEXT. NEXT is devoted to the dissemination of architecture and design education. It also proposes unique architectural and design concepts from the aspects of environmental protection and water resources utilization. It is widely disseminated in the form of workshops and lectures from teenagers to older people. Bit by bit spreads the new power of environmental protection.
This is an amazing non-profit that supports educators and artists. It is one the few organizations that combines science, sustainability, art, and music. A wonderful innovative nature of this organization is truly remarkable,
To better explain our experience in the "partnership" with NEXT.CC you need some background about our organization.
To start, my name is Marcelo Caplan, associate professor in the Department of Science and Mathematics - Columbia College Chicago and Director of the program Scientists for Tomorrow (SfT). SfT provides access and opportunities to undeserved and underrepresented communities to learn and promote themselves in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) serving more than 40 communities (children and parents) in the Chicago Area. We provide on-site STEM hands-on curriculum where the participants build STEM oriented projects. (www.scientistsfortomorrow.org)
In our quest to provide also a "high quality and free" online complementary set of activities for our children and parents we started a deep search until we discovered NEXT.CC
We explore their journeys that includes many topics, developed in a level that progressively attract children to explore a topic they like, and then, have opportunity to delve more into their selected topic and with it develop a “passion”. This passion was enabled by the possibilities that NEXT.CC offered.
Then, the next step was obvious: to contact NEXT.CC leader, Linda Keane, and establish a partnership. The goal of the partnership is to provide to our children a combination of real world hands-on experience with e-learning to allow them to grow and explore in their own pace.
Working with Linda we develop and adapt some journeys and now we are developing two new journeys: The Smart Grid and the Renewable Energies journeys. Working with Linda, and the team of NEXT.CC is a pleasure and an inspiration. They are really dedicated to promote ACCESS to all.
To close, I will like to say that for us in Scientists for Tomorrow, it is a pleasure and an honor to have NEXT.CC as a partner in our quest to facilitate STEM for ALL!!!!
Next.cc offers an exceptional set of STEAM-related resources that can easily be integrated into existing classroom curriculum.
I have had the pleasure of interacting and collaborating with the founders of Next.cc for quite some time. Their dedication and sense of what is required to engage, inform, and empower 21st century learners are right on target.
I attended a lecture workshop on playground design by Linda Keane of NEXt at the Design X conference in Chicago in 2015. I was so impressed. I've worked in the field of collaborative public art and space design for many years and I found her approach to be so organized and refreshing. The National Visual Arts Standards adopted in 2015 include this prompt for designing objectives for K-12 curriculum: "People create and interact with objects, places, and design that define, shape, enhance, and empower their lives." The workshops and website resources of NEXT CC INC provide the kinds of support that art educators need to educate the citizens of tomorrow about the possibilities of taking an active role in designing spaces for public life. Olivia Gude, Angela Gregory Paterakis Professor of Art Education, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
I was initially introduced to Next.CC at the 2016 NAEA CONFERENCE in Chicago while attending a workshop dealing with STEAM by Design. My interest in STEAM is as a result of my belief in the importance of cross curricular teachinng as well as the importance of the inclusion of the arts in a truly comprehensive model for effective learning. My high school is looking to become the 1st STEAM high school in Minnesota and that added impetus for my attending this particular session which turned out to be the highlight of my experience at the Conference. I was totally amazed and intrigued by the massive amount of well thought out resources and lesson plans that NEXT.CC provided and have subsequently shared those resources with the STEAM Steering Committee that I am a part of at my school. I also reached out to Linda Keane after the Conference and have asked her to be a resource for us as we begin to take the necessary steps to integrate the STEAM centered approach to the transformation of my high school which she has volunteered to do. Finally, I have to say that since I was first introduced to the STEAM concept several years ago at my state level art education conference (AEM), by our then keynote speaker Georgette Yakman from Virginia Tech, I have never found as complete and thoroughly developed resource as NExT.CC is for the creation of a sustainable and meaningful STEAM based curriculum model.
NEXT.cc provides valuable tools for teachers and students that help student LEARN about over 250 different topics! Each subject area includes an introduction, terminology, activities, references to additional information, and a chance to test what's been learned. A Chicago Public School teacher informed me that she LOVES NEXT.cc because it gives her students a resource, besides her, to investigate subjects of interest and/or address areas of confusion. And above that, the site is FREE. Students can even post their work and share it with other members around the world, inspiring creative interchange not otherwise available!