Date: 05/16/2011

We have a fantastic lineup of presenters and performers for TedX AFS.

May 21

9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

$50, lunch included. Educators/Students $25. Seniors $35

Buy tickets here.

TEDx AFS is a day of talks, screenings and performances in the spirit of TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), a global set of conferences addressing a vast range of topics within the realm of science and culture. Past presenters at TED conferences have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Malcolm Gladwell and Richard Dawkins.

TEDx AFS taps into some of the great minds associated with our school. Tedx talks are brief (around 15 minutes), stimulating and entertaining. Plenty of time is also built into the day for discussion and lively conversation. Tedx is designed to inspire, energize and invigorate!

Check out our TEDx AFS website.
 
Master of Ceremonies, Chris Buzby
Abington Friends School Music Teacher Chris Buzby will emcee TEDX AFS. Chris received a B.Mus. from Moravian College and a M.Mus. from West Chester University. He currently teaches Instrumental Music at AFS, grades 6-12, and is the Seventh Grade Dean. A news junkie and fan of technology, Chris is usually attached to his iTouch, Mac laptop and the extensive keyboard rig he uses with his band echolyn, a progressive rock ensemble preparing to release a double-studio album later this year to celebrate their 22nd year of writing and performing together. Chris’ professional musical resume includes over 300 live performances in the US, Canada and Europe, nine studio albums, two live albums, a DVD and a career retrospective box-set.


TEDx AFS Presenters:

Marianne Mitchell
My Journey as an Abstract Artist
Artist Marianne Mitchell will speak about why she is an abstract artist, what she is trying to communicate with her work, what she has learned from being a painter and teaching others, and how her experiences have led her to Integrative Thinking. Mitchell will show images of her work as well as work by her students.

Marianne Mitchell received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She has studied painting in Japan and China as well as with prominent critics at the Vermont Studio Center. Marianne has exhibited in New York, Washington DC, Santa Monica, San Francisco, and Scotland, and has been represented in Philadelphia by Rosenfeld Gallery for 15 years. She is a guest curator locally and a visiting critic nationally and internationally. Marianne’s work is in numerous public and private collections locally, nationally, and internationally.

Medard Gabel
Globalization 101: The Earth Dashboard
"The world has a critical need to see itself as one interconnected whole,” says Medard Gabel. “Because of the interconnections of science, technology, economy, culture, environment, problems and options, there is an urgent need for a tool similar in purpose and function to a vehicle’s dashboard that will help everyone see the entire world as one interconnected whole.” This presentation will introduce the Earth Dashboard that is currently being built, and which will be installed at a variety of sites around the world, including at the UN in New York (as well as online). The Earth Dashboard will feature meters, gauges, graphs, maps, charts, live web feeds and other information visualization tools that will present a real time view of the world.

Medard Gabel is a noted author and speaker who marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama and worked with Buckminster Fuller for 13 years on Spaceship Earth and World Game endeavors. Medard has been designing, developing and delivering experiential educational programs since 1970. He is currently the CEO of BigPictureSmallWorld and BigPicture Consulting. His latest book is Designing a World That Works for All.
   
Justin Solonynka
Big Numbers
What makes a big number "big?" How can we better understand the barrage of statistics we get every day from the media? What does it mean that an event is probable or improbable? These are some of the questions Justin Solonynka will ponder in a presentation that features musings on probability as well as the Best Card Trick You Will Ever See — and is 99% sure to leave audiences with a greatly invigorated sense of numeracy.

Justin Solonynka has a B.A. in Mathematics from Lehigh University and teaches math at AFS. He is the recipient of several distinguished teaching awards. A professional musician (www.tinylightsmusic.com) who has recorded numerous albums and performed all over the east coast, Justin is also the author of a book of essays, Swine Before Pearls, published by Lehigh University.

Christy Green
If Schools Looked More Like Google
What would happen to education if our schools looked a little more like Google? What if they espoused Google’s principles; if they were information driven, connected, a platform for collaboration, with free (and nutritious) lunch, an 80/20 rule and a "Don't Be Evil" code of conduct?

Christy Green is a technology teacher at a public school in Medford, NJ. She has conducted many workshops for colleagues about technology and is an advocate for placing more advanced technology in the hands of our students. In 2008 Christy took part in the Google Teacher Academy in New York City.

Margaret Sayers
Close Encounters with the Confederate Flag
This presentation weaves together four brief stories in which the flag plays a central role. The stories are told from the speaker’s perspective as a “Southern white mother of two brown children.”

Margaret Sayers is a child and adolescent psychologist and an AFS parent. She regularly gives workshops on a variety of parenting topics. "I grew up in North Carolina in a very politically conservative family,” says Margaret. “By the age of eight, my parents had dubbed me a socialist because of my ceaseless questioning of racial and socioeconomic injustices that were evident all around me in the rural community where I was raised. My husband and I, both white, adopted two biracial children. This experience has personalized my experience of racism."

Joan Saverino
Mapping Memories in Stone: Italians and the Transformation of a Philadelphia Landscape
This talk recreates the artistic legacy of Italians who immigrated to Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Italian artisans contributed significantly to the built environment but their contributions have been largely undocumented. Approaching the landscape as an embodiment of memory and a search for meaning, the speaker reveals how houses, ethnic clubs, gardens, and their embellishments represent the interconnections of work, ethnicity and community over time.

Joan Saverino is an adjunct professor at Arcadia University in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice. She has worked for 30 years in education, museums and as a private consultant. Most recently, she was the Director of Education and Outreach at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania where she was the creator and founding director of PhilaPlace (www.philaplace.org), a collaborative neighborhood history and culture web-based project.

Bruce Schmit
Something(s) serious . . . Something(s) fun
Bruce Schmit will take us on an investigation of the connections/relationships between architecture and literature covering roughly 160 years from 1845 to 2005, from Transcendentalism to Errol Flynn (yes, the same one) to the 2002 Pritzker Prize and beyond and including the usual suspects of Emerson, Hawthorn, Thoreau, Melville, Louis Sullivan, Fl L Wright, Buckminster Fuller, Flynn and a host of others whose lives were variously connected.

Bruce Schmit is a Philadelphia based architect who has worked on five continents in the educational realm. He also has an undergraduate degree in music and was a symphony musician (French horn) for 11 years.

Joel F. W. Price and Dov Campbell
Remix Culture: Rising from the (M)ashes
From Shakespeare building on the work of Greek comedy to Muddy Waters reintroducing the music of black slaves to a new generation; literature, art and music has always been re-adapted, remixed and re-imagined. But copyright restrictions have made it increasingly difficult for today’s artists to build upon creative works of the past. In this presentation Joel and Dov will take you to the front lines of the copyright war where a generation raised on free mp3 downloads and YouTube, through its music, video, dance and technological innovation is attempting to bring us into a post-copyright era.

Joel F. W. Price (above left) is the webmaster and information manager at Friends' Central School in Wynnewood, Pa. An unabashed social media nerd, he has spoken to audiences about facebook, twitter and flickr use in education at conferences across the US. He has played mandolin, violin and sung in a folk trio, Ellipsis, since 1998. Dov Campbell (left) has worked in the technology field for 20 years and currently serves as a technology integration specialist and educator at Friends' Central School in Wynnewood, Pa. He has presented to US and international audiences about the use of multimedia and web-based tools in education, as well as having served as a learning fellow for Powerful Learning Practices, a professional development that allows educators to learn about 21st century learning and teaching.

Catalina Rios
Embracing and Accepting Change and Loss
Change and loss are essential to the human experience yet our resistance to both can cause great suffering and pain. In her Ted Talk, Catalina Rios will share her journey through loss and address strategies for embracing and accepting change and loss as gifts and opportunities for growth and personal development. She will share her poems and art work, both of which have helped to guide her journey. She will also offer insights into processes that can alleviate our resistance and suffering as we encounter change and inevitable loss.

Catalina Rios is the Lower School Spanish Teacher at AFS. She is also a poet and an artist. Catalina created “Cars”, a collaborative installation with visual artist Doris Nogueira that was displayed at the Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art. Her commissioned poem “Capture”, accompanied by a musical composition by Rolando Morelli, has been performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra Percussion Ensemble. Catalina has traveled to 10 Spanish speaking countries: Spain, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Mexico.

Dave Fry
The Philosophy of Folk Music
Folksinger Dave Fry demonstrates how singing, sharing stories and dancing together promotes trust and a richer sense of our place in society. From kids' playground tunes to family favorites, to good ole Rock and Roll, Dave involves everyone in this rich experience. His music features both traditional and contemporary folk music, spliced together with guitar, mandolin, banjo and wry,spontaneous commentary on American family life.

Dave Fry's work has appeared on PBS-TV nationally, winning best Children’s Programming in PA in 1991 with his RockRoots program. His Play Guitar with Dave Fry, an introduction to acoustic guitar was released on PBS-TV in 2005 and has been broadcast on over 150 stations. His I Like Peanut Butter CD won Best Re-release from the Children’s Music Web in 1999. Dave has been associated with Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern PA for many years, and has been named Master Artist by the state of New Jersey and Teaching Artist by the state of Connecticut, as well. Dave also founded and was Artistic Director of Godfrey Daniels, nationally recognized folk club for 25 years.

Jon Watts
Let's Be a Body
The majority of life on this planet consisted of single celled organisms. What did the moment look like when they first got together?

Jon Watts (www.jonwatts.com) is a Quaker spoken poet and songwriter. His two Quaker albums, recorded when he was a student at Guilford College and later Pendle Hill, have been shared widely among Friends. Jon tours the East Coast (sometimes on bicycle!) and has shared his music and message with many Friends schools. He is currently recording his third studio album, about Early Quakers and nakedness.



Jule Anne Henstenburg
Vitamins: Science and Myth
We all know that vitamins are good for our health, but are more vitamins really better? New discoveries in nutrition science show us that too many vitamins may be as harmful as too little. Take a journey into a human cell to understand how vitamins work including how some interact with our genes for both positive and negative effects. Discuss current trends in our food supply that put vitamins where we may least expect them to consider what you can do to get the “right amount” to stay as healthy as possible.

Jule Anne Henstenburg, MS, RD, CSP, LDN has a BS in Nutrition from Pennsylvania State University, a MS in Nutrition from Cornell University, and is currently a PhD student in Health Policy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. She has held positions in research, business, health care, and academia and is a Registered Dietitian and Licensed Dietitian-Nutritionist in the State of Pennsylvania. Jule Anne is a co-author of Fit as Family: A Guide to Working Together for Health and Fitness and is currently Director of the Bachelor of Science in Nutrition Program at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.


Explore our TEDx afs website, learn about TED and TEDx, and buy tickets! The day will start at 9 a.m. and run until 5 p.m., with plenty of time built in to engage with the speakers, talk to one another and learn.  

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