Here are the infomercials each of the teams produced from the Envisioning Now design studio. Oculusspy by Tiah Camillo & Joseph Randles:

This past December, NuVu students attended and volunteered at the

Inspiring INK

by Tess Anderson 12/07/11 Being at INK I was so inspired and had so much to say about everything that I felt as if no words would describe the way I was feelingIt was an overflow of amazement, inspiration and determination. I was amazed at how people like Babar started his own school at age 8 with kids in his backyard. I was inspired by people like Aisha who was brave enough to talk in front of the world about how she is dying. I was determined to make changes in the world like John Hardy has with his green school. The INK conference made me want to do more with my life. It opened my eyes to realizing how much is out there in the world and the impact people can have on the world. As a child, I always thought that when people said they were trying to save the world they were just kidding or pretending to be a big shot. But, after listening to such powerfully inspirational men and women, I have started to grasp the understanding of what it actually means to save the world.

Memorization and More Memorization

by Tess Anderson 12/14/11 Ill give you a feel for what the kids were like. They go to school from 7 in the morning to 9 at night. When we first introduced ourselves to them they were all standing in a straight line. The culture is very interesting here; the kids are taught SUPER traditionally. A 7 year old kid would be better at pre-calc than the smartest boy in our grade, but when asked if there is oxygen inside your hands when you cup them together they would say no. They are only taught in forms of memorization and formulas and have no sense of imagination. They dont know what make believe is. This makes it hard to relate to the kids, but makes it extra fun since its more challenging and interesting.

Games for Learning

by Tess Anderson 12/17/11 The whole reason why we went to the village was not only to test the physical games we came up with but also the smartphone app we created. Just to give everyone reading my blog a background of what I am talking about, I will explain what exactly we created to be here in India today. Last spring I did NuVu and at this unbelievable program we created an app for Android phones for kids in India. A total of 9 boys and girls made 6 separate apps, which were educational games for children in the urban slums of India. We were partnered with Gali Gali Sim Sim (the Sesame Street of India) for this project and they gave us guidelines of what our games had to teach the children. This set of guidelines included a list three pages long with different concepts that Gali Gali Sim Sim tries to teach children through their cartoon. The 9 of us were split up into 3 groups of 3 and we all had to choose 3 of the concepts on the list that Gali Gali Sim Sim provided to us. From there we spent 2 weeks creating our apps and determining how they would work. We did not physically create it, but we came up with the game and how it works and what each screen on the phone would look like. From there developers came into NuVu and LOVED our ideas. We were more than thrilled. They decided to create our games. They only made 2 apps that had a combination of everyones games in them. They are now available on Android cell phones.



We are here in India introducing the games to the children to see their reaction and fix all the glitches along the way. Yesterday was the first day we brought the apps to the children in the village we are working atWe had never showed it to anyone other than the people here on our trip. It was SUPER exciting and amazing to watch the kids play the games. They LOVED the games; they just couldnt get enough of them. When we were playing our physical games that we came up with to play with them (the multiplication game and so on) there were around 40 kids in the park area we were playing in. But, when working with the kids and the technology, we had to work inside in an enclosed area so that it was a controlled environment to work in. When it was my turn to play with and observe the children interacting with the phones and our apps I was blown away. It was so unbelievably cool to see the apps we made in the hands of the kids we made them for. I couldnt believe that our apps were actually being played with in India. I couldnt believe that our millions of massive white sketched on papers had come to life into real apps on the Android. This has been the coolest part of the trip for me. It has topped everything from INK since this is something we actually did. We might actually be able to have an influence on the kids now, through the games that we designed specifically for these amazing children.

Back Home

by Tess Anderson 12/22/11 Now, being back home, back to continuing my life where I left off, I am changed. I know this may sound ridiculous, but its true. The way I see the world is changed. I used to think of the world as some beautiful place where most people were happyBeing in India, I saw too many children without families living alone on the streets and having to face the world on their own. I feel so incredibly lucky to be a part of such an amazing healthy family. I am fortunate to be able to have access to as many meals a day as I wish. I am fortunate to have friends to hang out with and to have amazing teammates on REV who always support me. Most of all, I am fortunate to have opportunities like the one I just had. I would never have been able to go to India if it werent for having such an amazing education. I am happy with where I am today in my life. I just wish that I could do more for the world and the people around me who are unhappy.

15 Studios, 15 NuVu Coaches, 35 Teachers and 240 students from across grades 3 to 8...welcome to "Day 9" in Mumbai!

This week, our NuVu team is in Mumbai, India collaborating with the American School of Bombay to run the grand "Day 9" at their campus. Day 9 is a successful prototype day that began at the American School of Bombay a couple of years ago as a day when students are given a free day in their schedule to participate in hands-on projects. This year, NuVu worked with ASB to organize 15 mini-studios across different topics ranging from architecture and alternative energy to wearable electronics and data visualization, and work with their students, grades 3 to 8.

During Day 9, ASB's Elementary and Middle School teachers will partner with Coaches from NuVu, to guide and instruct multi-age teams of students in learning through their design challenge projects.

Documentary by Garret Ekpunobi, Anthony Richardson and Isabelle English In this documentary, NuVu student Anthony Richardson walks around Central Square in Cambridge, MA exploring local businesses and asking locals about the changes Central Square has endured in the past 5 to 10 years. But why do we care about these changes? Through interviewing local business owners and employees, Anthony learns that Central Square used to be a run-down area where nobody had any desire to shop, eat or just hangout. He also learns that the current rumors of the dangers posed in Central Square should be dismissed due to recent developments in safety regulations for the area. The documentary explains the transformation of Central Square over the years, how it has improved, and how it can be further improved in the future.

Song and Video by: Alonso Richardson and Andrew Simpson Studio: Food For Thought This music video called "Sure Thing (remix)" was made by NuVu students in the "Food for Thought" filmmaking studio. The video takes a satirical view on the fast-food culture. Alonso and Andrew cleverly bring attention to the ailments caused by fast-food dining through catchy humorous lyrics and a great musical beat.

Design-Build Team: Izzy English, Ginny Hollingsworth, Alex Jacobs, and Taylor Pierce Our group began the Dancing Robots studio with conflicting ideas. Some members wanted to replicate the NBA player, John Wall, while others wanted to replicate a popular YouTube video called the Revolution of Dance. As a conclusion, our group decided that we could combine our two ideas. At the beginning of last week, our plan was to create a robot that resembled John Wall, but who would do the dance in the YouTube video. Our character in the prototype took a turn and ended up becoming a combination of several NBA players, instead of just one; however, we plan to make our final robot resemble just John Wall. For our final robot, we are planning to have it wear a John Wall jersey (that we are creating in Photoshop). This aspect of the appearance will create a more recognizable factor that will differ from our prototype. To express emotion, our robot will have built in LED lights on his jersey. The lights will be turned on when he is excited and dancing, and off when he is unenthusiastic and motionless. The robots eyes will also have the same effect to express even more emotion. As we learned throughout the process, all the dance moves done in the YouTube video were nearly impossible to recreate into our robots dance, so we had to choose carefully which moves we could recreate using a limited amount of servos and time. All of our dance moves which consist of the YMCA, Robot, Hand Banger, Jump on it and of course, the John Wall Dance, use the same, or similar servo movements. Our process in choosing these five movements was challenging because we were not familiar with building with servos, using their movements, or our restrictions using them. But, once we jumped that hurtle, we began building with cardboard and double-sided tape. After we placed all the servos in the correct positions and fed the wire throughout the robot we created, our team began to program each dance move individually. Our prototype was made out of cardboard, and we definitely learned that using this material was not the best choise if we wanted our robot to stay together through the dance. Our final robot is made out of plastic and held together by screws and wire. Currently, we are in the process of deciding which color to spray paint our robot and what other details we need to add to really portray our desirable personality for him. We have created about ten body parts out of plastic that have been put together to resemble an old school robot. Each body part is a rectangle that is attached with servos that represent joints. We believe that in the future, building a robot will be much simpler for several reasons. Throughout the process we have come across several different challenges, technical difficulties and team disagreements that we had to overcome. Next time any of us build a robot, or something similar to it, we believe that we will approach it with not only a more experienced prospective, but a more positive and endearing one. We also have learned so much about building with technology and programs that in the future, it will seem easier due to the knowledge we have gained through building our John-Wall-Bot. Our original plans were extremely ambitious, so naturally our end result was not everything we had hoped for and imaged. But as with anything, we learned that working our hardest as a team to create something we all imagined and something we all had the capability to endeavor made our end result, our robot, something to be extremely proud of. By Izzy English

Students are wrapping up their final designs for the NuVu Fantasy Fashion Studio.

And whats even more exciting is that Jay Calderin, the founder and director of Boston Fashion Week, stopped by to look at the designs and take a few pictures!  The final designs draw on a wide variety of concepts ranging from a garment that filters air for the wearer, Greek mythology, and even a re-imagined version of Japanese school uniforms.  Coaches Carlos Villamil and Jenifer Stark have encouraged students to draw on their interests in order to conceptualize their projects.  Villamil described Calderin's visit, "Jay [Calderin] was very impressed with the designs especially considering the short span of time that the students have had."

During the Government 3.0 studio, NuVu students explored ways that Government can push technology forward to improve the world around us, including some of our public amenities. The team of Sophie Weissbourd, Emily Lynch and Jilly Hughes looked at ways to improve the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts area. The idea behind their proposal is to increase revenue for the MBTA while offering beneficial services to its riders. The two main components of the proposal include the E-Z Vending Machine and CharlieCard App.

E-Z Vending Machine

The touch screen vending machine is able to go inside the Commuter rail trains and in train stations. There are four main screens that have images of food, drinks, reading material, and electronics. Ordering from the machine is like ordering from online. You choose what you want and then a total appears on the bottom screen. People can delete what they do not want then check out when they are finished. This way it will take less time for people. People can choose to pay using their credit or debit card, cash, CharlieCard, or using the CharlieCard app. On the side of the machine is a coffee, tea, and hot chocolate dispenser. Milk and sugar packets are available and are dispensed in the main bin. Trash and recycling disposal are available in the machine making it less likely for trash to collect on the trains.

CharlieCard App

The CharlieCard makes the MBTA easy to get around Boston quickly. It is more efficient then paying in cash each time you ride. Even though the CharlieCard is easier then using cash it is still a little bit difficult to handle. People have to put money on their card frequently and update it if it expires. People can also add money to if from an online account but then they would still have to update it with a machine in a train station before they use it again. Instead of going through this, people could have an app on their smart phones that would carry the CharlieCard. The app would have a bar-code that could be scanned. This would be instead of having the actual plastic or paper card.