What Does Tincan Do?
Tincan uses information technology and interactive media for education and community development.
Current Newsletter
From the Executive Director:
Karen L. Michaelson, Ph.D.
Last month we announced the award of $2.2 million in grants to Tincan from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). The goal of the grants is to increase use of broadband technology in Spokane through greater access to public computer centers and innovative training. Each month, we'll give you an update on where we are on the project. Thus far, we have met with our partner organizations and begun to hammer out a schedule for implementing the project. We've sketched out a preliminary training schedule, which we'll be able to announce by later this month.
One of the objectives of BTOP is job creation and retention, and we have created our first job. We hired Ryan Brown as a full-time employee with BTOP funds. For the past six months, Ryan worked for Tincan through WorkSource's Next Generation Zone. His computer skills and great work ethic impressed us, and he joined our staff in January. Ryan will continue to assist with our video production programs as well as utilize his computer skills setting up the public computer center labs under the BTOP grant.
Please donate to our Annual Fund and help us continue our successes. You can send a check to Tincan, 827 West First Avenue, Suite 121, Spokane 99201, or make an online donation DONATE NOW!
Thank you for your generosity. |
When former Tincan intern Meredith Kanago returned to Spokane in January, she spent time with Tincan's after school science programs for girls. Now a graduate student in epidemiology (the study of diseases in populations) at Emory University in Atlanta GA, Meredith shared her experiences at Emory's Vaccine Center working with vaccine clinical trials as well as with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) on outbreaks such as the H1N1 epidemic.
Ann Warner and Eric Roal's Science Reporters Club at Bowdish Middle School has taken on the conflict over wolf management as their science reporting project. Wolves were removed from the federal Endangered Species List in May. Since then Idaho Fish and Game has been the lead agency in wolf management. Wolf hunting seasons have been set in Idaho, causing controversy among many people in the Inland Northwest. One recent Monday afternoon, the club debated the issues, with half of the participants believing in the inherent balance of the ecosystem and not supporting hunting wolves while the other half condoned the hunting of wolves to keep the wolf population at bay. The girls will interview citizens and scientists and research the scientific foundations of wolf management as part of their project. Their final video project will be posted online at http://www.tincan.org/sciencereporters. The ten Science Reporters's clubs are funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Tincan's student of the month is Jessica Fray. Jessica is a sophomore at East Valley High School. She is involved in the WIBIT program at East Valley, jessica fraywhere she polishes her interests in design and film by making career videos with the East Valley High School group. The creative fields are where Jessica wants to be. She is planning on studying culinary arts at the Art Institute of Seattle and one day opening her own restaurant. In her spare time you'll find Jessica on her new Macbook, which she got for Christmas. She also has a thing for dancing, which the rest of the WIBIT club has enjoyed watching!