Today: We talk to Michigan City Area Schools Superintendent Barbara Eason-Watkins about the school district's "1:1" (one-student, one-device) high tech expansion program that includes Chromebook computers for students. The program, supported by grants from the community and other sources, gives Michigan City students a chance to organize and enhance their work and stay engaged through "blended learning": the process of combining digital and traditional learning. The program's picked up another "Innovators Award" for the school district from the Society of Innovators in Northwest Indiana.
We talk to LaPorte minister Nate Loucks, the director of the Pax Center, about the Christian center's efforts to fight food insecurity in the community through its facility in downtown LaPorte. Pastor Loucks also gives up the detail of their next big project: the Brighton Street Green Space. It's now in the planning stages.
We bring you another conversation from the Welcome Project at Valparaiso University. And Jesse Kharbanda, the executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, joins us to talk about the organization's concerns about plans by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to do away with the Obama-era "Clean Power Plan." The HEC says that the Hoosier State has the nation's second highest potential (on a per capita basis) in renewable energy manufacturing -- which would be hurt by the repeal of CPP.
