Take Note

Stories in conjunction with Take Note: Our City. Our Schools. Our Future. — an in-depth look at education in the Kansas City metropolitan area, where we are, how we got here and where we need to go.

two young women at work, one on computer, one with a pencil

Grading the Soft Skills

It’s the time-honored question from students: when are we going to use this in real life? But as we have seen in this season of Take Note, schools are increasingly focused on the “soft” skills that are relevant for the workplace, such as critical thinking and team work. That brings up another question for the…

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Are School Buildings Obsolete?

A “school without walls” is typically a euphuism for a building that substitutes collaborative learning for the standard approach of stationing teachers in front of a classroom full of students. But the internet age has brought us to a point where walls literally are superfluous — where students do their work online as part of…

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kids gardening

Ride the Wave: Preparation for the Real World Should Include a Sense of Uncertainty

In some respects, life is like an ocean — vast, unpredictable, and a little scary. That imagery came courtesy of Katie Kimbrell, director of education at the Kansas City Startup Foundation, which works to foster entrepreneurism throughout the city. She actually boiled the idea of the real world down to one word: ambiguity. And as…

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a man and his son talking on camera

Reimagining the School of the Future at Maker Faire KC

Organizers call Maker Faire the Greatest Show (And Tell) on Earth, and Kansas City held its eighth annual version of the international event at Union Station in June. The two-day faire drew crowds to celebrate all things creative — from science to art and anything in between. As part of our Take Note education project, and in conjunction with…

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Reimagining the School of the Future at Maker Faire KC

Organizers call Maker Faire the Greatest Show (And Tell) on Earth, and Kansas City held its eighth annual version of the international event at Union Station in June. The two-day faire drew crowds to celebrate all things creative — from science to art and anything in between. As part of our Take Note education project, and in conjunction with…

Read More >

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