The City of Irving ranks among the top of the list of the best run cities in the United States according to 24/7 Wall St., a popular financial news source.

In applauding Irving, the City was recognized for having a double AAA bond rating from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investor Services, as well as having low unemployment and violent crime rates.

“Irving has become a lone star model of fiscal achievement,” said Irving City Manager Tommy Gonzalez. “When great news like this spreads across the financial online networks, it certainly helps support our economic development and relocation efforts.”

Source: City of Irving

By Sissy Courtney

Team Smileyface, sixth and seventh graders from Coppell Middle School North, won the Strategy and Innovation Award at the 5^th annual North Texas FIRST LEGO® League (FLL) Championship Robotics Tournament Jan. 12, at The Hockaday School in Dallas where they competed with 54 other teams. North Texas FLL started with 202 teams, but the others were eliminated in previous events.

One segment of the competition involved a robot designed by the group that could complete designated tasks.

“It is supposed to do missions on the boards such as quilts, pushing the dog, a ball game and bowling,” Smileyface team member Alex Wu said.

The other segment of the competition required the team to design an innovative product to help senior citizens improve their lives.

“The theme of the tournament is Senior Solutions,” said parent coach Vieven Moore. “What particularly interested them was fall prevention, because they learned that over a million seniors fall each year and that there are thousands of fall related deaths each year. As they were looking into how to prevent seniors from falling, the issue that interested them the most was the role that body condition and muscle mass had to do with increasing balance and stability to keep them from falling.

“They found that when seniors got to the point where they used motorized scooters, they start losing leg muscle mass because there is no activity. They get mobility to go where they need to go, but they start losing that muscle mass and the ability to walk.

“The group designed a scooter they called Scoot and Smile,” Moore said. “It is a scooter powered by mechanical energy. The rider is able to peddle the scooter so instead of just mobility, they have mobility and activity which helps to keep them strong. Their design has a gear ratio just like a bicycle, so if a person does not have a lot of leg muscle, they can still power it. They also have something in their design that disconnects the wheel from the peddling, so you can park the scooter in front of the TV and peddle without it moving.

“Having strong muscles is not an issue of age; it’s an issue of activity. If we can keep people active into their senior years, it improves their quality of life; it keeps them stable and keeps them from falling. The purpose of Lego League is to get students thinking about solutions for improving life.”

The Coppell team has been together since fifth grade.

The tournament provides a competitive platform where students ages 9-14 apply teamwork and their classroom knowledge of science and technology to complete a project challenge and compete in mini-tasks or missions using robots that are individually programmed and built by each team out of LEGO^®s.

Developed by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) - a nonprofit organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology - FIRST LEGO® League teaches real-world problem solving through engineering design and teamwork. In 2008, the Perot Museum became the affiliate and operational partner for the North Texas Region, and coordinates and oversees all FLL events for the North Texas area, including the Championship Robotics Tournament.

Includes Perot Museum Press Release

As part of a $125,000 grant from the Texas Education Agency, the Irving ISD technology department will be giving away wireless hotspots called” MiFi’s” to qualifying families who do not have internet access. 

Through the TEA’s Technology Lending Program, Nimitz High School students began picking up their MiFi’s, Jan. 17 in the school Library.

The district has about 300 Mifi units to give out and will plan future distribution dates at the other highs schools.

Source: Irving ISD

By Phil Cerroni

North Lake College's video technology department students in June Owen's Workshop 1 & 2 classes put their skills to the test on the semester's final project: writing, producing, shooting and editing a short film. What started last semester an experiment in teamwork, has become a fully integrated part of the department's curriculum.

“[It] is the third major project that the Workshop 1 & 2 students do,” instructor June Owens explained. “It's a major short film. We have a huge crew, and we usually have an excellent camera.”

Getting everything ‘camera ready,’ makeup artist Rhonni Hill prepares an actress for her close up. Courtesy Photo.One of Owens' favorite aspects of the assignment is it allows students to gain hands on experience with equipment they normally would not have accesses to until they embarked on their professional careers.

“We have great equipment at North Lake College, but I try to give them a chance to have an experience with a big camera like an Alexa, which they do feature films on, or a 35 mm camera, so they actually work with film,” Owens said.

Until the spring 2012 semester the final workshop project was not a fully vested part of the curriculum, but Owens decided that the workshop could be restructured to better serve her students by reorganizing the course in order to nurture the collaborative spirit essential to working in the film industry. North Lake College’s video technology students work with professional equipment work together to capture the perfect shot for their short film. Courtesy Photo.

“I'd always walk into the classroom,” Owens continued, “and say, 'Look around you; this is your crew. These are the people you are going to work with, even when you graduate from this program.' Dallas is a top ten market, but it's a very small community.”

The workshop's first film, Lucky Red, was a roaring success. Not only did the students take to it, but Panavision lent them a 35 mm camera, and MPS Studios in Dallas gave them the use of a dolly.

“After I did the first [film] as a group, the students all said, 'I feel like I know everyone in this room; I feel like we're a team,'” Owens said.

Owens believes the industry support of the film was based, in large part, on the potential that professionals see in North Lake graduates.

“Everyone in the Dallas knows that 98 percent of [students] work in the industry when they graduate. They believe in the students,” proclaimed Owens proudly.

After their experience during the spring, MPS was more than willing to help the students again and gave them access to an Alexa camera for their next film, Change.

An instrumental character in the success of this particular program is former student, Dillon White who wrote and directed Lucky Red. After graduating, White took a job at MPS where his professionalism and hard work helped foster the studio's healthy relationship with North Lake.

Creating a new film, Payden Collins (2nd assistant camera), June Owens (North Lake College instructor) and Chris Martin (teaching assistant) work behind the Scenes of the short film, Change. Courtesy Photo,Owens' workshop is not the only part of the department that has changed in the past few years. The entire department has expanded into a new building jam packed with state-of-the-art facilities. Owens gleefully related that, before moving to the site, the department's studio was located directly beneath the jazz band's rehearsal space, rendering it almost impossible for students to have a quiet studio session.

With this increased access to technology, Owens continually challenges her students not to forget the principles that are the backbone of their work.

“I see so many bad films being made with big budgets,” Owens said sadly. “Being a documentary artist myself, I'm a strong believer in social media and YouTube. A lot more is possible now, but [students] need some schooling to learn the theory.”

Owens is sure the education at North Lake gives graduates an excellent preparation for industry work.

“We do both [art and craft]; we blend it. I stress real life in my classes. I will tell [students], if you're late to a set, you're fired. If you're sitting around a set, pick up trash. I teach it real. When my students are out there, they’re going to perform.”

But Owens made it clear that the true purpose of her student's education is to turn them into the next generation of storytellers.

“With so many bad movies being produced, it's important that this generation of film-makers starts to tell the stories that are worth telling. Stories that make people THINK, feel, cry, laugh, reflect ... and that is what these students are doing ... creating a body of work that will allow them to work in the real world and make something of substance and quality for the audience to see.”