In 2019, Traci Tackett helped organize the very first Remake Learning Days festival in Eastern Kentucky. After great success, she lined up 100 events for the following spring. Then COVID-19 interrupted all opportunities for in-person learning, including the entire 2020 Remake Learning Days Across America festival.
After hosting a hybrid version of the festival in 2021 that was primarily made up of virtual events, Tackett is excited to host a full in-person Remake Learning Days festival with 70+ events this year from April 22 through May 1. This year’s festival theme is for families to “wonder” together as they explore the many hands-on learning events.
Getting kids and parents together for in-person learning is incredibly valuable, Tackett says.
“Kids have become disassociated being in groups, outside of their homes and within hands-on activities. While virtual is fun and helped us learn a lot of good things, families need to be learning things and finding passions together,” says Tackett, regional lead for RLDAA in Eastern Kentucky and director of digital literacy at Bit Source. “Remake Learning Days is a breath of fresh air, because it allows parents to see what their children are learning at school and it also exposes the families to different jobs.”
This year’s Eastern Kentucky festival features many new events to help introduce students to different career opportunities in their area. In the past, the majority of events have taken place in schools and libraries with several cultural events that would teach the culture of Appalachia.
NEW EVENTS FOR LOCAL FAMILIES
The festival is growing this year with the addition of “Mountain E-Day.”
Mountain E-Day will focus on different types of engineering in four different local venues. Bit Source, a former Coca-Cola bottling plant that’s now home to a tech business, will host different booths for engineers, including representatives from NASA, Toyota and more, who will offer hands-on activities.
And Appalachian Wireless Arena will host several big exhibits, including a spintron machine and a candy-shooting robot, which were both made by local engineers. The engineers will walk children and families through these projects.
E-Day will also showcase solar cars built by high school students and a STEM bus full of all kinds of STEM equipment.
Though E-Day is the big new addition this year, the festival will also feature multiple other fun-filled events. The University of Pikeville will have a “physics zoo” full of 50 hands-on physics activities. And Appalachian Center for the Arts will show off all the different ways engineering can be used to put on a show.
Tackett, a quilter herself, says she’s most excited about the arts activities. In 2019, Tackett recruited a quilt shop to host a quilting event for the children and families. Over the years, the business gained a new customer base of children and parents. And these local families got more deeply connected to the art of quilting. Now in 2022, Remake Learning Days will feature events at not one but four quilting shops.
5 events to look forward to in Eastern Kentucky this April 22- May 1:
- E-Day Collective Event, think of this almost as a mini-festival within the festival!
- Quilt Shops: Children and families can learn how to sew, quilt and other homemaking skills.
- Pike County Libraries’ Events: Pike County Library has five libraries dispersed throughout the county. Each library will host multiple, unique events for children and families to attend.
- East Kentucky Science Center’s events for students with autism and sensory deficiencies: The Science Center has teamed up with a parent organization to create an event centered around students with autism, sensory deficiencies and special needs.
- The Challenger Learning Center’s STEAM events
“Remake Learning Days has really helped bring our region together,” said Tackett. “This year we have events in counties we’ve never reached before. We want to show students why this is important through connecting what they are learning in school with the events held at Remake Learning Days.”
Remake Learning Days Eastern Kentucky is made possible through multiple local partnerships including universities, the arts, Appalachian Wireless Arena, businesses, local schools and the media. Eastern Kentucky is a close-knit community that comes together for community festivals.
Many thanks to the national sponsor The Grable Foundation and national partners — Remake Learning, PBS KIDS, Common Sense Media, Learning Heroes and Digital Promise — for their generosity and commitment to family-friendly festivals.