Magenta House goes to school

We are delighted to announce that Magenta House has become an official project of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for the 2023/24 school year. The program is supported by LAUSD and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Classes are enrolling now for launch in the first quarter of the new year.

“Pando’s Magenta House program is an exciting expansion of LAUSD’s education and awareness offerings,” says Will Meade, LAUSD Senior Sustainability Specialist. “It creates an opportunity to meet a crucial need for the youth of LA to become changemakers and leaders in the pursuit of a more sustainable region.”

Magenta House is a middle-school program that challenges students to invent water and power conservation and efficiency projects for implementation at home, school, and community. Projects are judged in a competition, with winning submissions honored at the Pando Sustainability Awards in April of ‘24 at Caltech.

The program was piloted in the spring of 2022, with twelve teachers and administrators from 4 schools committed to the program. In all, 11 teams, 82 students, and 2,800 hours of learning time delivered 9 ingenious projects for water conservation and power efficiency, 

The Magenta House 2023-24 season kicks off with outreach to all LAUSD middle schools over the fall term (fun fact: there are more students in the LAUSD system than there are residents of the California capital city of Sacramento). The program launches in January with our trademark brainstorming Blitz across classrooms and concludes with the Expo showcase and awards event in April.  

“Too often theory is siloed off from practice,” says program developer Alexi Carcotsios. “Students are unaware of why they are learning what they are. Many get bored, cynical, or simply uninterested in their studies. Magenta House combats that by giving students, and their teachers, the tools they need to take charge of their education and develop self-efficacy.” 

To learn more, go to MagentaHouse.org. If you like what you see and want to get involved, let us know! We’re actively recruiting mentors now with a broad range of knowledge and skills to help students create competitive submissions. 

And if you’re a teacher, sign up your class! Go here. Reach out to alexi@pandopopulus.com for more information.

The future has never looked so Magenta.