Maddie Nagler is using her passion for education to help launch the nonprofit Education Now 2.0’s latest project, the Tiny tiny Houses Now (TtHN) competition. The competition uses a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) based curriculum and focuses on solving real world problems with project-based learning.

The TtHN competition will feature middle school students across New England competing to create the best scaled-down models of tiny homes using the STEAM-based curriculum they learned in the classroom. The winning group of students will build an actual tiny home based on the model they created. The home will be awarded to a deserving recipient such as a homeless individual, a veteran, or a FEMA disaster victim.

Nagler, a Brookline native, joined Education Now 2.0 as an intern in June of 2019 and has been working with founder and president, Carmel Valianti. Maddie has helped develop the TtHN curriculum and competition. Pilots of this program have already begun, and EN2.0 will be running pilots of this program with local schools through fall 2019. “I love working with Education Now 2.0 because I think it’s so important to find creative ways for having curriculum actually reflect modern learners. Everyone learns differently and Education Now 2.0 acknowledges that and works to create lessons that allow students to think in a variety of different ways,” Maddie said.

Nagler is a graduate of Brookline High School, and is currently a sophomore at Wesleyan University. She has been involved in nonprofit work for many years prior to joining the Education Now 2.0 team. Nagler previously served as a volunteer in Arusha, Tanzania in Africa where she was filming a documentary about The Small Things Orphanage.

Maddie also co-wrote and taught a curriculum encouraging students of color to study journalism during their k-12 education.