Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation will unveil a house today in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood that was largely wiped away by  Katrina floodwaters. The house is different from others that were rebuilt after the hurricane: It floats.

The Float House is a new model for flood-safe, affordable and sustainable housing that is designed to float securely with rising water levels. It is the brainchild of Morphosis Architects and its founder, Thom Mayne, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.

"We rethought the idea of a house in terms of the potential conditions of the flooding that took place in Katrina," Mayne tells Melissa Block.

He says the designers gave the building a chassis, made it out of polystyrene foam and covered it with glass-reinforced concrete.

(Read the story or listen to it at NPR)

Students from a team at West Philadelphia High School are the only teenagers in a field of about 90 teams from around the world hoping to win the $10 million Automotive X Prize for their innovative hybrid car designs. The prestigious international competition requires entrants to build cars that get at least 100 miles per gallon, can be mass-produced, and are safe and reliable. The urban teens are hot off the heels of other impressive wins for their Hybrid X team.

The field of contestants, many based in Universities, will be reduced by about half on Oct. 19 -- a cut the Philly team is confident of surviving. The final winner will be decided in 2010.
(Continue reading at Reuters)

The West Philly team provides a powerful example of how urban young people can impact climate change and create important roles for themselves in the new green economy, especially because the West Philadelphia High School serves one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city.

The High School’s Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering combines students and teachers with support from business and higher education partners organized by Philadelphia Academies, Inc., to achieve unprecedented success.

The West Philly team has built and raced electric, hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles for the last eleven years. As entrants in the Tour de Sol, they outperformed university teams and production vehicles, winning the competition in 2002, 2005 and 2006. In 2007, they won the 21st Century Automotive Challenge. The team’s participation in the Tour de Sol, in particular, has equipped it to undertake the much larger challenge of the X PRIZE. 

Watch the video below about the team, produced by America.gov...

Learn and be Inspired: FuelOurFutureNow.com features activities for grade levels K-12, as well as high-quality videos, virtual labs, and other interactive resources intended for use from the classroom to the living room.

On July 22 1941, before her family had gone into hiding, Anne Frank is captured on film during the next door neighbor's wedding festivities. She is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on film.

The couple gave a copy of the film to Anne Frank's father.

(Read more at Mashable)

When Kevin Stroughter was 8 years old, he was burned over more than 80 percent of his body. He was given a 50-50 chance of survival.

Now 17, he credits athletics for helping him overcome the physical and psychological challenges of being a burn victim. The California senior at San Juan High School is a solid student and one of the best athletes on campus.

He'd much rather talk touchdowns, rebounds and 100-meter races than scar tissue, skin grafts and the past. "I don't want to look back. I want to move on."

(Continue reading at the Sacramento Bee) 

Photo courtesy of Sun Star; Thanks to Laurie Slothower for submitting the link!