For Fall 2011

Nobelity in Schools empowers students with knowledge about pressing global issues and provides inspiration and opportunity for student-centered social action.

• The Nobelity WebQuest--a great way to explore global issues

• Local Acts/Global Impact--Social Action Projects

• For Teachers

• Join us on facebook!

An inspiring global journey, One Peace at a Time looks at the possibility of providing basic rights – water, nutrition, health care, education and more — to every child. The film features the insights of Nobel laureates Muhammad Yunus and Steve Chu, American icon Willie Nelson and many others. A great introduction to the new Nobelity WebQuest, an online exploration of global issues connecting your classroom to the world. 

Lesson Plans

Share your work on The Nobelity WebQuest to be considered for The Spotlight!

Service Requirements

United States Scouting Service Projects
http://usscouts.org/usscouts/awards.asp

Girl Scouts of America Highest Awards
http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/highest_awards/index.html

National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society
http://www.nhs.us/Content.aspx?topic=28332

Service–Learning Ideas and Curricular Examples (SLICE)
http://www.servicelearning.org/service-learning-ideas-and-curricular-examples-slice

Testimonials

About Local Acts/Global Impact Senior Service Day 2011

The seniors were amazing and showed great leadership skills. Everyone really stepped up and got the kids focused-- we all know how hard it can be to get middle schoolers motivated- and the seniors did an awesome job. I really hope that Westlake High and CARY can coordinate work in the future because I think our students really responded to the seniors as role models. Please pass on the positive feedback to your seniors- they were awesome! I am excited to have future leaders like them out in the world!

Amanda E. Greenfield--Council on At Risk Youth

Your students were engaging and a true joy.  I believe that they gained a lot of information about the issues that come up in people’s lives and this new awareness will help them prosper as well as work as active bystanders in the lives of future friends.  Thank you so much for including Safe Place as one of the placement sites for your Senior Service Day.

Benne’ Rockett--SafePlace Austin

More than a good feeling film...
Turk and his family are truly making each day count, and this film shows that you don't have to be Bill Gates to make important, life saving change or to increase the economic viability of a community by supporting a few special organizations that provide children and communities with basic rights--clean water, nutrition, education, to name a few. We don't have a lot, but now we are supporting a group home in India via Austin's own Miracle Foundation for the cost of a good haircut and color each month. We are addicted to Kiva and all our $25.00 loans have paid back or are current. Watch the film and find your passion as Turk and his family have found theirs.

Awesome for adults and kids alike!
"One Peace at a Time" is a follow-up of Turk Pipkin's movie "The Nobelity Project," in which he interviewed Nobel Prize laureates all over the world about the major problems facing the Earth and humanity. In "One Peace" he highlights people and organizations that are doing something about these problems--nonprofits like The Miracle Foundation and A Glimmer of Hope, people like Willie Nelson. Each segment tells a story, and while the movie covers some very serious topics, at the end the viewer is left feeling hopeful and inspired and ready to go out and do something good in the world themselves. It's appropriate for children - even my 8 year old daughter got something out of it. We saw it last Summer and she still talks about it a year late.

Provides framework for understanding world problems
I feel lucky that I had the chance to see this film.
Early in the film the 6 human rights of children were listed:

1. the right to clean water
2. the right to adequate nutrition
3. the right to health care
4. the right to an education
5. the right to a stable loving environment
6. the right to live in conditions of freedom and dignity

Then the question was asked about each right: "Why and where is this right violated and what are the solutions?" This provides the organizing framework for the rest of the film. We start by going to places with inadequate water supplies. We get to visit with the women and girls who spend hours every day carrying water. Then we get to see how the problem of clean water distribution is being addressed. Next we go to places with inadequate food supplies and learn about the causes and solutions to hunger. The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is because the producer didn't bother to provide English subtitles. Sure everybody spoke English, but I had to watch the film 3 times to catch everything. It also tended to ramble a bit, spending way too much time playing chess with Willie Nelson for example. But I'm thankful that I had the chance to see the world as one family with quantifiable problems and quantifiable solutions.

"I found the DVD to be the perfect springboard for getting students to think and problem solve more globally. I created lesson plans to take what the students learned in the classroom to solve some of the real-world problems the DVD touches upon, and in doing so, hopefully taught activism, citizenship, speaking skills, and performed a service for the Round Rock Serving Center. I have found that when you can connect the academic curriculum with the inherent caring young people have for their world, then we all end up ahead."
Joan Witkin; M. Ed.
Special Ed Department
Ridgeview Middle School

"I found the Nobelity DVD intrinsically valuable as a tool for several different kind of classes. I have three preps (classes) that I utilized Nobelity, all with different aims that were absolutely met by this riveting film. In my IB Theory of Knowledge, the 44 students appreciated an international call for activism that effects all humankind; as young scholars they were impressed by the real answers to complex problems offered by the Laureates. In my SAT Prep course, the 61 students used details of each Laureate to write a pro / con paper along the SAT rubric; this infused the course with relevant issues to write about. In my Creative Writing classes, the 64 students took a phrase or quote or image that compelled them to respond with a poem or prose vignette; there were so many inspirational moments that demanded a personal response. Of course, these pragmatic uses do not dilute the thrust of the Nobelity Project, but I think, amplify and enrich its extensions to all aspects of Public School Education.”
F. J. Schaack, Ph.D.
Westwood HS, International Baccalaureate Program
Austin TX

"Turk and Christy Pipkin's Nobelity Project is one of the most educational and inspirational endeavors offered to America’s students today. We are challenged by the global significance and 'international mindedness' of the film (and the Project) not only to think about our world’s problems, but also to assume responsibility and take action to remedy the situation before us. We at Westwood High School—International Baccalaureate students, teachers, administrators, and parents—appreciate this opportunity to share the Pipkins' vision to make the world a safer, better place."
Kathryn Fleming
IB Diploma Program Coordinator
Westwood High School

“Turk Pipkin and his Nobelity project opens eyes and dissolves naiveties. My fellow students and I have really been inspired by his magnanimous approach to the world. We can't simply ignore all of the planet’s problems and all of humanity’s ills anymore; we are forced into action by his unrelenting resolve to instate progress and change.”
Adam Schaac
Westwood HS
Austin TX
Class of 2007

“It felt so refreshing to hear Turk Pipkin speak about the Nobelity project, and to know that there was something that I could do about the world's problems: that I can have an impact. Everything he said felt genuine and I was impressed by his sincere concern for the world’s future.”
Natalia Drosu
Westwood HS
Austin TX
Class of 2007

“Nobelity inspired me, as an International Baccalaurete student, to act on the world problems we confront every day. When we were left with a $5,000 budget surplus from the state IB conference we hosted, I felt we had a perfect opportunity to make the difference we often wished we could on global affairs. Without donating our money to a worthy cause, I think the purpose of IB would have been lost – another case of student idealism without substance.”
Christian Hatten
Westwood HS
Austin TX
Class of 2007

“After organizing a conference that focused on taking a local approach to solving global problems, it was incredible to see Turk Pipkin take this concept and put it into action. His work through Nobelity was inspirational- it gave form to the ideal of one man changing the world. In a world where peoples' concern for problems seems to far outweigh their willingness to act, it’s uplifting see Pipkin’s dynamism.”
Deepali Ravel
Westwood HS
Austin TX
Class of 2007