Beginner Developer Class: "Hot & Dirty Drupal Developer Summer Garden Project" - Application Deadline

This summer, I am offering/organizing a hands-on open source developer class, for beginning developers.

Seeking
* student participants
* mentors
* additional project coordinators in other cities, if there is interest

Students
The class is intended for people with some experience building websites, who are ready to take the plunge and learn some of the most essential skills necessary to participate in open source development. We are likely to cover topics such as version control, making patches, working with ticketing systems, programming, using code standards, using drush.

Mentors
If you know some of the skills necessary to participate in open source development, you can be a mentor. You don't have to be an expert in all of open source, just aspects of it. I am looking to cobble together as many mentors as possible to support the program, but mentors who would be willing to stick with the program all summer are ideal. We will share back with the Drupal community some of our curriculum & what we learned in case others want to try this model of learning.

The Project
We will work on a 'garden blogging platform' (think 'basecamp for your garden.') This will be an installation of Drupal (like Open Atrium) but designed for the needs of gardeners. Ideally, this can be an ongoing program, providing lots of fun projects to learn Drupal development with (and help plants at the same time!)
This summer, we will work with 'geo-located gardens and plants.' I would also like to offer a winter session, which would focus more on calendar systems (ex. making seed germination times show up on the calendar.) I am about 90% sure we will work with Drupal 7. As project coordinator, I will provide a clear specification for what we will work on in the class, taking into account the interests of students and mentors, and other factors.

Twin Cities
If I could find 2-3 students who also live in the twin cities, as well as 2-3 mentors from the Twin Cities, that would be amazing. We will work with local community gardeners and I think it would be fun to test out mapping in real gardens here at home. After all, it will be summer!

The class is free, but requires at least 2-8 hours per week time commitment, between July 1 and September 1, 2010. As such, this class might not be for everyone.

The application deadline is May 15, 2010

Application instructions and full, updated, details can be found here:
http://www.chachaville.com/content/hot-and-dirty-drupal-developer-summer...

Feel free to contact me with questions.

About me
Drupal development is what I do everyday at Gorton Studios. I also have taught web design and interactivity at Ex'pression (a digital art college is Emeryville, CA) so I do have experience running courses for students. In the last few months I have started to learn about how project-based learning is used by professors in colleges, and it is very successful. This is the same thing I did in my web design classes, and so I know that it works. My students would probably put me more on the 'ass-kicker' side of teachers (but they learned a lot and gave me good ratings.) So, bear that in mind. But it will be summer, so we will scale back and try to do a project that involves being outside.
I also like plants a lot, though I am the world's worst gardener, except that I have a knack for roses. I really like learning about native plants. I am very interested in citizen science and civic participation, and that is why I have chosen this project for the summer class. I worked in science museums for 6 years, so I am interested to bring what I know about informal science learning to local community gardens and neighborhoods. Last year I worked on a blog localbiology.org - which at some point became unsustainable, so now I am trying a different tactic. :)
I started with open source/Drupal two years ago, but started working with websites in 1995. It has taken a lot of time/frustration to learn the open source skills, and I am eager to share what I know with others especially those who will also be inclined to share what they learn with others.