ONLINE EDUCATION
Businesswire | May 26, 2023
PowerSchool the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced a partnership with EDU Inc. and PowerSchool Naviance. This exclusive partnership will connect students using Naviance with the Common Black College Application, better enabling students to apply to many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) at once starting with the 2023-2024 school year.
The comprehensive college, career, and life readiness solutions available in Naviance are used by millions of students. Naviance college research tools utilize over ninety search criteria to help students find institutions that are the right fit for their aspirations and needs. As part of their exploration process in Naviance, students view college profiles over 25 million times each year.
“Our data over the last few years has shown a clear increase in students looking for HBCUs,” said Amy Reitz, Group Vice President of Product at PowerSchool. “A key part of the Naviance philosophy is ensuring each student is empowered to find their best fit, and we value the tremendous role HBCUs play in our country’s higher education landscape. We are excited to partner with the Common Black College Application to benefit students, school counselors, and colleges.”
The Common Black College Application is a network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities committed to supporting equity and access for students. Students apply to all member institutions with one application fee, reducing friction in the application process.
“The partnership between Naviance and the Common Black College Application will have a profound impact in the lives of millions of students, interested in attending HBCUs, in the coming years,” said Robert Mason, Founder of EDU, Inc. “Equally as important, our work with Naviance will aid HBCUs in the achievement of their enrollment objectives. The partnership between Naviance and the CBCA represents the very essence of educational access and equality – goals that so many others seek to achieve and fall woefully short.”
Starting in the fall, Naviance will identify colleges that are members of the Common Black College Application on their Naviance college profiles. PowerSchool and EDU, Inc. will also work together to integrate the Common Black College Application with Naviance eDocs for the following year, making it easy for counselors to submit supporting documentation for student applications.
About PowerSchool
PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in more than 90 countries.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
PRnewswire | June 01, 2023
Spark Math, an award-winning interactive math learning program for Pre-K through elementary students, recently received STEM accreditation from STEM.org, a recognized authority in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is a testament to the curriculum design and teaching quality of Spark Math, highlighting the program's commitment to preparing students for success in STEM and beyond.
Math is the foundation of STEM learning
Spark Math was founded by parents with successful STEM careers. With technology developing rapidly, as demonstrated by the recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), it has never been as important for students to be prepared for STEM learning. Math is a foundational subject that helps prepare kids for life and the challenges of the future. However, it is a subject that many kids and even adults' dread.
Spark Math focuses on the learning experience demonstrating that outcomes for math can be significantly improved with technology and building a love for math by making it fun and engaging. The online courses connect abstract math concepts to real life, helping students prepare for STEM in a unique and enjoyable way.
"In our math courses, we embed the STEM philosophy into our program by injecting critical thinking and logical reasoning skills into our curriculum," said Tan Boon Leong Jeremy, head of teaching center in Southeast Asia Region.
Spark Math excels with distinct advantages in STEM education helping students to:
• Develop problem solving skills: Spark Math focuses on critical thinking and problem solving, empowering students to apply concepts learned to various scenarios. The goal is to provide young students with the building blocks of STEM education and methodology so they can continue to thrive in the future.
• Learn with the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) method: It connects real life to math, relates abstract math concepts such as equations, fractions, and numbers, to real-life objects that kids can relate to and easily grasp, and subsequently represent those objects with a picture, and eventually mathematical representation.
• Connect Math to real life: Each class has a storyline and adventure for the students to go on together with animations, songs, and games helping kids stay engaged and learn.
• Practice made fun with gamification: By gamifying math concepts and questions, students can learn in a more enjoyable and interactive way. They can play games by clicking, dragging, matching, and interacting which helps to keep them motivated and engaged. With gamification, Spark Math makes learning and even practicing math fun.
About Spark Education Group
Founded in 2017, Spark Education Group is headquartered in Singapore. Its portfolio of education brands aims to combine research-based pedagogy with technology to improve the learning experience and education outcomes for students around the world. It was recently awarded "Best Interactive Learning Experience" at EdTech Asia and recognized as a Parent and Teacher Choice Award Gold Medal Recipient.
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ONLINE EDUCATION
Businessiwire | May 26, 2023
Battelle has funded a new portfolio of 14 out-of-classroom education programs that build science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills through the latest awards with its Central Ohio STEM Grants. As a nonprofit philanthropic trust, Battelle directs the majority of its giving to STEM-related programming to provide opportunities for students to develop skills to become the next generation of innovators.
"Through this program, Battelle is committing more resources toward empowering our local partners’ ideas to expand access to STEM opportunities for students across Central Ohio,” said Wes Hall, Vice President of Philanthropy and Education. "STEM programs that integrate music, agriculture, entrepreneurship and environmental science will ignite sparks of inspiration for thousands of young minds in our community."
This is the tenth year for these competitive awards with the largest ever total funding awarded: $772,000. Investment in the grant program now totals more than $5.6 million.
Following are descriptions of the winning programs:
Continued Programs
Capital University
Capital University will host 100 middle school females for a day of science experimentation and STEM career and education exploration.
Columbus Fashion Alliance
Columbus Fashion Alliance's High School Fashion Club builds upon the principles of STEM to bolster the academic and career skills of participants through the lens of fashion.
Ohio Soybean Council Foundation
The Ohio Soybean Council will reach 400 students in Central Ohio afterschool/summer programs with agriculture-related entrepreneurship lessons, delivered by trained pre-service educators from Ohio State University.
New Programs
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Ohio
Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Ohio will host a Youth Empowerment Institute to provide middle and high school students with the opportunity to participate in eight STEM-focused weekend-based sessions throughout the school year.
Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden
Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden will deliver week-long summer STEM camps and daylong pop-up STEM camps for 115 elementary and middle school students in Northeast Columbus around food injustice.
Clintonville-Beechwood Community Resources Center
The Clintonville-Beechwood Community Resources Center will engage K-5 students with weekly lessons on design, illustration and publishing as children each create a comic book to be shared at a family reading event.
Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA)
CAPA will offer Bite-Size Science: The Singing Zoologist to students in grades 1-5 from Columbus City Schools and other districts to teach life cycles, habitats and how these interact with larger ecosystems.
Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services
Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services will expand educational opportunities for New American students in the community to include programming, coding, using electronics and computers. The program will also and create a miniature working city for the local smart city initiative.
Form5 Prosthetics Inc
Form5 will leverage the organization’s PRE-FAB Workshop to inspire 9-12 graders. Students will explore engineering, design and medical-oriented careers through a team-based program as participants build prosthetic devices for mock recipients.
Friends of the Conservatory
Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will expand a STEM program to reach thousands of students in underserved communities, where they will learn STEM principles using the conservatory's resources.
Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council
Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council will launch the Interactive Ecosystem Exploration Project to develop and implement a series of environmental monitoring and tracking systems for girls and to build a better understanding of the natural resources at Camp Ken-Jockety.
Highland Youth Garden
Highland Youth Garden will offer rising 1st-7th grade students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the daily life of a garden, strengthen their STEM learning, deepen their cooking and nutrition skills and participate in healthy play outdoors.
Pyramid Community Development Corporation
Pyramid Community Development’s Ctrl-R program will provide online, in-person and at-home STEAM education to underserved minority students in Linden and its surrounding communities.
TECH CORPS
Unplugged kits from TECH CORPS will excite and empower students on a range of STEM topics ranging from algorithms to virtual reality.
About Battelle
Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries.Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries.
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