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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ENTREPRENEURS AND LEADERS
Globenewswire | May 09, 2023
Go1, the world’s learning content expert, announced today the acquisition of Blinkist, a mobile-first learning app that summarizes key ideas from professional books and podcasts which is used by tens of millions of people worldwide. The acquisition forms the foundation of an innovative new model of corporate learning which seeks to engage learners throughout their day-to-day lives.
Go1 has made a name for itself as an aggregator of learning and development content, offering access to tens of thousands of short-form courses that are typically consumed in a corporate setting. However, engaging learners on a grand scale relies not only on democratizing access to more types of learning content but also on making that content available in more places, meeting learners where they are. For many online corporate learners, that's on their cell phone or during their commute.
This is where Blinkist excels.The acquisition of Blinkist expands Go1’s appeal to an audience that seeks to learn new skills and stay up to date on business and self-improvement topics with bite-sized content, consumable on demand. Learners can access Blinkist content through their corporate learning management system (LMS) but, for the first time ever, they will also be able to access content on their mobile, in CarPlay, or wherever and whenever they choose to learn.
“The combination of Go1 and Blinkist offers something not replicated in any corner of the corporate learning market: an experience of ongoing learning that serves professional goals that’s purpose-built to be personally engaging,” said Andrew Barnes, co-CEO of Go1. “Go1 is not entering the content production market – we’re combining our existing content aggregation service with Blinkist’s similar service for books to open a new model for consumption of any type of learning content.”
“I have been following the Go1 journey for a number of years and believe in the impact and opportunity that education affords,” said Charles Conn, chair of Patagonia, co-founder and partner of Monograph Capital. “As a co-author of Bulletproof Problem Solving, I know first-hand how critical it is to reach a broader audience, and it is great to now have our audiobook, book summary, and short course all available through one subscription. Go1's acquisition of Blinkist will significantly expand top content offerings to its users, increasing access and knowledge from authors and researchers to empower learners and organizations across the world.”
“We're thrilled with Go1's acquisition of Blinkist," said Thilo Semmelbauer, managing director at Insight Partners. “Blinkist’s mobile content and product will expand the learning opportunities already available to Go1’s customers and create a powerful pair with Go1’s corporate learning offering. We're excited for what's to come." Insight Partners will remain an investor in the combined entity, as will Greycroft, Headline, IBB, and MGO.
Mike Bertolino, global leader of EY’s Skills Foundry which partners with Go1 for access to professional learning content, shared similar enthusiasm on the deal.“EY Skills Foundry is an upskilling and reskilling platform. We are excited about the Blinkist acquisition and the ability to now offer summaries such as Jim Collins’ ‘Good to Great’ to our customers,” said Bertolino. “We partnered with Go1 over a year ago due to the depth of their library and expertise on learning. We believe the need for upskilling and reskilling will only increase in the future as the global workforce becomes more agile. Having access to both bite-sized content and longer form courses is ideal.”
In addition to its popular consumer app, Blinkist also works with leading employers to offer leadership and skill development to their employees.
About Go1
Go1 is the world’s learning content expert, aggregating content from top providers to deliver high-quality education and training across a range of industries and topics. Over 8 million learners from over 60 countries use Go1 to access curated, personalized training, and skills development courses in the formats that best suit them – all in a single solution. Home to a vast library of over 100,000 courses from hundreds of leading content partners, Go1 is a Y Combinator 2023 Top Company, an SAP Partner with an SAP Endorsed App, and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Nominee. Key investors include SEEK, SoftBank Vision Fund II, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Capital Arm), Madrona Venture Group, and AirTree Ventures as well as Blinkist investors including Insight Partners, Greycroft, Headline, IBB, and MGO.
About Blinkist
Blinkist connects people with powerful ideas from leading authors and experts to broaden perspectives, gain knowledge, and spark understanding in all areas of their life, both personal and professional. Used by over 26 million people worldwide, Blinkist finds the most relevant, impactful books and podcasts and distills them down to their key ideas, which can be read or listened to in 15-minute explainers called Blinks. In addition to individual learners, over 1,500 organizations around the globe have already chosen Blinkist for Business to empower their teams at their point of need—anytime, anywhere.
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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Brainly | April 21, 2023
Post-pandemic, schools grapple with teacher shortages, frustrated parents and declining student test scores. And now, we are heading into the most stressful time of the school year. Brainly, the leading global learning platform for all school subjects and grades, announces help is on the way: new AI-enabled features that provide homework help where and when students—and their parents—need it. AI-powered products explicitly developed to assist teachers will be released later this year.
These newest features build on Brainly's Knowledge Base of over 250 million high-quality and accurate answers, generated from its moderated student and expert communities. The AI powering the new capabilities, developed with OpenAI's GPT-4 technology, uses that Knowledge Base to provide an even more dynamic, personalized and effective learning experience.
Learners now have the option to “Simplify” or “Expand” answers and “Ask a Follow-up Question” and receive personalized content based on their understanding of a topic. Also debuting is Ginny, Brainly's digital mascot, who is always at the ready to guide students and parents to ensure they get the AI-powered help they need.
Personalized help for all students
“This time of year is always stressful for parents, students and teachers,” said Bill Salak, Chief Technology Officer at Brainly. “Instead of arguing whether AI belongs in education—a moot point since it's already here—let's use AI to help mitigate those stressors. With these latest additions to our feature suite, we put AI-powered learning tools in the student’s pocket, enabling them to get the homework help they need to deepen their understanding of a topic. It's about getting students the help they need when they leave the classroom.”
Learners can now ask for simplified answers to their questions or opt for more in-depth solutions that explore complex topics. They can also ask follow-up questions for more information, clarification of a response or a step-by-step solution to a problem.
For example, a student may ask, “What are organic compounds?” After receiving an answer, they may want to ask a follow-up question, such as, “Why are they vital to living things?”
“This is just the first of the new AI-powered features we are releasing as we move forward on our vision of giving every student access to personalized learning,” said Salak. “Stay tuned for new product releases that will bring our AI-powered technology to teachers, enabling even more students to benefit from our learning platform.”
About Brainly
Brainly is a leading learning platform worldwide with the most extensive knowledge base for all school subjects and grades. Hundreds of millions of students, parents and educators rely on Brainly as the proven platform to accelerate understanding and learning. Based in Kraków, Poland, with offices in New York City and Barcelona, Brainly apps and websites are visited by users from over 35 countries. Brainly is backed by Prosus, Point Nine Capital, General Catalyst, Runa Capital, Learn Capital and Kulczyk Investments.
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