For Immediate ReleaseAnnounce Partnership
For Immediate Release
Central Ohio has a history of creating dynamic educational and inspirational learning environments for children and adults. Two of the area’s most valuable resources, PAST Foundation and COSI (The Center of Science and Industry), are now collaborating to bring additional opportunities to students and teachers.
PAST Foundation via their PAST Innovation Lab is a leader in transforming education in schools across the country. Their work with students, teachers, schools and districts brings transdisciplinary problem-based learning (TPBL) with a STEM focus to the classroom. PAST knows that learning by doing – solving problems through experiences – significantly impacts student learning and prepares them for life.
COSI shares the passion of encouraging learners to use STEM education in their daily lives to solve real world problems. Through Challenge Based Learning (CBL) the goal of real-world STEM application is reinforced by hands-on, collaborative activities that help learners ask good questions, identify issues, find solutions and share with others.
PAST Foundation President & CEO Annalies Corbin, PhD and COSI President & CEO David E. Chesebrough, Ed.D announced the new partnership at a joint presentation of the film Underwater Dreams. The movie documents the remarkable experiences of two high school teachers and their students who formed a robotics team who took on MIT, and won.
“Working together, PAST and COSI can share resources, facilities and expertise to create new learning opportunities in our community,” said Dr. Corbin.
Dr. Chesebrough agreed, adding “Our goal at COSI is to build communities around the learning process. The alliance of COSI and PAST fits perfectly with that goal.”
First Joint Project: ROV Design Challenge
On Thursday, November 20, 2014, the Deep Water Tank at COSI will host underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) challenges and competitions. In the spirit of Underwater Dreams, PAST is working with teams of students from area high schools to design and develop their ROV, then compete against each other, executing technically precise operations.
PAST and COSI team members will be involved in the ROV challenges by helping with the judging, providing support to the teams, taking student learning to a deeper level by asking questions about their ROV entries, and discussing the process in which they went through to create their underwater vehicle.
Students will continue to develop their ROV in preparation for a more difficult challenge planned for spring 2015 that will include high school and college teams.
Both organizations are working together to develop summer workshop and camp schedules. Programs will reach out to students and teachers, with a focus on enhancing STEM learning experiences. This partnership will continue to develop and evolve – COSI and PAST are committed to creating more robust transdisciplinary problem-based STEM education opportunities in central Ohio, giving all students the opportunity to develop skills they need for 21st century careers and to succeed in life.
About PAST
PAST Innovation Lab is a leader in redesigning and improving education for grades K thru 16, sharing transdisciplinary problem-based learning with educators and experiential programs for students.
PAST professional development online courses and in-person workshops offer teachers exciting ways to bring TPBL to their classroom. Student programs and workshops link STEM education and life-long learning to prepare students for 21st century careers.
PAST Innovation Lab is a part of PAST Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization. PAST Foundation’s work includes extensive Knowledge Capture, offering critical program evaluation within schools and districts, and conducting research to build more effective educational resources as well as producing informative publications.
About COSI
COSI, the Center of Science and Industry, brings to the partnership a 320,000-square-foot hands-on science-technology center with 50 years of award-winning expertise in providing engaging learning experiences to individuals and families; inspiring them to learn more about science and understand their world. COSI promotes science literacy within its facility and beyond, through traveling exhibitions, interactive videoconferencing and outreach programs that annually serve over 400,000 students and teachers across Ohio, throughout the U.S., and Canada. COSI has won numerous awards including being named the #1 Science Center in the U.S. by Parents Magazine in 2008.