COLUMBUS, OH – The PAST Foundation headquartered in Columbus, Ohio recently received a generous grant of $100,000 from Battelle to launch the Battelle “Innovation in Teaching” Fellowship program. This program will provide free professional development to 48 select teachers in Central Ohio during the 2018-2019 school year.
Teachers will work together as a cohort of Central Ohio K-12 educators spanning many school districts to learn how to expand their students’ critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Teachers will create content focused on real-world issues relevant to their students and their communities. What they create promises to engage and challenge their students and bring clear meaning to their learning.
“Empowering educators to engage and excite students in our communities holds great promise for our business and industry partners who are actively looking for better ways interact with the K-12 education system,” stated Annalies Corbin, President & CEO of the PAST Foundation. “Our PAST Innovation Lab is an educational R&D prototyping facility that creates all types of experiential and innovative programs for our community. I often hear that it seems difficult for business and industry to meaningfully link with local schools. Sponsoring teaching cohorts similar to this one, is one way that business and industry can connect with its future workforce. “
During this program, teachers will take an online Design Thinking course, experience half day design challenge workshops, have support through the creation and implementation process, and a virtual discussion wrap-up to share their results in May 2019.
“Teachers can make the greatest impact when we give them the tools and responsibility to be the creators of authentic, engaging experiences for their students,” said Dr. Aimee Kennedy, Senior Vice-President for Education and Philanthropy at Battelle. “This new approach from PAST Foundation will provide an important, empowering new resource for Central Ohio educators.”
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. For more information, visit www.battelle.org.
For more information contact Katy Delaney at (614) 424-7208 or delaneyk@battelle.org or T.R. Massey at (614) 424-5544 or masseytr@battelle.org.
About PAST Foundation
For over 18 years, PAST, a non-profit foundation, has been a leader in designing STEM education across the nation, bringing transdisciplinary problem-based learning to educators and experiential programs to students. Most notably, PAST was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for its Excellence in Innovation in the STEM 2026 vision report. PAST was the only educational entity in Ohio to be included in this publication (full report).
PAST was also recognized in 2014, by CGI America and former President Bill Clinton for their outstanding work, and again in 2015 for their achievements in improving STEM education in rural America. In 2015, the PAST Innovation Lab was recognized by the White House Summit on High School Design.
For more information on PAST Foundation and how you can link learning to life, visit https://www.pastfoundation.org/ or contact Lori Trent at ltrent@pastfoundation.org.