FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts:
Lori Trent, PAST Foundation - ltrent@pastfoundation.org
Sarah Howard - showard@jadetrack.com
November 9, 2018
PAST and JadeTrack Announce Energy4Learning Program
COLUMBUS, OH – The PAST Foundation and JadeTrack both headquartered in Columbus, Ohio recently partnered together to create the Energy4Learning program. With the help of others such as IGS Energy, New Albany Plain Local Schools, Air Force Oneand DENT Instruments, they have created a program that offers students an opportunity for real world experiences that helps them hone in on their problem solving skills allowing them to practice collaboration, design thinking, creativity, and experimentation while addressing the task of providing clean and sustainable energy for the future.
“One of the greatest achievements that PAST offers, is the ability to bring multiple partners together and connect them with real-hands on learning that will better prepare our students for the future,” said Annalies Corbin – Founder, President & CEO of the PAST Foundation. “Very simply put, we are trying to provide students with the skills they need to be successful, passionate, and contributing members of society. This community impact piece is central to PAST’s mission and connects us back our anthropological roots.” Unemployment might be low, but unfilled STEM jobs are many. One of the challenges facing us today, especially in Ohio is how do we best align our instruction with what is needed in the workforce?
“The reason why we partnered with PAST was to educate future leaders on energy and sustainability. By providing the teachers and students with information commonly used by facility managers, we can educate students on future career opportunities and provide them with experiences applying data to solve real problems. Ultimately, we found that the students have intrinsic motivations around why they care about the environment and energy conservation,” commented Ryan Prestel, JadeTrack’s CEO.
“School districts are trying be mindful of tax dollars. We believe that this type of program and having PAST facilitate professional development will allow us to create more value for a school district than if they were to just deploy a standard energy management solution or a hypothetical energy conservation program.”
Come and visit PAST and JadeTrack at the OSBA Capital Conference and Trade Show 2018 November 11-13 at booth 423.
About JadeTrack JadeTrack is a sustainability software platform that provides a summary of your energy, water, waste and emissions data. Our solution is intended to help busy energy and sustainability managers make sense of all their data. We provide robust data visualization and analysis tools to help our customers create impact - financially, socially and environmentally.
About PAST Foundation For 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.
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://pastfoundation.org/ or contact Lori Trent at ltrent@pastfoundation.org.