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ecodads' iPad Apps Program for Schools Receives Wells Fargo Grant

ecodads' iPad Apps Program for Schools Receives Wells Fargo Grant

Published 06-06-13

Submitted by Wells Fargo & Company

The California educational non-profit ecodads® has received $20,000 from Wells Fargo to support development of apps for Apple® iPads® that adapt the State Board of Education-approved Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) curriculum for use in classrooms, school gardens, and on field trips.

The first-generation apps will deliver two sixth-grade units requested by educators in both the Calaveras and Manteca School Districts. The apps will be released this summer in anticipation of the start of the school year. They will be free to interested educators and home-schooling parents and caregivers. Successful completion and evaluation of this ecodads app development project is part of a larger, multi-stakeholder effort to make the EEI curriculum available to all 150,000 of the state’s science, social studies, and history educators and all 6.2 million California public school students.

The apps leverage the collaborative interaction of the iPad to enhance the way the EEI curriculum can support the state’s Common Core Standards (www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/) and Next Generation Science Standards (www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/sc/ngssintrod.asp), which emphasize inquiry-based, hands-on learning and cross-cutting, interdisciplinary teaching.

Because only one-third of California public schools currently have Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity to stream content, the apps are being designed and programmed so that the entire units, once downloaded, can reside upon each iPad and enable the user to have a full-featured access to the photos, videos, audio, time lapse and 3D interactive animations, 360 degree panoramic photos, flipping flashcards, maps, side bar graphics, pop-up glossary and review quiz sections. A PC Netbook for each campus has also been configured to allow multiple iPads to be plugged into each school’s Microsoft System making it easy to download and update the apps on each iPad, negating the need for any additional telecommunication nor infrastructure costs.

The curriculum materials are already free to schools in pdf format, but a huge barrier that remains is printing costs with an original cost at approximately $900 per unit. By providing the materials as interactive books that work on iPads, it increases the distribution potential for EEI and saves money in the long term, while also delivering a more engaging and experiential format for students. As part of this pilot iBook Program, the Manteca School District, at one of their schools, will place thirty-six iPads upon a secure cart, which can be shared by as many as twelve campus classrooms a semester, since many of the units can be taught during a one week period. When calculated on a trimester basis, combined with the fact that all eighty-five units can be placed upon each iPad, the cost per unit can be reduced to as low as $0.90, reducing the print cost by approximately one thousand times. The long-term vision would be to provide iPad carts to districts throughout California.

The EEI curriculum, set in motion through state legislative action, resulted from a dynamic multi-agency education and environmental partnership which included the State Board of Education, the California Natural Resources Agency, National Geographic, and more than 100 representatives from state and federal agencies, universities, NGOs, and educators. The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) oversaw development of the curriculum, which is now administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). The K-12 public school curriculum is comprised of 85 units teaching select science and history/social science academic standards (www.californiaeei.org).

The grant to ecodads is part of Wells Fargo's $100 million environmental philanthropy effort to support environmental nonprofits. “This environmental grant is an investment in our children, schools, communities and environment,” said Stephanie Rico, Wells Fargo Environmental Affairs business strategy manager. “We're proud to collaborate with ecodads to use our financial resources, as well as the expertise of our team members, to protect and preserve a more sustainable environment for communities we serve.”

"Not only will these apps link classrooms to a deeply robust set of resources, databases, and activities, but these touch-based and interactive apps will bring the curriculum to life for students and teachers,” said Michael Leifer, ecodads co-founder and executive producer of the Environmental Edutainment Apps Project. “We can deliver active, not passive, student-engagement with these next generation learning tools. They will also support a system of community-based knowledge-building that will ultimately allow great ideas and solutions from students themselves to filter back into the curriculum for the benefit of succeeding generations of students."

Manteca Unified Superintendent Jason Messer voiced his support as well. “It is imperative that the students of Manteca Unified and the State of California learn about the precious resources of this great state and our impact upon them as human beings,” Messer said. “We need to get students ‘virtually’ outside of their classrooms. During our modern digital gold rush here in California, I hope that there are companies who will provide innovation and generous support for apps like the ones that ecodads are developing. This is after all, about our students and our collective future.”

Calaveras Unified Superintendent Mark Campbell also backs the effort. "Any endeavor that seeks to effectively facilitate the active engagement of students is worthwhile and it is clear that the Environmental Edutainment Apps Project aims to do just that,” Campbell said. “From my experience with EEI, which has been nothing but positive, I fully believe that the educational objectives here will only serve to greatly benefit student learning."

About ecodads.org
ecodads is a 501c3 non-profit next-generation parenting movement that is building deeper relationships with our children, each other, and our earth. Our programs are focused upon the creation and support of fun and experiential ecological literacy programs and projects that generate a practical, mindful, and active way of creating a healthy and flourishing future for our children and families. For more information, to donate or sponsor iPads and iPad carts or to get involved and support this program, visit www.ecodads.org.

About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, and the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than 270,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune’s 2013 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.

A leader in reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions and building sustainably, Wells Fargo has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Center for Corporate Climate Leadership, the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the U.S. Green Building Council. Since 2005, Wells Fargo has provided more than $21 billion in environmental finance, supporting sustainable buildings and renewable energy projects nationwide. This includes investments in more than 260 solar projects and 34 wind projects that generate enough clean renewable energy to power hundreds of thousands of American homes each year. For more information, please visit www.wellsfargo.com/environment.

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