iSprowt

Tag: Virtual School

  • iSprowt Announces Solution for Parents and Teachers Looking to Bring Back Hands-On Learning

    hands on learning

    iSprowt, a company known for making STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education fun through their interactive home science experiments, is bringing hands-on science learning back into the hands of thousands of children in a new and innovative way.

    With stay-at-home-orders in effect for much of the country’s school systems, it has never been more difficult for teachers to provide hands-on learning experiences. Fortunately, iSprowt has developed a solution.

    iSprowt Founder and serial entrepreneur Juliana Lutzi Sherwood developed iSprowt STEM kits to provide children with a way to bring STEM education to life through fun and engaging science experiments. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing more children to learn from home, Sherwood decided to develop online assemblies to help schools bring hands-on learning to their students.

    Sherwood explains saying, “COVID has had a huge impact on our children and their education. As a mom and as an entrepreneur, I wanted to do something to help all our children. Leveraging iSprowt’s hands-on science kits, which align with national science standards, I created virtual assemblies that include multiple experiments. We are donating our time and resources to create and hold these assemblies with only a small charge of $2 for the students’ materials.”

    With an email to Juliana at service@iSprowt.com schools will get two incredible interactive experiments, a 14-page activity book plus their school-wide assembly. The iSprowt team delivers kits directly to the school who then distributes to all participating students.

    Take a look at the interactive experiments!

    With COVID-19 continuing to force students to learn from home, iSprowt has made it easier than ever to ensure a hands-on learning experience.

    “We are very excited to be partnering with iSprowt on assemblies and look forward to other iSprowt programs that bring hands-on learning to our students as well,” said Dr. Hillyer, Principal of Alta Vista Elementary School in Redondo Beach, CA.

    The iSprowt team shares the excitement of principals like Dr. Hilyer. iSprowt will continue to deliver hands-on STEM programs to enrich the learning experiences of as many students as possible.

  • Virtual Science Assemblies From iSprowt

    iSprowt is Bringing Science to Virtual Classrooms

    Schools Across the Country Will Have Access to Science Experiments

     

    virtual science assembly

    We’re excited to announce that we are working with schools and PTAs across the country to bring live, iSprowt virtual science assemblies to over 5,000 elementary students. Each student receives a kit that includes 2 hands-on, extremely fun, STEM experiments and a 16-page booklet filled with activities. 

     

     

     

    Benefits of Virtual Science Assemblies

     

    One of the great things about our Virtual Science Assemblies is that there is no cost to families. iSprowt subsidizes the cost of these assemblies to make them highly affordable to all schools (the cost is just $2 per student!). The PTA buys the kits for students and distributes them.

    Another benefit to these assemblies is the way they engage the students. We strongly believe the best way for children to learn is by doing. Our Virtual Science Assemblies bring science to life in your home with easy, mess-free experiments that are highly visual and engaging.

    Lastly, there’s no issue with privacy, or missing out if you can’t attend the live assembly. iSprowt uses your school or PTA’s virtual classroom technology such as Zoom, Teams, WebEx, etc.  This ensures the student’s privacy is protected.  Schools are encouraged to record and redistribute the virtual assembly so that any student who cannot join live, can still fully participate.  

    science assembly

    Examples of the Hands-On Experiments

     

    In our Wacky Weather Assembly, students will be laughing and learning as they build, create, and observe.

    • Experiment #1: Tornado-in-a-bottle: Students will whirl and twirl to create their own mini tornado in a bottle.  They will be mesmerized as the water picks up debris in its powerful spiraling spin. Here’s an example of the tornado-in-a-bottle experiment.
    • Experiment #2: Chemistry and engineering experiment: “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”  Students get a packet of safe, highly absorbent powder.  They add 1 cup of water and the powder expands over 700%.  Students can now build with the powder to create shapes such as a snowman, igloo, animal, dinosaur, letters, etc.   Over the next 7 days, the water slowly evaporates from the powder and the shape changes.  This allows the students to continue learning while they observe as evaporation slowly changes their original design.
    • 16-page Educational Activity Booklet: All of the directions, science, and fun activities such as a short story, word search, maze, Find-It picture, and Silly Story (similar to a Mad Libs) to keep the students engaged, laughing, and learning. 

    Want a virtual assembly at your school? Contact us and we’ll send you info to pass on to your PTA and principal! Let’s work together to inspire kids and keep them excited about learning. Thank you!

     

  • Kids are not Connecting to Virtual School

    When states across the country began issuing stay at home orders, school districts had no choice but to temporarily close their doors and begin the scramble to find a way to continue to educate their students from a distance through the end of the school year.

    For some students, particularly homeschooled students and college students, learning virtually at least part of the time is completely normal. The educators providing this type of instruction have spent years training and developing their curriculum to be effective in a virtual learning environment. The students enrolled in these classes made a choice to learn virtually. The option of virtual learning is a choice homeschool families often make when they know they have the required resources and equipment as well as the family support they need to succeed.

    This sudden transition to virtual education for millions of students across the country (in many countries, actually) left a huge learning gap for traditional educators and a resource and support gap for families. In many cases, teachers had just days to figure something out to fill the gap while their schools and districts made more concrete plans for the remainder of the spring term. Once longer-term plans were made, teachers, again, had just days to learn how to use the programs that were chosen and adapt or completely change their lesson plans.

    Some districts have not been able to supply their students with the technology they need. Providing Chromebooks and tablets, however, does not necessarily guarantee access to WiFi and navigating the programs, especially for younger students, requires a lot of help from parents in terms of time and organization.

    Several recent reports indicate that students in low income neighborhoods and rural communities are the least likely to be participating in online education. In some cases, according to the New York Times, “fewer than half of their students are regularly participating.” Many families have not been in communication with their children’s schools at all. Teachers and administrators are worried about these students most of all — they are often the third point in a communication triangle between families and social services for students living in less-than-ideal or dangerous situations.

    No household has escaped the stress brought on by COVID-19. Many work situations have changed – some are out of work while others are working more, finances and childcare are inconsistent or nonexistent, and some families are facing severe illness and death. For many families, logging-on has dropped to the bottom of the priority list if it’s even on the list at all.

    From the beginning of school closures, counselors were quick to share information regarding spotting the signs of stress and depression in kids. Combine the effects of stress and depression with the one thing pediatricians always warn parents about – too much technology – and some families have had to make the tough choice to temporarily abstain from logging-on in an effort to protect their children’s mental health.

    The time to figure things out for both schools and parents for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year has come to an end. Some schools have been closed for eight weeks. Schools in some states end their spring terms as early as next week. Across the country, administrators are engaged in developing plans for the fall which is likely to look different from anything our children have experienced so far. If virtual learning is a part of that plan, access and equity will certainly be addressed and, hopefully, it will all be figured out with enough time for teachers and families to gather resources and make plans.

    At iSprowt, education is our number one priority. Learn more about how iSprowt is working to increase equity in education with low-tech and no-tech activities and support families in these challenging times. If you are considering donating educational gifts for kids, so that children don’t fall behind, go to our Donate the Gift of STEM page.