Parametric Studio recipient of U.S. Department of Education Grant
WE'RE PROUD TO ANNOUNCE WE'VE RECEIVED A PHASE II SBIR GRANT FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO BRING AR, COMPUTER SCIENCE, AND STEM TO STUDENTS.
The grant is part of the Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, a program from the U.S. Department of Education, which is a highly competitive program that awards grants to domestic small businesses to fund commercial education technology R&D that has the potential for significant societal impact. This grant will support the technological development of our new augmented reality-based STEM education tool NEWTON-AR. This $900,000 grant will fund Parametric Studio's efforts to develop, implement, test, and deploy NEWTON-AR to K-3 classrooms around the country.
“With NEWTON-AR we are bringing a whole new level of interactivity and engagement to STEM learning, this award is going to help us make the product truly awesome, and reach and inspire a lot of students”
Parametric Studios was initially awarded the first phase of the SBIR grant, worth $200,000, last year, to develop a proof of concept prototype for NEWTON-AR and test it in the classroom. This follow-on award is geared toward refining the product and expanding to reach many new users. At Parametric Studio, we are devoted to providing young students with opportunities to have hands-on learning experiences with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
NEWTON-AR
“We will be adding all kinds of new design projects and options like musical instruments and old school arcade games. We are also going to add a bunch of team collaboration tools and add new capabilities for programming that were not in there before”
Parametric's latest software, NEWTON-AR, combines Engineering, Making, Computer Science, STEM learning, and Augmented Reality. Now we will be taking our prototype for NEWTON-AR with its game-based Rube-Goldberg-style challenges and will expand on it. NEWTON-AR works with mobile devices and tablets and presents complicated scientific concepts in a way early elementary students can understand. "We will be taking it to the next level and will be adding all kinds of new options like musical instruments and old school arcade games," Whitmer said. "We're going to add new capabilities for programming that weren't in there before." The augmented reality of NEWTON-AR will help students learn STEM concepts through an iPad app. "We are adding several new actions and items that will expand the options for building the Rube-Goldberg-style contraptions," he said. "The goal is to create limitless design options to keep kids engaged in learning and exploring lots of new STEM concepts and skills." This effort will be starting this summer and will be continuing for several years, with a beta product release happening later this year.
We hope that the first edition of the new and improved NEWTON will be done and available by the end of 2020.
NEWTON-AR was started less than a year ago, in July 2019. While the initial work was slow, we have experienced a snowball effect of momentum on the project, and with the addition of this grant, things are taking off. Kindergarten through Third-grade students will be able to utilize this software and work collaboratively with their classmates. Soon those students will learn early computer science skills and simple ideas about logic and algorithms.
Our goal has always been to bring STEM concepts and learning to the classroom in a fun and engaging way. We have created ways for students to document their thinking, their process and share their creations with others both in person and virtually. With more distance and hybrid learning happening today, we are also hoping to build NEWTON-AR to work for kids at home through an AR-enabled STEM maker box and subscription service. This same technology can be expanded to work with students learning from home over the summer, home-schooled students, clubs, or after-school programs.
NEWTON-AR is equal parts maker project, STEM learning tool, and tabletop design game. A mobile app interacts and detects with AR playing cards and physical maker kit components to allow students to design, build, test, share, and take on game puzzle challenges by creating Rube-Goldberg contraptions and then programming their various elements. All of these capabilities have even more impact when you consider the world right now. With students stuck at home, programs like these allow children to learn classroom concepts from the comfort of their homes. NEWTON-AR and its prototyping kit share some similarities with traditional construction toys or project boxes. You can build using the instructions or you can let your creativity guide you. However, NEWTON-AR's physical maker kit is fully connected to the augmented reality virtual design environment. With it, you can connect to an entire universe of creation possibilities, add cool virtual pieces that are not possible to use at home, tell stories with your creations, and even add awesome visualizations. We feel that NEWTON-AR will be a powerful tool, and a huge hit with teachers, parents, and students and we are excited to bring it to you.
“All you need is access to a mobile device or a tablet and you’re off and running”
