California-Based Education Company, PASCO Scientific, Partners with Florida Public School District on STEM Learning Initiative

ROSEVILLE, Calif., Dec. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Department of Defense has awarded the Hillsborough County Public School District of Tampa, Florida with a National Defense Education Program Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) award. One of twelve awardees, the Hillsborough School District is the only K-12 institution to receive an award based on their plan to adopt cutting-edge PASCO technologies that enhance student learning in STEM.

As a distinguished educational and industry partner, the Hillsborough School District will receive more than 3 million dollars over a three-year period to establish and expand STEM education, outreach, and workforce initiatives for students and educators. The goal of this effort is to establish programs that better position the current and next-generation STEM workforce, which is critical to the Department of Defense and our Nation's security.

"The Department of Defense is proud to support the STEM workforce our Nation needs to maintain our technological superiority far into the future," said Michael Kratsios, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Accordingly, this investment will be critical to expanding STEM opportunities for students and educators in military-connected communities.

In collaboration with PASCO Scientific, the Hillsborough County Public School District will work to integrate computational thinking, coding and scientific exploration into a cohesive approach that enhances student learning. With PASCO's new coding device and award-winning software, educators can tie coding to scientific explorations, while also supporting the development of data collection and analysis skills. 

"This is a great way to tie the new Florida Computer Science Standards to science content," said former FLDOE Director and Educational Consultant for PASCO, Dr. JP Keener. "It is an excellent model for schools trying to understand how they can best define STEM within the classroom."

Hillsborough County Public Schools will provide a K-8 pipeline to DoD careers through a rigorous, engaging, in-school curriculum and after-school opportunities related to DoD science and technology priorities. The goal is to increase the number of students who are prepared for the 21st century DoD STEM workforce.

To learn more about using PASCO's coding and computational thinking solutions to enhance your STEM program, check out their Blockly and //code.Node offerings. PASCO was awarded the 2019 Presidential Product Award for the integration of coding and data analysis within their software.

SOURCE PASCO Scientific

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