Education and Technology Committee
Chairpersons: Matt Abbott & Larry Merry
From 2012 – 2017, the EODA Education Committee focused on supporting EODA through its mission to develop the region’s development in the area of business and education by:
Further developing math skills for students in our region through the EODA “Easy as Pi” program supplemented by online tools from the Khan Academy.
Build bridges with the business community to help foster communication and understanding between education and the business world.
The “Easy as Pi” program concluded its work in 2017. EODA provided funds to encourage kids to work together to learn math as a team. The “Easy as Pi” program was offered for 5 years and the program ran each year from the fall to the spring. Each math team was provided a celebration party in April or May with prizes, pizza and a gift of a personalized t-shirt to recognize the hard work and effort of each student in the program. Over the five year life of the program, the committee supported the development of math skills for 132 students.
The Committee also focused on how we can help our counties build bridges between business and education. Moving forward we will continue to look into options to partner with other local and state teams that are exploring these same goals. Over the past few years, we collected a list of resources that may help us enhance awareness and understanding of educational methods needed to prepare our youth for the jobs of tomorrow. A sampling of the resources we gathered to share with the EODA are as follows:
Believe in Ohio (www.believeinohio.org) is a free new program from The Ohio Academy of Science that helps high school students prepare for the future. Venture Highway (www.venturehighway.com) is an Entrepreneurial Education firm founded by entrepreneurs located in Columbus, Ohio. Leader in Me (www.leaderinme.org) develops student leaders with 21st century skills. The Leader in Me program is an innovative, school-wide model that enables educators to unleash each child’s full potential. Junior Achievement (www.juniorachievement.org) is a non profit organization that brings the real world to students through hands-on curriculum delivered by a trained classroom volunteer. The Young Entrepreneurs Program (www.entrepreneur.com or www.youthbiz.org) offers middle and high school youth a continuum of dedicated programming, both in and after school, and in partnership with a broad range of community partners, that challenges them to build entrepreneurial skills and habits through actual business ownership.