ATLANTA, June 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jigsaw Interactive announced today that its virtual classroom technology played a crucial role in enabling students from iForward Public Online Charter School, one of Wisconsin’s oldest virtual schools, to send an experiment they designed to the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment will travel to the ISS at the end of June as one of 34 experiments that make up the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 12 to the ISS Mercury payload.
iForward is sponsored by the School District of Grantsburg, a small city in northwest Wisconsin. Serving more than 600 students in grades 6-12 across the state, the entire school employs Jigsaw for live daily classes and instructional sessions, as well as assemblies, plays, club activities and meetings. SSEP is a pre-college science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education program created and conducted by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE).
Using Jigsaw, iForward students wrote 101 experiment proposals and created over 200 designs for iForward’s official SSEP mission patch for SSEP Mission 12. Of those, the school submitted three proposals and two patch designs to NCESSE for consideration. Four students in grades 6-8 submitted the winning proposal, “Grain Size and Distribution Analysis of Gallium in Microgravity.” iForward’s other two proposals each earned an honorable mention.
iForward’s strong showing is impressive considering the school is a first time SSEP participant. Even more remarkable is that iForward is a completely online virtual school, where students often live hundreds of miles from each other across the state in Wisconsin. Working together, yet being physically apart, was made possible with Jigsaw’s virtual classroom.
“Jigsaw Interactive’s immersive technology was instrumental in iForward proposing an experiment worthy of flying to the International Space Station – we could not have done so well, or even participated in the program, without it,” said Billy Beesley, principal of iForward Wisconsin and SSEP co-coordinator for the school district.
“Jigsaw’s interactive learning environment enabled our students to harness their creativity, meet exacting program and academic requirements, and propose experiments of compelling scientific value,” commented Constance Quade, lead teacher and co-director.
“Jigsaw Interactive’s virtual classrooms are designed for students and teachers to simultaneously brainstorm ideas, collaborate on projects, and enhance academic success through individualized learning and participation,” Jigsaw Interactive CEO and Co-Founder Josette Fleszar said. “We’re proud that our tools designed to enable the digital workforce of today and tomorrow helped iForward get its experiment to space.”
About Jigsaw Interactive
Jigsaw Interactive is a fast-growing, privately held company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Our patented technology is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that delivers tools to meet the needs of today’s learners. Jigsaw’s virtual learning and collaboration technology enables our customers to revolutionize how they train, educate, learn, collaborate and work through a virtual environment – helping them embrace a rapidly changing digital and global world. To learn more or schedule a demonstration, visit jigsawinteractive.com.
About the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program [or SSEP] is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.
Contact:
Ivy Eckerman
Spire Communications for Jigsaw Interactive
(540) 373-2963
ieckerman@spirecomm.com