Here Are Your 2016 Inherent Prize Finalists

One of these movers and shakers will be awarded with the Inherent Prize in recognition of their social entrepreneurship. The grand-prize winner receives $50,000, with the runner-up nabbing $25,000. Get to know more about each below, and check back after November 15th to read about the winner.
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Can Nemo and Dory Revolutionize How We Teach Math in America?

There’s one reliable way to quiet unruly kids: turn on a Pixar animated film. Teachers using class time to watch a movie is usually viewed as lazy, but a new online curriculum hosted by Khan Academy taps into children’s enthusiasm for these animated films to teach STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts and math).

Pixar in a Box, as the virtual curriculum is known, contains interdisciplinary lessons that parallel real design challenges facing Pixar’s animators. The classes, which are narrated by Pixar engineers, lend credence to teachers’ arguments that school lessons will be applicable to students’ eventual careers, even if the tough math problems don’t seem relevant now. Concepts like patterns and randomness, for example, could end with students crafting their own computer-generated dinosaur skin models, and a class on weighted averages and Pascal’s triangles results in a model character from Monsters, Inc.

Underlying each lesson are the principles of project-based learning: tying theoretical concepts to real-world problems. In doing so, Pixar in a Box’s creators believe students will be more engaged, as they pursue projects they care about rather than being forced to complete assignment after assignment. “A lot of time, when kids ask the question, ‘When am I gonna use this stuff?’ teachers don’t have a good answer,” says Tony DeRose, a Pixar senior scientist. “We want to give them authentic content that they can teach in the classrooms, showing how we addressed creative challenges we faced in the studio.”

In Pixar in a Box: Season 1: Rendering, students learn how technical artists at Pixar use ray-tracing and other mathematical algorithms to calculate pixel color and generate the final frames of a film, as seen in “UP.”

So far, teachers have reported that their students love the collaboration, which gives them an easier way to illustrate the Common Core curriculum. (Pixar employees also enjoy being a part of the program: “Now my parents will finally understand what I do,” is sometimes heard in the offices.)

Brit Cruise, the curriculum’s lead designer, says the collaboration with Pixar is also changing the way Khan Academy makes content. Normally, most of their lessons are one-off modules, but this curriculum ties several concepts together into an interactive narrative experience of how something gets made. He sees the collaboration with Pixar not only as “a chance to make something which I could send back to my younger self,” but also as a way to inspire millions of students to pursue STEAM careers in which they entertain (and teach) the next generation.

MORE: Investing in Future Innovation: This Visionary Program Gets Students Hooked on STEM

This Clever Idea Can Solve One of Public Schools’ Biggest Technology Problems

Let’s be honest: technology is great, but it’s also incredibly fickle. Each major computer trend or software revolution is practically extinct by the time the next big thing rolls around — a huge nuisance (and even bigger expense) for consumers. And for schools that are getting by on just a few outdated machines, this constantly revolving door is a real nightmare. Neverware, a startup based in New York City, acts as a doorstop for the ever-evolving tech industry by transforming barely functioning old machines into computers that work like new. Through the company’s “Juicebox”, a large box that plugs into the schools’ network, all the computers are automated and updated with the latest software. Neverware’s desktop virtualization technology then boosts performance to each machine, providing fast connections that allow students to work more efficiently. And all this fits into the tightest budget. Participating schools pay an adjustable fee per month, per computer (up to 150 can be run on one Juicebox), and the Juicebox itself is provided for free. Schools then just need to maintain the one server to service all machines, saving time and money.
MORE: Read This Before Tossing Your Old Computer
“I wanted to offer schools a more capital-efficient method and enable students to use computers that were more up to date,” Neverware founder Jonathan Hefter told Entrepreneur. “They are paying for the end value of turning the computers on and they work well, and it fits their budget.” Hefter got the idea for his business in 2009 while attending the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. In 2011, Neverware secured more than $1 million in funding, and just this month, the company won a $10,000 grant from the GOOD Maker Savings Side of Business challenge — a joint effort between GOOD and UPS.
ALSO: This Innovative Philadelphia School Has a Really Good Reason for Downgrading Its Computers
Neverware is already being used in more than 50 New York public schools, powering computers that are more than a decade old. And as schools prepare to implement the new Common Core State Standards, which require more computer-based testing, the Neverware Juicebox will be more in demand than ever. Now if only the company could find a solution to quickly outdated smartphones.
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