With Focus on Achieving Common Core Education Objectives, the Multimedia Video Series Blends Demonstrations, Experiments, Special Effects, Animations and Rich Graphics to Deliver Students Worldwide with Highly Engaging and Motivating Learning Experiences
Portsmouth, NH – (Marketwired) – July 9, 2014 – Trunity, a pioneer of eLearning technology solutions that transform the educational experience, today announced that in collaboration with Michael DiSpezio, noted educational author, television host and stage edutainment performer, the Company will be releasing a transformational learning platform, MindBenders™ Educational Learning Series in September 2014.
Developed by Trunity and directed by reality-based science television producer Brian Leckey, MindBenders is comprised of a 25-episode series of educational, reality-based shows created and hosted by DiSpezio, MindBenders’ Chief Scientist; and co-hosted by fellow MindBenders and internationally recognized science TV hosts Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara. The series features an accompanying education classroom website where teachers and students can collaborate, MindBenders Lab Kits for in-classroom experiments and MindBenders Challenges. MindBenders is available exclusively through the Trunity eLearning Platform and Knowledge Exchange.
Featuring professional production and broadcast quality coupled with special effects, animations and rich graphics, each MindBenders show instantly and effortlessly captures student attention with a motivating visual that sets the scene for further learning. From catapult launches to human glow sticks, these engaging hooks are delivered in terms of sophistication-appropriate coverage that has emerged from established grade level standards and are aligned with the vision of Common Core. Each MindBenders episode culminates with a hands-on project or minds-on application, called Mindbenders Challenges, that extends the learning experience. Students may be challenged to construct devices, engineer solutions and apply what they have learned, or further enrich their understanding by assuming the role of scientist, mathematician or engineer.
MindBenders will offer students and educators across the globe with the opportunity to actively engage and benefit from enhanced, reality-based learning experiences focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); and the series is designed to meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States. For established and fixed curriculums with insufficient coverage of NGSS or those programs that lack an adequate engineering module, MindBenders’ individual learning objects can be flawlessly integrated into the current offering. There's no need for educators to invest in a complete new NGSS curriculum; instead by enriching class coursework with a collection of MindBenders all the requirements will be addressed with a more complete scope and sequence. In addition, teachers searching for more thorough coverage can address identified gaps by offering up an episode of MindBenders assembled around specific themes, subject disciplines or dimensions of learning. MindBenders also provides parents who choose to home school their children with a powerful set of home teaching resources that they need for properly teaching in the digital age, leveraging mobile devices and tablets to transform the home learning experience.
Nicole Fernandez-McGovern, Trunity CEO and CFO, stated, “Trunity was founded on the belief that advanced digital technology holds the power to effect true, positive and profound universal change in how education is delivered and experienced. We want to empower students with the skill sets and higher thinking strategies they need to succeed in the 21st century.” Continuing, Fernandez-McGovern added, “We immediately recognized that this incredible teaching team has long shared our perspective and passion for fusing innovative technologies, such as the Trunity eLearning Platform, with fun and inspiring educational content to create entirely new paradigms for teaching and learning. By working together and fully leveraging Michael, Tory, Kari, Grant and Brian’s proven skill and expertise in edutainment, we anticipate that the MindBenders Educational Learning Series will prove to be a winning initiative, popular among students, teachers and school administrators, alike – while also serving to further distinguish and extend Trunity’s growing reputation as one of the true pioneers in the global education industry.”
On July 15, 2014 in San Carlos, California, Trunity will be hosting a special invitation-only “Behind the Scenes – MindBenders Set Tour” for a select group of influential educators and decision makers who will be treated to a private viewing of the show modules scheduled for release in September, and will meet the talent behind the transformative learning series. Select members of the national press will also be invited. Pricing and availability of the MindBenders series and MindBenders Lab Kits will be announced in August.
About Michael DiSpezio
Recognized as one of the most entertaining science educators in the world and the author or co-author of over six dozen textbooks and tradebooks collectively, DiSpezio’s impressive body of work goes well beyond the borders of the standard classroom. From 2001 through 2009, he worked with the National Geographic JASON Project as a writer, online curriculum architect, content specialist and on-air talent for 60 live satellite broadcasts. Since 1989, the JASON Project has provided multimedia curricular learning experiences in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to millions of K-12 students, and corresponding professional development for educators in a wide variety of formal and informal education environments.
About Tory Belleci
Tory Belleci is a filmmaker and model maker, widely regarded for his work in the television and film industries. Belleci started work at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), building models for films, including Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones. Some of his models include the pod racers and federation battleships. Belleci worked for ILM for eight years as a model builder, sculptor and painter. His special effects work can also be seen in Starship Troopers, Sphere, Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Terminator 3, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and Van Helsing. He has been with MythBusters™ since the beginning, first doing work behind-the-scenes and then becoming one of the show's co-hosts.
About Kari Byron
Kari Byron is best known as a host on MythBusters and the host of Head Rush. For over a decade, she has been a strong presence in the world of reality-based science television. Fostering her curious nature, she spent a lifetime acquiring odd skills and interests. After graduating college and traveling the world, Byron decided to settle in San Francisco and pursue a career as a sculptor, where special effects and pro making was a perfect fit. Trying to break into the field, she won an internship at M5 industries where her fist day turned out to be the beginning of MythBusters, and the launch of her career in television.
About Grant Imahara
Before becoming one of the hosts on MythBusters, Grant Imahara, an electronics wizard, spent nine years in special effects as an animatronics engineer and model maker for George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic. He has been behind the scenes of many top Hollywood films, including The Matrix sequels. Imahara has also worked on feature films including A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Van Helsing and Star Wars: Episode III. Imahara joined the MythBusters team in 2003.
About Brian Leckey
Brian Leckey has over 25 years of television and film production under his belt having produced for U.K. and U.S. broadcasters. He began his career at the BBC and worked on a wide variety of productions, including live outside broadcasts, magazine shows and documentaries. Brian has worked and is currently a director and producer of shows for Discovery, History Channel, National Geographic and PBS. Among his credits: Digging for the Truth, MythBusters, and Series Producer for Weapon Masters on Discovery.
About Trunity Holdings, Inc.
Founded in 2009, Trunity has developed a collaborative knowledge management, publishing and education delivery platform which provides an end-to-end solution for the rapidly growing eTextbook, eLearning and enterprise training marketplaces. As a result of the platform’s innovative multi-tenant cloud-based architecture, Trunity allows content from multiple sources to be assembled into customized living digital textbooks and courseware and delivered with real-time updates directly to the student on any Internet-enabled computer or mobile device. The content powered by Trunity is seamlessly integrated with learning management, social collaboration, standards alignment and royalty-tracking functionality. Trunity currently hosts a growing global community of over 4,300 expert contributors made up of top scientists and educators, who create peer-reviewed educational content. The Company’s clients include leading colleges, universities, K-12 schools, corporate enterprises and government agencies worldwide. Headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Trunity has operations in North America and internationally. For more information, visit www.trunity.com.
Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
As contemplated by the provisions of the Safe Harbor section of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to future, anticipated, or projected plans, performances and developments, as well as other statements relating to future operations. All such forward-looking statements are necessarily only estimates or predictions of future results or events and there can be no assurance that actual results or events will not materially differ from expectations. Further information on potential factors that could affect Trunity Holdings Inc. is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We expressly disclaim any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Trademarks
Trunity™, the Trunity logo, MindBenders™ and MindBenders Learning™ are trademarks of Trunity Holdings, Inc. MythBusters™ and Head Rush™ are trademarks of Discovery Communications, LLC and are not affiliated with Trunity Holdings, Inc., MindBenders™ or MindBenders Learning™. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT TRUNITY,
PLEASE CONTACT:
HANOVER|ELITE
Kathy Addison, Chief Operating Officer
407-585-1080 or via email at [email protected]
Portsmouth, NH – (Marketwired) – July 9, 2014 – Trunity, a pioneer of eLearning technology solutions that transform the educational experience, today announced that in collaboration with Michael DiSpezio, noted educational author, television host and stage edutainment performer, the Company will be releasing a transformational learning platform, MindBenders™ Educational Learning Series in September 2014.
Developed by Trunity and directed by reality-based science television producer Brian Leckey, MindBenders is comprised of a 25-episode series of educational, reality-based shows created and hosted by DiSpezio, MindBenders’ Chief Scientist; and co-hosted by fellow MindBenders and internationally recognized science TV hosts Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara. The series features an accompanying education classroom website where teachers and students can collaborate, MindBenders Lab Kits for in-classroom experiments and MindBenders Challenges. MindBenders is available exclusively through the Trunity eLearning Platform and Knowledge Exchange.
Featuring professional production and broadcast quality coupled with special effects, animations and rich graphics, each MindBenders show instantly and effortlessly captures student attention with a motivating visual that sets the scene for further learning. From catapult launches to human glow sticks, these engaging hooks are delivered in terms of sophistication-appropriate coverage that has emerged from established grade level standards and are aligned with the vision of Common Core. Each MindBenders episode culminates with a hands-on project or minds-on application, called Mindbenders Challenges, that extends the learning experience. Students may be challenged to construct devices, engineer solutions and apply what they have learned, or further enrich their understanding by assuming the role of scientist, mathematician or engineer.
MindBenders will offer students and educators across the globe with the opportunity to actively engage and benefit from enhanced, reality-based learning experiences focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); and the series is designed to meet the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States. For established and fixed curriculums with insufficient coverage of NGSS or those programs that lack an adequate engineering module, MindBenders’ individual learning objects can be flawlessly integrated into the current offering. There's no need for educators to invest in a complete new NGSS curriculum; instead by enriching class coursework with a collection of MindBenders all the requirements will be addressed with a more complete scope and sequence. In addition, teachers searching for more thorough coverage can address identified gaps by offering up an episode of MindBenders assembled around specific themes, subject disciplines or dimensions of learning. MindBenders also provides parents who choose to home school their children with a powerful set of home teaching resources that they need for properly teaching in the digital age, leveraging mobile devices and tablets to transform the home learning experience.
Nicole Fernandez-McGovern, Trunity CEO and CFO, stated, “Trunity was founded on the belief that advanced digital technology holds the power to effect true, positive and profound universal change in how education is delivered and experienced. We want to empower students with the skill sets and higher thinking strategies they need to succeed in the 21st century.” Continuing, Fernandez-McGovern added, “We immediately recognized that this incredible teaching team has long shared our perspective and passion for fusing innovative technologies, such as the Trunity eLearning Platform, with fun and inspiring educational content to create entirely new paradigms for teaching and learning. By working together and fully leveraging Michael, Tory, Kari, Grant and Brian’s proven skill and expertise in edutainment, we anticipate that the MindBenders Educational Learning Series will prove to be a winning initiative, popular among students, teachers and school administrators, alike – while also serving to further distinguish and extend Trunity’s growing reputation as one of the true pioneers in the global education industry.”
On July 15, 2014 in San Carlos, California, Trunity will be hosting a special invitation-only “Behind the Scenes – MindBenders Set Tour” for a select group of influential educators and decision makers who will be treated to a private viewing of the show modules scheduled for release in September, and will meet the talent behind the transformative learning series. Select members of the national press will also be invited. Pricing and availability of the MindBenders series and MindBenders Lab Kits will be announced in August.
About Michael DiSpezio
Recognized as one of the most entertaining science educators in the world and the author or co-author of over six dozen textbooks and tradebooks collectively, DiSpezio’s impressive body of work goes well beyond the borders of the standard classroom. From 2001 through 2009, he worked with the National Geographic JASON Project as a writer, online curriculum architect, content specialist and on-air talent for 60 live satellite broadcasts. Since 1989, the JASON Project has provided multimedia curricular learning experiences in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to millions of K-12 students, and corresponding professional development for educators in a wide variety of formal and informal education environments.
About Tory Belleci
Tory Belleci is a filmmaker and model maker, widely regarded for his work in the television and film industries. Belleci started work at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), building models for films, including Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones. Some of his models include the pod racers and federation battleships. Belleci worked for ILM for eight years as a model builder, sculptor and painter. His special effects work can also be seen in Starship Troopers, Sphere, Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Terminator 3, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and Van Helsing. He has been with MythBusters™ since the beginning, first doing work behind-the-scenes and then becoming one of the show's co-hosts.
About Kari Byron
Kari Byron is best known as a host on MythBusters and the host of Head Rush. For over a decade, she has been a strong presence in the world of reality-based science television. Fostering her curious nature, she spent a lifetime acquiring odd skills and interests. After graduating college and traveling the world, Byron decided to settle in San Francisco and pursue a career as a sculptor, where special effects and pro making was a perfect fit. Trying to break into the field, she won an internship at M5 industries where her fist day turned out to be the beginning of MythBusters, and the launch of her career in television.
About Grant Imahara
Before becoming one of the hosts on MythBusters, Grant Imahara, an electronics wizard, spent nine years in special effects as an animatronics engineer and model maker for George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic. He has been behind the scenes of many top Hollywood films, including The Matrix sequels. Imahara has also worked on feature films including A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Van Helsing and Star Wars: Episode III. Imahara joined the MythBusters team in 2003.
About Brian Leckey
Brian Leckey has over 25 years of television and film production under his belt having produced for U.K. and U.S. broadcasters. He began his career at the BBC and worked on a wide variety of productions, including live outside broadcasts, magazine shows and documentaries. Brian has worked and is currently a director and producer of shows for Discovery, History Channel, National Geographic and PBS. Among his credits: Digging for the Truth, MythBusters, and Series Producer for Weapon Masters on Discovery.
About Trunity Holdings, Inc.
Founded in 2009, Trunity has developed a collaborative knowledge management, publishing and education delivery platform which provides an end-to-end solution for the rapidly growing eTextbook, eLearning and enterprise training marketplaces. As a result of the platform’s innovative multi-tenant cloud-based architecture, Trunity allows content from multiple sources to be assembled into customized living digital textbooks and courseware and delivered with real-time updates directly to the student on any Internet-enabled computer or mobile device. The content powered by Trunity is seamlessly integrated with learning management, social collaboration, standards alignment and royalty-tracking functionality. Trunity currently hosts a growing global community of over 4,300 expert contributors made up of top scientists and educators, who create peer-reviewed educational content. The Company’s clients include leading colleges, universities, K-12 schools, corporate enterprises and government agencies worldwide. Headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Trunity has operations in North America and internationally. For more information, visit www.trunity.com.
Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
As contemplated by the provisions of the Safe Harbor section of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to future, anticipated, or projected plans, performances and developments, as well as other statements relating to future operations. All such forward-looking statements are necessarily only estimates or predictions of future results or events and there can be no assurance that actual results or events will not materially differ from expectations. Further information on potential factors that could affect Trunity Holdings Inc. is included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We expressly disclaim any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Trademarks
Trunity™, the Trunity logo, MindBenders™ and MindBenders Learning™ are trademarks of Trunity Holdings, Inc. MythBusters™ and Head Rush™ are trademarks of Discovery Communications, LLC and are not affiliated with Trunity Holdings, Inc., MindBenders™ or MindBenders Learning™. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT TRUNITY,
PLEASE CONTACT:
HANOVER|ELITE
Kathy Addison, Chief Operating Officer
407-585-1080 or via email at [email protected]