Nearpod Partners With Unmanned Safety Institute To Bring Interactive Drone Education To High School Students

The Unmanned Safety Institute (USI), the leading provider of Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum and industry certifications to students interested in a career as professional remote pilots, and Nearpod, the company helping districts in their digital transformation, announced today a partnership to promote Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) learning across high schools throughout the world.

The introductory program provides teachers and high schools with the opportunity to deliver USI’s award-winning education curriculum to students who are interested in discovering the amazing technology unleashed by UAS, also known as “drones”.  The program offers schools around the world the opportunity to offer introductory education programs to students in secondary schools who are interested in exploring the fascinating world of drones by teaching them aviation safety fundamentals that are essential to flying drones professionally.

“We are thrilled to partner with Nearpod and expand our STEM education programs to secondary schools who trust Nearpod to deliver engaging, interactive content to millions of students around the world,” said USI President Aaron Greenwald.  “This announcement demonstrates our commitment to ‘students first’ by teaming up with a world-leader like Nearpod to expand the reach of our programs and impact students in schools around the world, empowering them to discover the amazing capabilities of drones.”

Nearpod’s suite of products helps districts embrace technology in their classrooms. Through Nearpod, teachers find, create and deliver compelling classroom learning experiences that use virtual reality, video and other interactive media to boost learning outcomes. Its catalog of more than 5,000 standards-aligned lesson plans spans every K-12 topic as well as cutting edge ones like digital safety, character-building and learning English as a second language.

“The drone industry is an example of a STEM-driven field that was all but non-existent 10 years ago but is a great career path for many people today,” explains Felipe Sommer, president and co-founder of Nearpod. “Our digital platform teaches students about the things they need to know to succeed in today’s economy and we’re honored to partner with the industry leader in drone education.”

In August 2016, the FAA placed into effect 14 CFR Part 107 governing the widespread use of UAS for commercial purposes. Since then, businesses around the United States have realized tremendous benefits in utilizing this advanced technology from a cost-savings, time-efficiency, and personnel safety perspective. The rapid proliferation of commercial drones has created tremendous demand for hundreds of thousands of new jobs and the FAA estimates there could be as many as 2.3 million licensed drone pilots by 2020.

About USI:

The Unmanned Safety Institute (USI) is the industry’s most widely recognized leader in flight safety solutions for individuals, enterprises, and organizations focused on integrating and operating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as “drones,” for civil or commercial purposes. The Unmanned Safety Institute, widely recognized as “best-in-class” provides UAS flight safety training and certification to operational standards based on the adoption and modification of time-honored aviation safety practices.  USI is a portfolio company of ARGUS International, Inc., and is headquartered in Orlando, FL with safety assurance offices in Denver, CO. Founded in 1995, ARGUS International is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, and actively engaged with business activities in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, South America and the Middle East and Africa.  To learn more about USI, please visit www.UnmannedSafetyInstitute.org or call 1-877-535-SAFE (7233).

About Nearpod:

Nearpod is an award-winning education technology company focused on developing digital learning tools, virtual reality and interactive content across mobile devices that provides teachers an easy and efficient way to leverage technology in the classroom.

Nearpod was co-founded in 2012 by Felipe Sommer, Emiliano Abramzon and Guido Kovalskys, and its team spans talent from Mckinsey & Co, Red Hat, Accenture, Pixar, Netscape as well as former teachers. It is backed by notable investors like Insight Venture Partners, Reach Capital, Storm Ventures, the Knight Enterprise Fund, Krillion Ventures, Stanford-StartX Fund, Marc Benioff and GSV Acceleration.