2013-2014 Year in Review

Make Learning Fun for Everyone!

Learn Fresh is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that strives to make learning fun for everyone! We utilize culturally relevant topics and iconic brands to develop fundamental academic skills, and show students that learning can be derived from the things that matter most to them.

Our first product is NBA Math Hoops - a fast-paced board game and free mobile app that teaches fundamental math skills to students through the actual statistics of their favorite NBA and WNBA players. The NBA Math Hoops curriculum is tied to Common Core Standards and 21st Century Learning Skills, and has been shown to improve students’ basic math skills and understanding of statistics, as they shoot, score and earn the title of Math Champion.

CEO, Khalil Fuller - khalil@learnfresh.orgDir. of Programs, Nick Monzi - nick@learnfresh.org

Table of Contents

Organization Overview..........................

Cleveland, OH.........................................

Prince George’s County, MD..................

New York, NY..........................................

Boston, MA.............................................

Buffalo, NY (Praxair)..............................

SXSWedu................................................

2014 All-Star Weekend...........................

Conferences...........................................

Globe Santa............................................

The Mobile App...................................... Metrics and Evaluation..........................

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The Tipoff Clinic Educators from across the region joined the Learn Fresh staff at Quicken Loans Arena for a two-hour introductory training session with the NBA Math Hoops game and curriculum. “It was fun,” said Jim Harris (Associate Head of School, Citizens Leadership Academy). “The teachers got really competitive in the room. Then all I had to do was sell it to the kids...they immediately got into it.”

Opening NightOver 60 students at Luis Muñoz Marín School in Cleveland participated in a special Opening Night event, the day before the Cavaliers’ season opener. Students played their first games of NBA Math Hoops, and participated in a Q&A and autograph session with Cavs’ guard C.J. Miles.

“This program is truly going to bring benefit to the scholars of Luis Muñoz Marín,” said Principal Jeff Kerucksi. “It’s helping them work on their math skills...and it’s also helping them to become lifelong learners, and that’s our goal here.”

Cleveland Chapter Initiative

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A Partnership with the Cleveland Cavaliers & the Northeast Ohio education community.

Life-Sized Math In a special event with students from the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority’s after school program, Learn Fresh turned a basketball court into a Math Hoops game board to teach the concept of shooting percentage. C.J. Miles returned to take the shots, and the students did the math in this highly interactive session.

The State Championship32 NBA Math Hoops teams from sites across the region gathered at Quicken Loans Arena to compete in the first annual state championship event. Championship winners and the Educator of the Year were recognized on-court at the following night’s game! Our work in Cleveland was recognized by the Mayor’s office and multiple local news outlets.

Learn Fresh is proud to announce the continuation of the Cleveland program in 2014-15.

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Prince George’s County, MDA Partnership with Scholastic Olympics

Program OverviewScholastic Olympics, an organization led by current UMD professor Tamara Cooke-Henry, launched a series of NBA Math Hoops clubs in schools across PG County during the 2013-14 school year. The clubs are supported weekly by SO staff, and include students from 4th-9th grade in eight schools. Students showed remarkable progress over the course of the year, with many scholars mastering the details of the advanced version of the game.

PG County ChampionshipRepresentatives from each of the eight participating schools convened in early May to celebrate a season of academic achievement at the NBA Math Hoops county championship. Held in conjunction with Scholastic Olympics’ annual spring competition, the tournament saw the first-ever “single student team” advance to the championship game with a series of remarkable performances. Pictured to the left is the team that eventually went on to capture the first county title.

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St. Elizabeth AcademySaint Elizabeth Academy in Ozone Park has been a key driver for the expansion of Math Hoops into the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Learn Fresh visited the school twice during the 2013-14 school year, capturing fantastic footage of the school’s enthusiastic students learning to play NBA Math Hoops. Full video can be seen at nbamathhoops.org.

Programs in DevelopmentThroughout the 2013-14 school year, Learn Fresh introduced Math Hoops to a number of after-school programs managed by City Year NY and Harlem Children’s Zone. Both organizations will play a key role in the development of the New York City Chapter Intiative next season, with all CYNY sites confirmed for participation in the year-long program.

New York City ProgramsBuilding a foundation for 2014-15

Learn Fresh will be including NYC one of four “focus cities” during the 2014-15 academic year.

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Program OverviewThe3PointFoundation provides students with one of the most unique NBA Math Hoops experiences in the country. Scholars hone fundamentals in the classroom and on the court with former collegiate and pro players each week, developing their personal “three point foundation” of character, academic achievement, and basketball. The organization operates a pair of flagship programs in partnership with Boston Public Schools at Dever-McCormack and Orchard Gardens schools.

Boston ChampionshipThe 2013-14 season concluded with the first Boston Math Hoops tournament, featuring the first-ever seven overtime game in title competition! Participants included scholars from the organization’s weekend and weekday programs, along with its summer CAB Academy.Throughout the past academic year, 3Point has seen student participation increase tenfold across all available programs.

Boston Chapter Initiative A Partnership with The3PointFoundation

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Math Hoops MentorshipA Partnership with Praxair, Inc.

Pilot Program in BuffaloThe community engagement team at Praxair has worked with Learn Fresh to develop a community program that combines mentorship curriculum with the academic experience of NBA Math Hoops. The resulting program was first piloted by a team of Praxair employees at a local Boys and Girls Club in Buffalo with outstanding results. The great work of the team in New York has garnered substantial attention in the city, with employees and educators now seeking out ways to expand the program to other clubs and schools in the city.

Expansion with PraxairIn the program’s second season, Praxair intends to launch Math Hoops mentoring initiatives at an additional nine sites across the company’s global network, including prospective locations through-out North America, Europe, and Asia. The program is an exciting new endeavor for Learn Fresh that offers participating students a one-on-one mentoring experience with a professional in the STEM field.

Learn Fresh continually seeks partnerships with companies interested in STEM education.

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LAUNCHedu @ SXSWeduLearn Fresh was a finalist for the 2014 LAUNCHedu pitch competition, hosted at the SXSWedu conference in Austin, Texas. While in attendance, the team connected with educators and innovators from around the world, successfully planting roots for the development of several new programs in 2014-15. During the pitch event, the NBA Math Hoops program inspired many as an audience favorite amongst a crowded field of international competitors.

2014 All-Star WeekendAll-Star Weekend always provides an opportunity to reconnect with a range of NBA Math Hoops supporters and partners. The team was ful-ly engaged throughout the weekend across a number of educational, cultural, and athletic events. NBA Math Hoops was also featured at Pro Camps’ 2014 All-Star Weekend event, hosted by Tyreke Evans of the New Orleans Pelicans at Tulane University.

Season Highlights

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Season Highlights

Conferences and Special EventsEach year, the team’s most valuable interactions with fellow educators and entrepreneurs often occur at education conferences held across the United States. 2013-14 events ranged in theme from the education of boys of color, to the involvement of girls in STEM fields and careers. The team highlighted NBA Math Hoops in special sessions at Big Picture Learning’s BIG BANG, COSEBOC’s Gathering of Leaders, AAUW’s Tech Savvy, and SXSWedu. In the process, several regional initiatives and dozens of new Math Hoops chapter sites were developed.

Globe SantaDuring the 2013-14 holiday season, Learn Fresh teamed up with the Boston Globe to offer NBA Math Hoops games to 400 students and families through-out the Greater Boston area. Games were donated to the newspaper’s Globe Santa program, and distributed in advance of the holiday.

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Earlier this year we debuted the first version of our NBA Math Hoops mobile app. We believe learning should be so fun that kids want to do it all day every day, and with the NBA Math Hoops app kids can do just that! It’s focused on out of school time, unlike the physical program that is primarily used in schools and after school programs. The tiered game encourages youngsters to move through levels of progressing difficulty to unlock their favorite players, earn trophies, and make it to the national leaderboard! The app is 100% free. Check it out in the App Store of Google Play. In the next year we have an exciting product roadmap to make the app truly great.

The Mobile App

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Metrics and Evaluation

If you know the Learn Fresh team, you know how serious we are about the numbers behind our work. Through a national pilot in 2012-13 with our research partner the American Institutes for Research we found that NBA Math Hoops is incredible effective in improving fundamental math skills and making kids better math students (4th grader’s math scores went up 55.9% after using the program for 18 hours, and 67% of students who at first were doing their homework only sometimes were doing it most of the time afterwards - for the full scoop read the full report).

Our investment in evaluation continued this year. With our deep dive in Cleveland we implemented an even more rigorous evaluation process that had strong controls and more differentiated tests based on grade level. The numbers will be crunched sometime this summer.

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So far we’ve reached 30,988 students who have done nearly 9 Million math problems, and we’re just getting warmed up!