Company: Discovery Education, Silver Spring, MD
Company Description: Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-based digital content and professional development for K-12, transforming teaching and learning with award-winning digital textbooks, multimedia content that supports the implementation of Common Core, professional development, assessment tools, and the largest professional learning community of its kind.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories - Education
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Education - Career and Workforce Readiness Solution

Nomination Title: Discovery Education and Alcoa Foundation's Manufacture Your Future

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 650 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date:

In May 2014, Alcoa Foundation, one of the largest corporate foundations in the United States dedicated to supporting education where Alcoa can offer expertise in manufacturing, the environment and safety, and Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, joined forces to inspire the next generation of manufacturing leaders and innovators. Together, Alcoa Foundation and Discovery Education launched Manufacture Your Future, a new online educational program, designed to motivate students in grades 6-12 to take the first steps toward exploring and pursuing today’s manufacturing careers through digital, interactive resources.

This dynamic, co-sponsored online portal provides middle and high school educators, guidance counselors, students and families standards-based, cross-curricular education tools such as lesson plans covering topics like engineering, manufacturing and robotics, career guides and parent resources – at no cost – that complement and broaden Alcoa Foundation’s education initiatives. As a like-minded partner, Discovery Education utilized its full slate of educator and family resources to bring the program to life, and through powerful media outreach, the program garnered major national positive recognition.

Objectives
Objectives of Alcoa Foundation and Discovery Education’s partnership include: Inspire students to take the first step toward exploring and pursuing manufacturing careers; bolster the efficacy of educators, administrators and school counselors to help cultivate the manufacturing workforce of tomorrow; create a positive perception of careers in manufacturing by highlighting exciting tech and design career options; and, generate positive media coverage for Manufacture Your Future to spread the word about the initiative.

Research
Educating today’s students about careers in the manufacturing industry is especially important knowing that according to The Manufacturing Institute, more than one in seven U.S. private sector jobs depends on the U.S. manufacturing base. Additionally, according to a national survey by The Manufacturing Institute, less than 20 percent of Americans said that their parents or school system encouraged them to pursue a career in manufacturing. Given this information, Alcoa Foundation and Discovery Education worked together to create an innovative program that would provide state-of-the-art resources to educate students, educators and families about exciting post-secondary manufacturing career opportunities.

Execution
To spread awareness about Manufacture Your Future’s launch in May 2014, Discovery Education promoted the program to its teacher community of more than 1 million educators nationwide through a grassroots campaign which included blog, email and social media outreach. Alcoa Foundation and Discovery Education developed co-branded display advertisements that promoted the program and partnership, as well as issued two joint press releases around the program’s launch and announcement of its exclusive virtual field trip.

Results
To date, the program’s curricula have reached approx. 370,000 students nationwide, and on October 3, 2014, an estimated 150,000 students tuned in to Manufacture Your Future’s Live Virtual Field Trip to get a behind-the-scenes look at an Alcoa manufacturing facility and have their questions answered in real-time by Alcoa’s leading engineers to celebrate National Manufacturing Day.

Manufacture Your Future garnered more than 114 million earned media impressions. Highlights from national media coverage include: an exclusive feature in US News and World Report in May 2014 announcing the program’s launch, and in October 2014 recognition on the White House’s official website about Manufacture Your Future’s virtual field trip held in celebration of National Manufacturing Day. Major education trades covered the program’s launch and virtual field trip announcement, raising awareness of the program to top educators and administrators nationwide. The program successfully secured press coverage in major manufacturing trade outlets, as well as local coverage from media outlets close to Alcoa Foundation’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA.

Through this unique partnership, Alcoa Foundation and Discovery Education have created a strong alliance that allows Alcoa Foundation to achieve its mission of educating tomorrow’s leaders for careers in manufacturing and engineering through Discovery Education’s customized educational solutions that accelerate academic achievement.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and benefits of the nominated product or service:

• Virtual Field Trip available to schools nationwide that was broadcast live from a high-tech Alcoa aluminum manufacturing facility in Davenport, Iowa. The Virtual Field Trip took place on Oct. 3, 2014, to celebrate National Manufacturing Day and provided middle and high school students with a behind-the-scenes look at careers in advanced manufacturing. This Virtual Field trip is archived on the program’s website.

• Standards-aligned lesson plans available to educators at no cost for students in grades 6-12 that are designed to enhance students' science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills, and aim to inspire their interest in the advanced manufacturing industry.

• Exclusive interviews with biomechanical engineers and robot technicians available on the program’s website.

• Career guides and discussion starters available for school guidance counselors and parents that were developed with support from the American School Counselors Association, to ensure that materials were developed to best serve school counselors.