In an effort to help educators and community members who are preparing grant proposals to purchase Zubi Flyers, we have aggregated information on this page to simplify the process! Feel free to use any of the text or linked content on this page to accelerate the grant writing process for your school(s). If you see something on this page that is missing or something that can be made easier, please let us know!
Finding Funding
The funding situations at schools varies across the country. To assist you, here is a list of sources teachers have found success with in the past:
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Donor's Choose - This website allows you to appeal for donations for classroom projects from a large base of philanthropically minded users. Zubi Flyer is not currently carried by any "approved" vendors at Donor's Choose; however, you can place a special materials request. Please contact us if you are interested in using this venue for fundraising.
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District support organizations - Depending on the state you live in, your district might be supported by a governmental organization at the county or multi-county level. These organizations may offer grant programs for STEM-related programs or equipment.
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Foundations/Corporations - Many robotics teams are funded by technology companies who have an interest in cultivating their future workforce. You can make the same argument with Zubi Flyer. If there are technology minded companies in your area, ask if they have a corporate giving program. Similarly, there may be local foundations in your area that focus on education.
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PTA/PTO/Friends of the Library - Many parent and community support organizations recognize the value in increasing computational thinking and other STEM skills, and have purchased robots for their schools or libraries. Ask us about how to turn Zubi Flyer into a fundraising program for your school or district!
Zubi Flyer Thesis (for context)
FuzePlay is an experiential learning company that integrates IoT technologies through play. We FUZE skills gaps with an educator first approach to developing real-world skills through applied code and electronics.
FuzePlay supports a simple pedagogy:
1) Verify & Compile Code
2) Configure Hardware
3) Play Games
FuzePlay closes skills gaps and prepares future minds to make the impossible possible! Our technology platform enables high-tech toys for the non-tech through turn-key subscription based computer science programming geared for PreK-6 classroom and home use. We FUZE Play!
Product
Zubi Flyer is an educational STEAM toy that includes 12 fun games and teaches futuristic technologies through play! Whether inside or outside, Zubi Flyer shows kids (and adults!) how stuff works - Learning electronics and real code is as easy as 1,2,3, Build Hack Play!
FuzePlay’s hardware platform FUZE’s play by linking online applications to offline, real world experiences that create organic unstructured and open-ended opportunities for global citizenship and peer-to-peer collaboration. By leveraging free, open source tools familiar to educators and common in industry we bring toys to life!
Courses and trainings curate an experiential learning environment specifically for introducing new technologies. Each lesson plan follows a standardized pedagogy that starts with 'Play' to teach applied skills around emerging technologies.
Target Market
FuzePlay’s primary consumers are elementary and primary educators. Secondary consumers include upper class parents seeking tutoring or camps to supplement their child’s public/private academic experience and/or to supplement their homeschool curriculum. Our core subject matter of focus is technology education; however, the educational experience provided is multidisciplinary and multi curricular which increases engagement among core users and is scientifically proven to increase learning and retention.
Outside of the home job roles relating to our target market include, in order of priority: Teacher/Faculty (PK-12), Technology/Coordinator/Specialist/Facilitator, Instructional Technology Coach/Coordinator, Library Media Specialist, Technology Director, Principal, Curriculum Coordinator/Specialist, Consultant/Trainer, Staff Developer.
We focus 70% on public schools and 15% on private/charter schools, 15% parents at home.
Problem We Solve For
Educators are not trained on how to teach with technology and computer scientists are not trained on how to teach kids. FuzePlay solves for the ubiquity of technology in society by leveraging the value of educators and empowering the minds of children.
What Makes Us Different
Our applied pedagogy makes us different: 1) Verify & Configure Hardware, 2) Compile Code, 3) Play Games. FuzePlay gives kids as young as 6 the WOW experience of programming and controlling their physical world directly using text based script! This magical level of engagement gives FuzePlay a unique opportunity to accelerate the development of computer science related skills among the youngest in our community faster than anybody else in Education!!
What will FuzePlay do for the world?
FuzePlay empowers and enables a future of highly valued technology integrators in a world where kids (and adults!) will collaboratively share secure code snippets to gratify and improve their lives and the lives of others on this world and new worlds we will soon inhabit.
Social or Economic Needs
The U.S. Department of Labor projects that between 2008 and 2018, 1.4 million computing jobs will have opened in the U.S. If current university graduation rates continue, only 61% of these jobs could be filled by U.S. computing degree-earners. Unfortunately, graduation rates are dropping or stagnating at most universities. It is imperative that we have more students studying Computer Science if we are to fill those jobs. Computer science teaches students design, logical reasoning, and problem solving - all valuable well beyond the computer science classroom.
NCWIT and code.org have some good resources backing up and expanding on the above paragraph:
Additionally, information technology and computer science careers are some of the best-paid, highest growth options for students today. You can find detailed career and salary information at:
Which Students will be Impacted by the Grant
With the Zubi Flyer's current suite of electronics and software support, any introductory or AP Computer Science class can make excellent use of Zubi Flyer during the entire length of the course. Zubi Flyer can also be applied in shorter modules across many subject matters (math, science, physical education, art, music, etc) to demonstrate the cross-curricular applications and the multidisciplinary nature of technology. For example, Computer Science students can write code that plays a musical piece being taught in music class. PreK-6 students can take games they modified using text based script straight out to recess or their Physical Education class!
We also have a drag and drop programming platform that allows students from 1st grade and up to use Zubi Flyer to learn programming and computational thinking skills. Students use Zubi Flyer as a controller to interact with their online block based stories.
Expected Lifetime of Equipment
A very conservative answer is four years, though we expect them to last 5-10 years with ordinary use.
Frequency of use of Equipment
Depending on how the class is designed, Zubi Flyer can be used by students for any assignment or activity involving programming or computational thinking in the classroom.
Alignment to State Standards
Each state's Computer Science-related standards differ, but here are some concepts that can be taught using Finch:
With the help of our Educator network we are continually building out lesson material covering all of these topics available free at:
Assessment Suggestions
If you need to assess or evaluate your project or grant's results, here are a few techniques we have used in the past:
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If you have enough students (typically 30 or more), you can run some basic statistical comparisons between students in the year(s) in which you've used Zubi Flyers, compared to students in previous years. Do they complete more assignments? Are assignment grades higher? Are exam grades higher? If an AP class, does the average AP score go up?
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You can also compare enrollment/adoption in much the same way, especially enrollment/adoption in the second year in which you have Zubi Flyers in use. Are more teachers integrating Zubi Flyer into their curriculum? Are more students enrolling in the after school program?
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You can do entry and exit surveys of students to determine if motivation or interest in a Computer Science is changing based on your class. The same survey can also ask students if Zubi Flyer specifically increased their interest in Computer Science.
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You can attempt to track students who have finished a Zubi Flyer workshop to see if they choose a STEM major or participate in out of class STEM activities. Applied in a PreK-6 environment Zubi Flyer is a fantastic incentive based tool. Do students choose to use their 'reward' time to play on their own with Zubi Flyer?
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If you have two or more classes, you could do a mini-randomized controlled trial (the gold standard in evaluation research). For a given concept, create two assignments - one using Zubi Flyer, and one without: then give one class the Zubi Flyer assignment and the other the regular assignment. Test their knowledge of the concept afterwards. You can directly evaluate both assignment completion rates and learning.
Project Promotion Suggestions
Some grants may ask you to promote the funding agency or program. Others may simply wish that you have a plan for advertising the funded project as widely as possible. The following are a number of suggestions for doing so:
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Article in the school newspaper (for students).
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Article in a school newsletter (for parents).
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Display at open house.
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Display at information nights for new students.
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Hold contests or events where current students can display their work to other students to try to recruit for next year.
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Provide a letter to parents of students who get to use Zubi Flyer thanking the granting organization for providing the learning tool and describing how they can be used.
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Encourage students to use Zubi Flyer in science fairs
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Encourage advanced students to organize Zubi Flyer workshops for younger students.
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Partner with a local library or community organization to provide outreach demonstrations or classes for the community.
Pictures of Zubi Flyer
High-resolution pictures of the Zubi Flyer are linked below:
Additional Assistance
Please do not hesitate to write or call us if there is some way in which we can provide additional assistance to simplify your grant proposal process!
