Day: October 13, 2022

Out of the Box
Out of the Box report cover by New Classrooms and Transcend

A new report, released today by New Classrooms Innovation Partners and Transcend, highlights the role innovative learning models can play in modernizing K-12 education.

"While sectors such as energy, healthcare, and transportation have undergone fundamental transformations over the last two decades, the K-12 sector has remained centered on a delivery model patterned after the American factory," said Joel Rose, CEO of New Classrooms and co-author of the report. "It is time to support an overdue transition from an industrial paradigm of schooling to a student-centered one — especially for students in the most marginalized communities."

Out of the Box: How Innovative Learning Models Can Transform K-12 Education, which explores strategies and recommendations to drive collaboration among policymakers, advocates, funders, and educators in order to modernize the educational delivery model, was funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The report's title, Out of the Box, was inspired by Malcolm McLean's breakthrough idea from the 1950s — bypassing the increasingly congested interstate highways and instead putting shipping containers from trucks directly onto ships. Despite meeting sharp resistance, McLean's out-of-the-box idea and commitment to his vision would ultimately bring about a new level of standardization and interoperability to the sector. Today, an estimated $14 trillion in goods spend some time inside of a big metal box.

"The story of Malcolm McClean is not only about the impact of a physical box. It is about the importance of thinking outside of one," said Jenee Henry Wood, Head of Learning at Transcend and co-author of the report. "Innovative Learning Models enable the actualization of a student-centered approach and are designed to help move us to learning that is equitable and responsive to the needs of the 21st century."

As part of the release, New Classrooms and Transcend invite education influencers, advocates, funders, educators, administrators, and policymakers to attend Out of the Box: A Conversation about the Future of School Thursday, Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. ET. Registration is free and features some of the most important and influential voices in K-12 education. 

The paper comes on the heels of Transcend's launch of the Innovative Models Exchange, a free, searchable, and shareable library of adoptable, innovative learning models.

"Despite innovation across nearly every sector of society, a one-size-fits-all approach has governed mainstream schooling in America for more than a century. This platform was launched to put tools for a redesign in the hands of more school communities," shares Jeff Wetzler, Transcend co-founder. "The Models Exchange is a free resource for those inspired to reimagine schools but who don't want to start from scratch. The Exchange helps them find, learn, and borrow from innovative programs created by others across the country."

About New Classrooms
Founded in 2011, New Classrooms Innovation Partners is a national nonprofit on a mission to personalize education by redesigning how a classroom works - from the use of technology, time, and physical space to the instruction and content that engages each student. The founders of New Classrooms were the leaders of an initiative within NYC Public Schools called School of One, which TIME named as one of the Best Inventions of the Year. New Classrooms' innovative learning solutions, Teach to One 360 and Teach to One Roadmaps, ensures each student is learning the right math lesson, at the right time, and in the right way that best meets their strengths and needs. It is used by thousands of students in schools nationwide. For more information, visit our website or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

About Transcend
Transcend is a national nonprofit that supports school communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. The organization was founded on a belief that we must reimagine schooling, using a community-driven approach so all children can realize their infinite potential. Transcend pursues its mission by partnering directly with schools on design journeys while also sharing powerful models, tools and insights across the sector. To date, Transcend has worked directly with hundreds of schools and leaders in over 30 states, and has influenced thousands more. Ultimately, Transcend strives to fuel significant leaps in education so all young people can thrive in and transform the world. For more information, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Dr. Andrea Small-Howard, President and Chief Science Officer of Gb Sciences (OTCQB:GBLX), a leading plant-inspired, biopharmaceutical research and drug development company, is demonstrating the potential efficacy of their proprietary cannabis-inspired mixtures today at the Canna Pharma 2022 Conference in San Diego, California. Dr. Small-Howard explains Gb Sciences' novel process for developing disease-specific, cannabinoid therapeutics in her presentation entitled "Case Studies: Identification of Minimum Essential Therapeutic Mixtures from Cannabis Plant Extracts by Screening in Cell and Animal Models." Gb Sciences' case studies include scientific evidence demonstrating the potential efficacy of their cannabinoid-based therapeutic mixtures designed to treat Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, or inflammation using their novel minimal essential mixture approach.

"Medicinal cannabis has shown great promise for the symptomatic treatment of many serious human disorders, but concerns around safety, consistency, legality, psychoactivity, and non-standardized routes of delivery, such as smoking and vaping, have slowed the adoption of the use of medical cannabis within traditional, physician-guided patient treatment programs. To address these challenges, we hypothesized that within Cannabis plant extracts, there would be a minimal essential mixture of compounds that preserves whole plant benefits, but with the manufacturing, quality control, and regulatory benefits of single ingredient therapies," said Dr. Andrea Small-Howard.

Minimal essential mixtures (MEM) is a term Gb Sciences has coined from their proprietary research after deeming that a simplified mixture represented a happy medium between whole plant medicines and single ingredient drugs. Minimum Essential Mixtures are designed to retain increased therapeutic effectiveness from molecular synergies within the original plant extracts, but with the manufacturing efficiencies, quality assurances, and regulatory advantages of single ingredient drugs. Gb Sciences' disease-specific MEM are produced for clinical evaluation using synthetic homologs of cannabis-based ingredients incorporated into sophisticated oral delivery modalities including Oral Dissolving Tablets (ODT), Oral Thin Films (OTF), time-released oral nanoparticles, and gel capsules to increase the stability, bioavailability, and ease-of-use of these ingredients relative to the non-standardized delivery methods used for Cannabis plant extracts.

Gb Sciences was recently published in Pharma's Almanac discussing the strategy behind their plant-inspired minimum essential mixtures, which provides context for the case studies being presented today.

To learn more about Gb Sciences, visit www.gbsciences.com.

About Gb Sciences and GbS Global Biopharma

Gb Sciences, Inc. is a plant-inspired, biopharmaceutical research and development company creating patented, disease-targeted formulations of cannabis- and other plant-inspired therapeutic mixtures for the prescription drug market through its Canadian subsidiary, GbS Global Biopharma, Inc. The 'plant-inspired' active ingredients in its therapeutic mixtures are synthetic homologues identical to the original plant compounds but produced under current Good Manufacturing Practices. Gb Sciences' intellectual property portfolio contains six issued U.S. and three issued foreign patents, as well as 17 U.S. and 51 foreign patent-pending applications. In its drug development pipeline, Gb Sciences has five preclinical phase product development programs. Gb Sciences' lead program for Parkinson's disease is being prepared for a first-in-human clinical trial. Gb Sciences' formulations for chronic pain, anxiety, and depression are currently in preclinical animal studies with researchers at the National Research Council Canada. The company also received positive preclinical proof-of-concept data supporting its complex mixtures for the treatment of Cytokine Release Syndrome and its lead candidates will be optimized based on late-stage preclinical studies at Michigan State University. Gb Sciences' productive research and development network includes distinguished universities, hospitals, and Contract Research Organizations. To learn more, visit www.gbsciences.com. 

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