Today, Mozilla announced ten projects in Kansas City and Chattanooga that will receive funding from the Gigabit Community Fund, an initiative supported by the National Science Foundation and part of the broader work of US Ignite. The goal of the Fund is to impact learning and support educators in and out of the classroom by investing in projects that utilize gigabit connectivity. The 10 projects will utilize the awarded funds, ranging from $5,000 to $30,000, to build and pilot gigabit-enabled applications and associated curricula in Kansas City and Chattanooga.

“The Gigabit Fund is transforming how communities learn and the accessibility of learning methods by piloting next-generation innovation as ‘living labs’ in classrooms, cultural institutions and other informal educational environments, putting technology in the service of education,” said Kari Keefe, Community Catalyst for the Gigabit Fund KC.

This is the second round of grants to be awarded by the Fund. The new projects receiving funds are:

Kansas City

• PlanIT Impact KC | PlanIT Impact LLC:  a visually-rich application that leverages Kansas City’s open GIS data to influence early building design for architecture students

• TechHawks | Fitnet: top-rated fitness app delivers real-time monitoring and robust metrics to curb obesity and shape how families manage and understand wellness

• Students Reduce Patient Readmissions with the Gig | Northland CAPS: high school students work with business partners to develop a suite of communications, monitoring and treatment tools for clinicians and high-risk patients to reduce the frequency of readmissions

• Minecraft+Oculus Rift for Community Development| Kansas City Public Library: virtual reality tech gives kids a voice and a way to design their ideal neighborhood in two of Kansas City’s urban areas, creating a gamed-up way to build community in this fully immersive educational program from KC’s Public Library

PlanIT Impact KC | Grand Blvd. in KC,MO

Chattanooga

• Building an App from the Ground Up | The Creative Discovery Museum:  Constructing an application toolbox and digital record that will serve as a design blueprint for other youth-serving organizations in Chattanooga and beyond.

• devLearn | Duncan Ingram, Inc: Developing a mobile coding application for elementary school students that will build critical capacity for Chattanooga’s gigabit future.

• GigBridge | Global Excel Tennessee:  Bolstering English language skills and improving access to health education amongst minority communities by teaching students for whom English is a second language to construct interactive mobile applications focused on obesity education and prevention.

• The GigLab | Chattanooga Public Library: Providing public access to gigabit connected resources for the purposes of workforce development, application testing and education.

• Viditor | GeonCode: Expanding and piloting a new, online collaborative video editor.

• Wireless Earth Watchdogs | Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences: Creating a student-driven, real-time water quality monitoring system using micro-controllers in collaboration with Hixson High School and the Chattanooga Public Library.

Viditor team leaders Stuart French and Andrew McPhearson (center) with first round beta testers at the Baylor School.

All of the ten projects feature a 12-week pilot program that will run from late July to October. For additional information about grantees and to follow their progress, please visit https://blog.mozilla.org/gigabit.

Funding Innovation to Develop Learning Communities

The Mozilla Gigabit Fund has accelerated the development of Hive Learning Communities in Chattanooga and Kansas City, which now join New York City, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Toronto, among others, in Mozilla’s global Hive network. Connecting schools, cultural institutions and youth-serving organizations throughout these cities, Hive Learning Communities are paving the way for a connected approach to education, and grantees of the Gigabit Community Fund become founding members of these developing networks.

Members of the KC and CHA Hive Learning Communities participate in regular meet-ups and online forums share their planning, progress, lessons and best practices throughout and following the initial pilot period.

 How to Get Involved

• Attend an event in Kansas City or Chattanooga
• Get in touch with the Gigabit team to learn more about these projects
• Follow team progress – and keep up to date with Hive KC and CHA – on Twitter