Thank both of you for the comments and feedback. It is all so very appreciated! -Yes, we do have data from the pilot which led us to continue the project--from the rubrics prepared in the pilot program: over 80% of the parameters were met by the participating students. Lessons are integrated by teachers with their math and language arts curricula using standards they choose to include, and then delivered by teachers. -You are absolutely right about a more compelling story--for those of us who worked on this, it just seemed so obvious that everything is touched by economic and financial decisions (the might $$ as the driver for the economic decisions on the making of goods and services, the delivery of products, the elasticity of prices, etc.) and impact how we live. Social and emotional wellbeing/stability are affected by the good economic-financial decisions we make and so learning about and applying the concepts at at early age gives much more benefit, and bang for the dollars spent. Research verifies this and that when high schoolers or young adults are taught the concepts, not as much is retained or applied--hark back to 2008 and we see adults making questionable decisions that eventually affected their standards of living and general well-being. That year, very real broad impacts were felt by a very large part of our society. So it seems, reasonably, to us, that if you start kids off early, scaffold the learning and reinforce till they become habits of the mind, than the application becomes much more effective and easy. This is the reason why we chose to pilot and forward the program for children in grades K-5.
We are not a curricula company. Teachers use the curricula chosen by their school or systems. We provide the concepts per grade level, and are developing tools to help them more clearly understand the challenges of integration. They are shown how to include our concepts in their lesson plans. Unlike others, we don't just talk about how and why integration works, we show them how to do it and provide resources for them.
Love the idea! My project also deals with looking at 'nipping the problem in the bud'--when kids are little. I wish you success with yours! Check out the Small Business Development Center for added (mostly free) resources. :) -Caroine, RisingTigers