According to the company's website, Kognity created the new platform to help science teachers turn class into a real-world lab with “flexible, interactive and equitable learning" that uses simulations, videos and 3D models. It was created in collaboration with NGSS specialists with the goal of allowing teachers to build interactive lessons that task students with taking more active roles in the learning process, hopefully piquing their curiosity about the world around them and prompting them to think like scientists.
A news release from the company said the platform's interactive materials revolve around “anchoring phenomena,” a term which NGSS uses to describe a complex event that requires several different scientific ideas or disciplines, plus evidence, to explain. The hope is that this results in students asking more probing or thoughtful questions. Although the curriculum is provided within the platform, the news release said teachers have the flexibility to use the framework of it in their own way. The platform also relieves teachers from certain menial tasks by auto-grading assignments, as well as providing student insights and tips.
Kognity for NGSS is being piloted at high schools throughout the U.S., according to a company news release. Kognity Chief Executive Officer Hugo Wernhoff said his company realized how much work was being done in ed tech, as well as with content and curriculum providers, and sought a way to combine the two.
“When we looked at the learning resources ecosystem … there weren’t many (companies) who were working at the intersection of combining technology with pedagogy to elevate learning,” Wernhoff, who also co-founded Kognity, said in a public statement. "Kognity for NGSS is a marriage of both those things.”