X PRIZE, Virgin Unite and PlayLab Launch Rocket-Building Workshops for Children to Inspire New Generation of Space Explorers
Focusing on a collaborative effort to design, build and test rockets of varying designs, the workshop program helps build innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity skills and exposes children to science, engineering and aerospace technology. The workshop series will start on October 27, 2013, and run for four consecutive Sundays.
“Partnering with PlayLab and X PRIZE will give our team a chance to dive right in and start doing hands-on rocket building with the very kids we hope will be flying us to the moon someday”, explains Loretta Whitesides, Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut and Chair of the Galactic Unite Programs and Partners Committee. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to connect with young minds and see what great ideas they have for our future.”
PlayLab’s project kits and workshops help children develop important life skills, which include creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and leadership. The project kits provide hands-on learning experiences for children. They also provide children with an avenue for exploring areas that interest them, or that parents want to expose them to.
“X PRIZE is delighted to work with PlayLab and Galactic Unite to give young students an after school program that lets kids engineer their own version of the original Ansari X PRIZE flights that launched the personal spaceflight revolution,” says Gregg Maryniak, Secretary and Director of the X PRIZE Foundation.
“PlayLab is thrilled to work with X PRIZE and Galactic Unite to bring this exciting workshop to future innovators and inspire excitement in science, engineering and space” says Mohan Nadarajah, Founder & CEO, PlayLab.
Workshop Details:
The workshop will consists of eight unique sessions that will take place on four consecutive Sundays starting on October 27, 2013.
Dates: Oct 27, Nov 3, Nov 10 and Nov 17, 2013
Time: 10AM-2:30PM
Location: Northstar Montessori Private School, Mississauga, Ontario
For more information; please visit http://www.playlab.co/#!events/cnyc.
About X PRIZE (http://www.xprize.org)
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, thereby inspiring the formation of new industries and the revitalization of markets that are currently stuck due to existing failures or a commonly held belief that a solution is not possible. The Foundation addresses the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. It motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital.
About Galactic UniteVirgin Galactic and its Future Astronaut customers have teamed up with Virgin Unite, the non profit foundation of the Virgin Group, to make a difference in this new age of commercial space travel. Based on the fact that future generations will have opportunities to see the world as never before, Galactic Unite embraces the idea that new advances in science and technology have the potential to unlock answers to global challenges and change the world for the better. Galactic Unite is investing to help future generations make the most of these new advances in three ways: Education, Entrepreneurship and Inspiration. By working together, the future astronauts of Galactic Unite will leverage their knowledge, their resources and their experience to make a positive impact on the world of tomorrow.
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