LitBit

There have always been challenges and barriers to student learning. Delivering education during a global pandemic has magnified and multiplied these concerns.

Providing an education delivery model and plan that adequately addresses the issues that learners and educators face during a pandemic has been challenging. Because students learn in different methods (visual, auditory, hands-on, memorization, kinesthetic, etc.) and remote learning obviously lacks the in-person observation and interaction,  it has been challenging as an educator to assess whether the learning objectives and benchmarks set by administrators are appropriate and being addressed.  There is no fluid pathway to refine the learning process when individual students are failing to meet the benchmarks. 

Around November 2020, schools in the United States shifted from an in-person learning environment to a remote environment due to the number of Covid-21 cases rising. The majority of districts immediately found that they were totally unprepared for the challenges and barriers that arose. Educators found that they were:

• Understaffed (was short before pandemic, even more so during)

• Consumed w/Admin tasks (conferences, roll call, evaluations, data collection)

• Consumed w/technical barriers/burdens while working remotely. 

  • Internet Connectivity and Technology Needs: In some cases, a student’s opportunity to learn has been hampered by limited access to internet connectivity and technology devices.

• Facing sudden student enrollment decrease and decrease-related funding: Student Enrollment in public schools decreased across the Country. For example, in Ohio, total enrollment in preK-12 public schools decreased by 53,000 students—or 3%—between fall 2019 and fall 2020. By comparison, decreases in the prior three years ranged from 0.03% to 0.4%.  
  

The LitBit handheld device facilitates individualized, interactive, fun learning that transitions seamlessly between in-person and remote environments.  The benefits provided by LitBit can be categorized into three pillars: 

• Administration/Safety

• Professional Development

• STEM Education 

Administration/Safety:

The device has a face recognition feature that facilitates a quick-and-easy roll-call for routine use as well as in emergency situations. Upon arriving to class, the students will each pick up a LitBit, sign on and get started. A daily check-in can be set up to appear after sign-in to assess the previous day's material retention. This will save time as well as provide feedback about absentee rates, and also the data from the daily check-in. The daily check-ins will also provide feedback to the educator about how the student is feeling before and/or after the class. 

The LitBit also has a secure feedback feature - where students can send messages to the educator privately - whether in a remote environment or in-person - eliminating the feeling of standing out or sharing in front of others.  

Professional Development:

The LitBit will provide the educator with metadata pertaining to student check-ins, including questions related to both mood and to material retention. These will provide the educator with invaluable insights regarding the individual needs of each student, thus fostering professional development for the educator. For example, if students exhibit poor retention or fatigue, the educator can take action to address the issue in future classes. 

Metadata pertaining to material retention will provide critical insights on how to improve student performance, especially for under-resourced communities. By providing a continual feedback loop, the students will be constantly taught, evaluated and retaught according to a model consistent with evidence-based learning. This will save the educator time since material does not have to be retaught once it is generally understood.

STEM Education:

Our proprietary sensor modules connect to the LitBit measuring air, water, and soil quality. These sensors can collect data for STEM activities pertaining to various environmental concerns – such as air quality in cities, water quality of streams near industrial areas, and soil quality around rural farms. Only one sensor module is needed per classroom, as LitBits can wirelessly network and share data. 

Geographic focus: LitBits can foster discussions and interactions centered around data gathered by the sensor modules. For example: What do other countries do? How do our levels of data compare to those of a sister city in India? 

Socio-economic status focus: The areas that have the most pollution from industry tend to be the most poor. Gathering data around that could foster discussion and potential solutions that could benefit the community.

Educators and students will benefit from the use of the LitBit platform.

The data transmitted from the device can be used to tailor work to the needs of the student, which will allow for a more individualized education. Before a student “falls through the cracks” they will have the opportunity to improve their grades and have a deeper understanding of the material that is being taught. The secure messaging feature will provide an open line of communication between the student and educator, and the educational STEAM games provide a social and emotional network for students to interact - no matter what the physical environment may be. Because the LitBit is so affordable, cost is not a barrier to it's use.  This will allow students of all socio-economic backgrounds to have access to it's features.

Educators will appreciate the time and effort saving features, including facial recognition for roll-call use, the opportunity to give and receive feedback (classroom and non-classroom related), the  easy-to-implement content added every week and the streamlined system for teaching, grading, and administration.

We have experience and wisdom from creating products and curriculum that is tailored to integrating new ways of learning to make STEM learning affordable and accessible. Foldscope’s pilot program began in 2014 with support from the Moore Foundation, Stanford University’s Spectrum Medtech and the Coulter Foundation. The pilot program alone distributed over 70,000 Foldscopes - our flagship microscope - to 135+ countries. Much of this work was carried out by volunteers and at no cost to the recipient. In exchange for the Foldscopes, we only asked that recipients contribute their findings to our budding online community, the Microcosmos. 

Once the global distribution of Foldscopes began to swell, an astonishing diversity of applications were (and continue to be) revealed. For example, Foldscopes were used to identify the microscopic eggs of agricultural pests in India, to catalog the biodiversity of soil arthropods in the Amazon, detect fake currency and medicine, follow toxic blooms, detect bacteria in water samples, map pollen diversity in a city landscape, among thousands of other things.

The company was founded with the goal of scaling up production and eventually releasing other low-cost scientific tools. To date, over 1.6 million Foldscopes have been distributed. 

We believe that the most important part of Foldscope is not the tools themselves, but the communities that use them. Especially now as we surpass one million users, our community spans many countries, ages, and levels of scientific background. Within the Microcosmos, Foldscope users connect, share their data & observations, ideas, and problems. It is a place to collaborate, find inspiration, and learn from fellow explorers. Through grassroots mentoring, we aim to create a network of curious members dedicated to exploration, open sharing, and equality of access of scientific tools around the world.

Looking to the future, we believe that access to science, and science education, is a human right. We dream of a world where every child carries a microscope in their pocket.

Although Foldscope Instruments has proven to be very successful with the sale of our flagship product, the Foldscope, we are in desperate need of assistance creating a solid business outlook and plan. We have been in the process of product development and management as well as developing our internal business documents but we really need assistance and guidance, as well as legal guidance. We currently have 9 ground-breaking products under development but need to stake out a path forward.

The LitBit will significantly improve the approach to administrative tasks in the classroom. Our device will allow the educator to reduce the time spent in the classroom completing administrative tasks. The facial recognition feature is innovative and cutting-edge, and the interactions will have a positive impact on the psycho-social well being of the students - regardless of their socioeconomic background.

The LitBit will provide students the opportunity to maintain continuity between the shifting landscapes of remote and in-home learning.

• During the first year, educators will transition from manual to our automated roll-call through the use of the LitBit.

• During the second year, students and teachers will give/receive feedback
  through the use of the secure messaging feature, allowing the educator to monitor the psycho-social needs of the student.

• During the third year, data will be successfully collected from each device and aggregated for use in the following areas by the educator:

  • Daily psycho-social check-in's

  • Grades from daily questionnaires
    

  • Attendance trends

• During the fourth year, educators will receive feedback from students, allowing customization of the lesson plans.

• During the fourth year, the device will use AI/machine learning to provide feedback to both educators and students to improve learning outcomes.

• During the first year, educators will transition from manual to our automated roll-call with an adoption rate of 80%.

• During the second year, students and teachers will give/receive feedback through the use of the secure messaging feature at an adoption rate of 80% of students using the feature at least 1 time.

• During the third year, data in the following areas will be successfully collected at a minimum of 15 days in a monthly period:

  • Daily psycho-social check-in's

  • Grades from daily questionnaires

  • Attendance trends

• During the fourth year, educators will receive feedback from a minimum of 20% of the students in each class over a monthly period, allowing for customization of the lesson plans.

• During the fourth year, the device will use AI/machine learning to provide a minimum of 3 pieces of personalized feedback to each student and educator over a monthly period.

• AI/ML available on the hub, the LitBit device and on the cloud to provide feedback to both educators and students to improve learning outcomes.
• ESP-32 low-cost microprocessor with WiFi, Bluetooth and machine learning capabilities - enough processing power to complete tasks robustly.
• Secure login capabilities through facial recognition/fingerprint ID.
• Camera.
• External sensors.
• Location tracking.
• Web-app-based GUI for programming the LitBits and uploading questions for the daily questionnaires and downloading data content from the sensors.

Although Foldscope Instruments' is a small business, our leadership team is diverse and inclusive. Our team comes from all over the world - from Peru to Japan, Morocco,China and the US...one of our two founders is from India. Foldscope works closely with our global partners. Many of our staff are bilingual as well.

Our mission is to make science and STEM education equitable and accessible for everyone. At Foldscope Instruments Inc, we provide innovative and powerful low-cost tools, educational services, and online community platforms.

We believe access to science and education is a human right. That is why we aim to break down the price barrier between people and science by providing products that are both low-cost and high-quality. Affordable STEM tools are important not only for reaching settings with little to no resources, but also for improving the state of science education in general. Across all of our products and services, we strive to promote equity and accessibility, and will continue to create tools and environments that foster curiosity, openness, and collaboration.

Foldscope Instruments relies on a combination of funding mechanisms. Our goal is to have a revenue stream from the sale of our products and training services that will more than cover our expenses. 

We have received grants in the past and are in the process of applying for multiple grants to cover our research and development expenses for our new products that are currently under development. We have raised investment capital as well.

This information is not publicly shareable.

We have received grants from Emerson Foundation and National Geographic Society through a fiscal sponsor.