October Highlights at a Glance
- Launching the ABE Outreach System
- Three-Lesson Pilot Ready for November
- Introducing the ABE Blockchain Simulator
It was another busy month here at ABE. Our team spent October building the tools and materials that will carry us through the rest of the year. These include a new system for reaching every district in the Sunshine State, a completely reformatted pilot, and a hands-on simulator that brings the technology behind digital assets right into the classroom.
Launching the ABE Outreach System
ABE Outreach DatabaseSince the start of the Ardent Blockchain Education initiative, I have built relationships one county at a time, beginning right here in Hillsborough and expanding to Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee, Orange, and Sarasota. Those conversations have been invaluable, but Florida has a lot of school districts, and many of them had yet to hear from us.
That changed this month with the launch of our new Ardent Outreach system. As a fan of using various AI systems in my workflows, I built a dedicated one via Grok Bot to help with these endeavors. The dedicated agent researched each of the remaining 54 school districts we had no prior contact with and then made contact with nearly every one of them by drafting emails of introduction. I read and manually approved every one as the “human in the loop,” and we made contact with six new school districts.
For a small team like ours, this is a major step forward. It means every district in the state now knows about ABE and the free resources we offer to Florida students and teachers. I am excited to follow up with these districts in the coming months and help them bring blockchain education into their classrooms.
Three-Lesson Pilot Ready for November
Our three-lesson pilot is finished and ready to go. To be clear, the content is not brand new because it still addresses the main benchmark in SS.912.FL.6.14, evaluate the motives for using digital currency. Educators who have followed our progress will recognize its foundation. However, after substantial feedback, we completely revamped and reformatted the pilot so it is easier for teachers to deliver and more engaging for students who are learning the material.
Each lesson now includes video presentations, teacher materials, and student materials on topics such as supply and demand, volatility, and how they are related to one another. As a former classroom teacher, I know how much time educators spend preparing for a new unit, so our goal was to hand them everything they need in one place. Although we had hoped to train some teachers at a local high school this month, we will be doing so in early November. This will give us valuable feedback from teachers and students alike, and it will help us cement any final changes before we offer the pilot more widely across the Sunshine State.
Introducing the ABE Blockchain Simulator
Digital Currency SimulatorOur third highlight is one I have been eager to share. Ardent created a blockchain simulator that gets into the blockchain technology underlying digital assets themselves. In our seminars, students and teachers often ask what actually happens “under the hood” when someone sends a digital asset. Now they can see it for themselves. The simulator lets students and teachers replicate engaging transactions on a blockchain, such as moving tokens from one wallet address to another.
By letting learners interact with a blockchain directly rather than only read about it, the simulator turns an abstract concept into something tangible. That is exactly the kind of hands-on experience that makes these nascent topics click in the classroom.
As always, stay tuned for our next update. We will have more great news to share, including the results of our three-lesson pilot in November!
