21st Century Skills

The EdVenture Group has partnered with the West Virginia Department of Education in several 21st century initiatives designed to assist school leaders and WV educators in fostering 21st Century Skills. The EdVenture Group also partnered with the Office of Technology to develop standards-based matrices aligning 21st Century Skills, Tools and Assessments with the WV Content Standards that will be disseminated nationwide through the WV Portal. The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation supported this effort.

More information on the Partnership can be found at:

21st Century Skills

and the matrices are on:

The Solution Site

The After School Excellence (ASE) program strives to raise the bar for academic content and delivery in after school programs.

The project is funded by the Richard King Mellon and Claude Worthington Benedum Foundations, with additional funds from the Grable Foundation, Community Foundation of Fayette County, and Eberly Foundation. Pittsburgh area sites include: Chartiers Boys & Girls Club, Hill House, LaRosa Boys & Girls Club, The Rock and Wilkinsburg YouthPlaces.

7 new sites began implementing the program in Fayette County, PA, at the beginning of the 07-08 school year. New sites include: Albert Gallatin South Middle School, Ben Franklin School, Central Elementary School,  the East End United Community Center, Laurel Highlands Middle School, Perry Elementary School and Young Inspiration at Lafayette School.

Each ASE site focuses on either math or reading and selects a target grade level or range. Participants are exposed to educational software and online activities, 21st Century Skills and Tools, direct instruction, hands‑on experiences, and real life applications. In addition, participants are able to earn incentives based on their effort, accomplishments, completion of activities and attendance. ASE activities disguise learning and engage students of all learning styles from kindergarten to high school.

Visit these links for more on our After School Program:

Sample ASE Curriculum

Visit the After School Excellence sites online by clicking next below or

After School Excellence Newsletter

ASE Online Activities

After School Excellence Slide Show

Interested in boosting your after school program’s academics with a standards-based, FUN curriculum? The ASE curriculum is available for purchase. Please contact eevans@edvgroup.org for pricing information.

Comprehensive Information Technology Education in Rural Appalachia (CITERA) is a three year project sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Information Technology Experience for Students and Teachers (ITest) initiative designed to introduce students and teachers to careers and educational pathways in Information Technology (IT).

The CITERA project is a partnership between The EdVenture Group, West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation, Fairmont State College, and 7th through 9th grade students and teachers from North Central West Virginia through summer workshops and yearlong follow up activities.

The EdVenture Group’s role includes curriculum development, teacher and student training, research and evaluation, as well as web design and video creation and editing. The EdVenture Group has also played a key role in the recruitment of teachers and students for the CITERA summer workshops through local and national presentations, as well as the utilization of the Solution Site model to assist in designing teacher lesson plans and to disseminate the project content.

The EdVenture Group is part of a cohort accepted to present project content at AERA (American Educational Research Association) in San Francisco during the Spring of 2006.

Visit Citera's web site at http://www.citerawv.us

The EdVenture Group, in partnership with the West Virginia University College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, NASA, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, has developed a 21st Century program for teachers.

Math, Science & Engineering is designed to provide valuable resources for teachers. This program allows teachers to integrate math and engineering into their classroom. Math, Science and Engineering infuses real world engineering problems into the classroom while meeting the needs of No Child Left Behind. These units were developed by West Virginia teachers and are aligned to the National and WV Content Standards and Objectives for math, science and technology. The units are designed to engage students in a hands-on learning environment and expose them to 21st century engineering problems.

The goad of this project is to recruit, retain, and place the next generation of engineers, scientists and computer scientists from Appalachia in these career fields.

To view the units visit http://www.thesolutionsite.com.

For more information and to explore ways to be involved contact us.

The Solution Site was originally created as part of a 1998 USDOE Technology Innovation Challenge Grant.

As partnerships with educational organizations and other states are formed, we continue to add units of instruction that educators can use as a resource for integrating technology into the curriculum.

Teachers have the option to find technology projects for the classroom by searching the site by subject, grade level, standard (national, WV or PA) or by topic.

Visit the Solution Site on the web at:

The Solution Site

In 1996, The EdVenture Group began the Technology Opportunity Center or TOC project to address the technology skills-gap in West Virginia. The project began with the development of computer labs in middle and high schools across WV. The labs are used by teachers and students during the day and provide free training to community members during the evening. In 2005, the project took on an expanded goal of further increasing computer skills by providing the internationally recognized ICDL (International Computer Driver's License) certification to residents in distressed counties. The vision being that these new skills will provide amore skilled workforce and result in additional job opportunities and the pursuance of continued and higher education for these residents.

The original five-year US Depart of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant was awarded to start the project in 1996. This phase resulted in the development of 21 Technology Opportunity Center in nine WV Counties (Barbour, Clay, Harrison, Marin, Mingo, Monongalia, Nicholas, Preston and Taylor). The project succeeded in partnering with schools, communities and businesses to provide technology resources to schools and communities, offer free community technology training and career assistance to student and adult learners, and enhance educational opportunities in rural communities.

The funds form the Challenge Grant expired in 2001, but all of the centers remain in operation for students and teacher and many continue to offer the free community courses through the use of school and county funds.

Click here for maps and more...

Valley Worlds of Fun has been bringing joy to West Virginia children for many years. Bob Martin, owner and operator, has decided to give even more to students in the state.

Bob, in partnership with The EdVenture Group and West Virginia teachers has developed a 21st century educational program for students called e-Trek. The goal of e-Tek is to give teachers and students an exciting new tool to help with the increasing challenges in education. This program will allow teachers to bring students to Valley World of Fun for a hands-on learning experience that will engage the students in various academic areas such as math, science, health, physics and many others.

Along the way student will participate in activities like "Bowling for Science", "What's Your Lung Capacity?", and "You've Got Rhythm". Each activity was developed by WV classroom teachers and is aligned to National Standards, WV Content Standards and 21st Century Skills.

These lessons are available to teachers at:

The Solution Site

Teachers can contact Valley Worlds of fun at 304.366.2500 or 877.366.2501. Teachers can also email them at valleyworldsoffun@ma.rr.com.

Printable e-Trek Flyer