CASE STUDY

Fourscore Make History Client: American Heritage Society

The Challenge
Todays high school teachers face greater challenges every day as curriculum needs change, budgets and technical resources are scarce, and requirements for Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the new C3 Framework are introduced. All this while trying to engage students whose daily lives are more intertwined with digital technology than ever before. For history and social studies teachers, this means finding engaging
ways to teach historical content and present primary sources from our nations past. For English and Language Arts (ELA) teachers, this means finding interesting non-fiction text to integrate into lesson plans. The American Heritage Society brings 60 years as a trusted historical publication along with a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to create a free new educational tool that links its wealth of historical essays and primary sources to the real needs of teachers and students as they become college and career ready.

The Solution
The American Heritage Society partnered with Apollo Matrix to design and develop a new educational product. Apollo specializes in a user-centric approach to product strategy and design. By focusing on the user, we were able to effectively align user goals with American Heritages business goals to create a robust educational resource. Fourscore provides a rich catalog of historical content that meets the CCSS and C3 Framework standards. It responds to the practical needs of teachers in a way that is sure to engage students. View the site at 4score.org.

Tactics
We started with our Discover & Define Workshop where we interviewed teachers from across the country from high-achieving schools where every student has access to school laptops to lowperforming schools in troubled areas with high poverty and limited access to technology. We learned that regardless of the technical capabilities of the classroom, every teacher had access to at least one laptop where they could present course material to the class using a projector. All of the teachers we spoke with wanted dynamic, engaging material that could capture their students attention and inspire them to learn about their great country. We also learned that teachers wanted Apollo created a solution that offered the flexibility teachers wanted along with direct, contextual references and support for the CCSS standards and the C3 Framework. Teachers can select historical content from American Heritage and its partners, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, and add it to courses they construct from within the tool. flexibility and the ability to teach the way they wish and not have pre-made or canned lesson plans provided for them. Teachers wanted to learn how to integrate the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into their lesson plans without substantially changing the way they teach.

Technical Details
Apollos developers used Drupal 7 for their data organization and structure. The first step in the process was a large-scale migration and indexing of existing data. This data was taken from four sources and had to be unified. The database transferred to was a MySQL database built into Drupal, with extensive custom content types in order to assimilate all of the input data. From this base, Apollo built extensive systems for user profiles and content creation and curation. Four unique profile types with different permissions were created: student, teacher, content manager, and content curator. On top of this system, we integrated Solr search. Finally, a complete custom theme was built from scratch for the website.

Teachers create courses, lessons, classes, and assignments using content from thousands of historical essays and primary sources from The American Heritage Society and its partners the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, and others.

The foundation of Fourscore is the Collection historical material paired with relevant instructional tasks vetted by a select group of teachers and curriculum experts at The American Heritage Society. Collections are presented with a compelling question to start the lesson an engagement approach encouraged by the CCSS standards. To encourage teachers and students to create compelling questions of their own, we created a feature where teachers can add their unique questions to the Collection. We built social sharing directly into the product to drive grassroots adoption by teachers.

To help promote adoption and acceptance into the education market, the new product needed a brand presence. Backed by the trusted brand of The American Heritage Society, this new product needed a name that upheld the promise of being a trusted collection of historical articles and primary sources inspiring young learners to explore history. The name Fourscore taps into the natural emotional response felt when a student, teacher or parent hears the first words of the Gettysburg Address. We connect that response to the new product that brings the best of historical content directly into the classroom. The tagline Make History inspires students to apply their knowledge of history and continue their education for college and career readiness. Ultimately, we want to inspire students to make history as engaged citizens.

Results
Fourscores highly anticipated pilot launched at the start of the 2013 2014 school year. Its breakthrough approach a resource of rich content custom-built for teachers and linked to CCSS standards was met with great excitement by teachers and school districts alike.

The Heritage Education project is simply remarkable. I am impressed with the repository of scholarship and the way you are thinking about pushing media to do more in the classroom. Bringing together content experts, teachers, educators, and instructional technologists will ensure the site is of the highest value for users.
Professor Kathleen Swan, co-director of C3 Framework project Council of Chief State School Officers

Create Remarkable Products

Apollo Matrix, Inc. brings together the best in branded user-centric experience design and technology. We are a full service digital agency specializing in native mobile and web applications for startups and midto-large businesses. Our Washington, DC-based design and technical consultancy leverages its offshore development center specializing in analytics, mobile and online software product development. We are structured to mentor and grow our professionals and not only attract and retain -- but develop -highly skilled design, software and data professionals.

Wed love to create a remarkable product for you.

To learn more about Apollo Matrix, Inc., please contact:
Pete Johnson, President & CEO, Apollo Matrix, Inc. Pete@apollomatrix.com 301.602.1210

1410 Q Street, NW Washington DC 20009

202.643.0711

info@apollomatrix.com

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