Osmo for Schools, the educational division of Tangible Play that promotes in-classroom usage of Osmo’s award-winning educational systems, celebrates its fifth anniversary March 30, 2021 and highlights recent achievements. These include upgrading to plastic pieces in all its school bundles to maintain the highest standards of classroom hygiene, along with reaching 100,000 downloads of the Osmo Projector App intended for teachers, which helped grow Osmo’s community of active users. 

“Osmo for Schools began thanks to all the incredibly enthusiastic teachers across the U.S. and Canada who adopted Osmo as an educational device for classroom settings, promoting its usage, so that schools and districts started to purchase it,” explains Jan Richards, head of education sales and marketing at Osmo for Schools. “In early 2016, Osmo began our division by forming a sales team, a conference strategy, plus a Classroom Kit for schools, which really took off. It’s come a long way since!” The division now has 15 sales and consulting executives who work under Richards, offers nine different learning system bundles, and works with thousands of school districts.

All Learning System Bundles Upgraded To Plastic Manipulatives for Effective Sanitization

In January 2021, Osmo for Schools upgraded all nine school bundles to include plastic pieces across the board, replacing ones made of cardboard. This makes it easier for schools to disinfect and clean Osmo’s manipulatives, which are used in conjunction with Osmo’s technology inside classrooms, and allows schools to maintain the highest standards of classroom hygiene. Osmo for Schools’ plastic pieces are long-lasting, easy to sanitize when using EPA-registered disinfectant spray, and dishwasher-safe. 

“The entire world holds a mirror to each school’s hygiene standard and methods of cleaning and disinfection--this is especially true in classrooms where several hands are touching different items every day,” says Richards. “Our plastic pieces are an excellent educational tool, now made even safer for classrooms, and only teachers have access to them. Teachers are so excited to have all-plastic pieces in their sets!”  

“In all my years teaching, I’ve always sanitized my teaching tools as a STEAM teacher; from robots, to iPads and now my Osmo for Schools kits--this is a life saver for my students and myself,” says Frances Amato Dominguez, Ed Tech Model and STEAM Teacher in New York. Adds South Carolina kindergarten teacher Keri Lewis,  “I love how durable these pieces are. Being plastic, they are able to be cleaned thoroughly between uses without fear of damaging the pieces.”

These bundles featuring all-plastic pieces are exclusive to Osmo for Schools, and educators who previously purchased bundles with cardboard manipulatives can now buy the plastic piece sets separately, with a 25-percent discount.

Projector App Reaches 100,000 Downloads

Due to the sudden transition to virtual learning one year ago, Osmo reacted to teachers’ cries for a more effective means of engaging students in a virtual classroom, by offering Projector App. The app began as a free download to all thanks to Osmo Cares, the charitable arm of Osmo. Launched in late March, the app is now being used by teachers of all levels (pre-K to university) across the country to make the virtual learning environment more fun, appealing, and similar to an actual classroom; it recently reached 100,000 downloads, and helped to grow Osmo’s community of active users. 

Projector App employs a powerful reflective AI technology that allows the camera to “see” the desktop in front of the screen and project a teacher’s real world text, notes and drawings onto the screen, even 3-D models they hold in their hand, while being compatible with Zoom and other video conferencing technologies (video). Projector App is the 2020 recipient of EdTech Breakthrough Awards’ “eLearning Innovation of the Year.”

“It’s wonderful that the free download of Projector App introduced many teachers to Osmo for the very first time, who were previously unaware of the great variety of educational products we offer,” says Richards. 

Carol Argumaniz, Assistant Principal at Lillie Jackson Early Childhood Center in Lewisville, Texas, speaks about the success her teachers are having with virtual learning, thanks to Osmo Projector App. “It allows teachers to deliver the same quality lesson through virtual learning, as they would deliver through in-person learning at school,” says Argumaniz. “And it allows them to conduct small group lessons with very high quality pictures so students feel like they are actually next to the teacher.”

About Osmo for Schools

Osmo for Schools, a division of Tangible Play, Inc., focuses on building in-classroom usage of Osmo’s award-winning educational systems. Using proprietary AI technology, these systems help teachers foster collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and increased engagement in learning, in students. Osmo is used in more than 30,000 schools in North America. Tangible Play is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For more information about Osmo for Schools and its products, visit schools.playosmo.com.