SAN FRANCISCO, CA — May 01, 2019: Piper an industry leading edtech startup and trusted STEAM education provider, announced today that its award-winning Piper Computer Kit is the first product in its category to receive the STEM.org Authenticated™ “Trustmark”, and earn a perfect score in the evaluation process. Founded in 2001, STEM.org Educational Research (SER) strives to improve academic achievement by assisting partners in efforts to encourage STEM teaching and learning. More than 4,500 schools, districts, organizations, corporate clients, NGOs and government agencies around the world are STEM.org Accredited™ and turn to STEM.org for everything needed to build and maintain sustainable STEM education programs.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in STEM occupations is projected to grow to more than nine million between 2012 and 2022 1. The Brookings Institution reports STEM jobs with a bachelor’s degree or higher result in a wage premium of over 14% compared to non-STEM jobs with similar educational requirements 2. Currently, only 16 percent of students graduating from high school are proficient and interested in STEM careers 3. 

“The Piper Computer Kit excelled to new heights during our thorough product evaluation process, scoring in the top one percentile of over 1,100 STEM items reviewed since 2014,” said Andrew B. Raupp, founder and executive director of STEM.org. “The Piper Computer Kit offers an exceptional STEM education experience and this is the first time our evaluators have awarded a perfect score to a computer kit.”

Piper empowers the inventors of tomorrow by making STEAM connections today. The Piper Computer Kit helps students and families discover and understand technology from the inside out. Demystifying technology is one of Piper’s core tenants and The Piper Computer Kit provides the tools, information and understanding through hands-on discovery required to be empowered in STEAM education. Piper inspires parents to connect with their learner’s education and encourages children to feel connected to STEAM today and for the rest of their lives.

“Earning a first time perfect score from STEM.org is an achievement that acknowledges Piper’s true excellence in STEM education. The Piper Computer Kit encourages learner engagement in computer science, integrates circuitry and electronic learning, teaches block-based coding and provides real-world connections when building computers,” said Dave Lundgren, CEO, Piper. “This STEM.org Authenticated ™ accomplishment is an inspiration and encourages us to continue striving for improvements in this ever-changing, highly competitive 21st century global economy.” 

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Founded in 2001, STEM.org Educational Research™ (SER) is the longest continually-operating, privately-held STEM education research and credentialing organization in America. Through an extensive collaborative effort, SER has worked closely with pedagogical researchers, an international coalition of educators, administrators, NGOs and schools to establish a trusted set of STEM benchmarks. The resources and proven best-practices of this initiative have led to the world’s original and most recognized, blockchain-secured STEM credentialing framework: STEM.org Accredited™ for programs, STEM.org Certified™ for people and STEM.org Authenticated™for products.

Piper, Inc., founded in 2014 is an award-winning STEAM edtech startup committed to providing the highest quality STEAM education opportunities for learners and classrooms around the globe. Located in San Francisco, CA, Piper creates student-centered, hands-on learning experiences backed by the most current pedagogy. Piper supports educators with an easy to implement curriculum for teaching STEAM that is standards-aligned along with professional development ensuring successful classroom implementations. Piper builds confidence in STEAM education through project-based learning, spreads digital fluency to students of all backgrounds and inspires the inventors of tomorrow.

Sarah Duckett

Head of Communications

415-415-4161