Partnership will create online workbench for education makers to explore, build, teach, and share with electronics

BALTIMORE, June 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Edtech company Workbench has partnered with SparkFun Education to create the online community, "InventorSpace," which combine SparkFun's curriculum with its circuit boards, robotics components, and other materials to bring engaging supplemental content to teachers and students. To view SparkFun's online community, go to invent.sparkfun.com.

The SparkFun InventorSpace will allow users to interact with the company and with one another to share programs, videos, lessons and experiences. In addition, the content created in this workbench can be leveraged by educators to drive interactive, hands-on learning in the classroom helping to meet NGSS standards.

"At SparkFun, our goal is to make the world of electronics accessible to everyone by providing the tools, resources and support to help budding inventors fulfill their vision," said Nathan Seidle, founder and CEO of SparkFun. "We are excited to find a like-minded partner in Workbench that will help us partner with schools and districts to achieve their goals."

The SparkFun InventorSpace built on the Workbench platform features projects that use sensors, switches, and controllers to teach STEM skills such as geometry, science, art, physics and coding. With its fully integrated and custom learning management system, teachers can use it to assign lessons and monitor student progress.

"SparkFun offers incredibly rich and engaging tools to not only teach STEM concepts, but to also provide progressive educators ways to use SparkFun products in innovative humanities and arts programs," said Chris Sleat, founder and CEO of Workbench. "Through this partnership, we will help them connect to their customers with content and community, and help their customers connect to each other in new ways."

The Workbench platform allows partner companies to reach more people in a dynamic way and build long-term relationships with their customers as they expand content on the platform. For students and teachers, the Workbench platform provides a place to find free, engaging online projects that allow students to learn STEM skills while building and creating. To view the Workbench platform, go to www.workbenchplatform.com.

About SparkFun
SparkFun Education connects learners with the spirit of innovation that will lead to a generation of thinkers who can shape the world with powerful ideas and solve real-world problems with technology. Sparkfun views electronics as more than a hobby or a career path, but as a creative medium for advancing teaching and learning. The curriculum and resources are designed specifically as hands-on learning tools to help today's students learn skills for the creative and digital economy—critical thinking, collaboration, communication, curiosity, problem solving, and invention. Ultimately, the goal is to make it easy for students to experiment and become "Citizen Scientists."
For more information, visit sparkfuneducation.com.

About Workbench
Workbench's core mission is to partner with maker-space companies to create online learning communities called workbenches. These workbenches foster an engaged community where users can interact with the company and with one another to share programs, videos, lessons and experiences in order to drive interactive, hands-on learning in the classroom. In addition, the fully integrated and custom learning management system within Workbench allows teachers to assign lessons and monitor student progress.

Workbench has partnered with some of the preeminent names in the maker space including Parrot, Sphero, SparkFun and PowerUp Toys. For more information, visit www.workbenchplatform.com.