We’re excited to be bringing Microsoft Teams to a 21st century project-based learning program that’s helping to prepare New York City students for success in school and the workforce.

Through a partnership with technology innovation hub New Lab and the New York City Department of Education, we’re helping to deepen a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) initiative known as the HE³AT Program. The program, launched at the start of this school year, is led by New Lab, which works to scale innovation in the tech sector and prepare students for the jobs of the future, out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Nearly 200 high school students from schools in Brooklyn are leveraging Microsoft Teams, a popular collaboration app in Office 365, in a variety of ways through the STEAM program. Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaboration tool that provides groups with the ability to work together and share information via a common hub.

As part of HE³AT, the students will engage in place-based learning experiences at the New Lab Navy Yard campus and Microsoft’s flagship New York store, where they’ll get support from Microsoft education experts.

During these on-site visits, students will practice the principles of design thinking and applied entrepreneurship as they develop their HE³AT projects in cross-school teams with a focus on the impact of technology on healthcare, energy, education, the environment and agriculture. Students will design, create and collaborate on their projects in Microsoft Teams, while partnering with New Lab member companies for project-based mentoring. The students will then use Teams to video conference with industry experts, mentors and one another to share and further develop their work.

There is broad enthusiasm for the program.

“HE³AT is an extraordinary program that is merged with Microsoft and focuses on guiding students like my classmates and I into future success through engrossing research using innovative technology. The program prompts students to hone their collaborative skills and creativity on Microsoft Teams, an engaging platform perfectly fit for this younger generation,” says Monique Johnson, a student at Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts.

“We are excited that students will have a unique opportunity to leverage Microsoft Teams, as the platform for modern collaboration as they explore transdisciplinary practices through the HE³AT program. Given Microsoft’s Teams usage in higher education and post-secondary job market, it just seemed natural to leverage the platform to support the NYC DOE’s instructional priorities which include AP for ALL, Computer Science for All, Hallmarks of advanced literacies, and an intrinsic focus on My Brother’s Keeper (MBK),” says Michael Prayor, Superintendent for Brooklyn South schools.

To hear more from students, administrators, and teachers and get a closer look at this exciting new partnership and program, check out the video below.