Cooper Institute and GreenLight Team Up to Bring a Blockchain ‘Digital Locker’ to Student Fitness

The Cooper Institute launched FitnessGram in 1982 as "the first student fitness report card." Today FitnessGram assesses health-related components of fitness for more than 10 million students in over 10,000 U.S. schools. Now Cooper is partnering with Dallas-based GreenLight Credentials to use its blockchain platform to help students and schools alike securely store and share the records.

What does blockchain technology have to do with a sixth-graders’ pushups or a sophomore’s 50-yard-dash? A lot more today, thanks to a new partnership between Dallas-based GreenLight Credentials and The Cooper Institute.

The team-up will combine the research and science of Cooper’s  FitnessGram student fitness software solution with GreenLight’s blockchain-powered software, operations, and records management capabilities.

Together, they will leverage GreenLight’s “digital locker” solution, which allows students and schools to securely administer, store, and share fitness records. While GreenLight brings the tech to the partnership, FitnessGram is providing its user base of more than 10 million students in over 10,000 schools across the US.

“As physical activity and physical education levels continue to decline during the pandemic, it’s extremely important to keep youth fit as our research has demonstrated that it is associated with better academics,” said Dr. Laura DeFina, president and CEO at The Cooper Institute, in a statement. “This partnership will help students, their families, educators, and administrators ensure they have the necessary data to drive decisions related to activity and PE and to live healthier lives.”

GreenLight’s worked with DISD, Dallas College, and UNT Dallas

GreenLight is a self-funded startup bringing blockchain’s distributed ledger tech and its security, verifiability and trust to education. Early GreenLight adopters include Dallas ISD, Dallas College, and UNT Dallas, with students sharing records with other higher learning institutions and employers.

In 2020, we wrote about GreenLight being chosen to provide its platform to the Texas College Bridge, a collaboration of the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Impact Network, The Commit Partnership, and institutions of higher education in Texas.

Last year, Dallas Innovates named GreenLight CEO Manoj Kutty one of the Future 50 in Dallas-Fort Worth, and wrote about his firm’s partnership with UT Southwestern to launch software tools to identify depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses in primary care settings.

FitnessGram: the ‘first student fitness report card’

FitnessGram was launched in 1982 by The Cooper Institute as the “first student fitness report card.” It’s used to assess and drive student fitness decisions by students, parents, teachers, and administrators.

GreenLight sees the partnership as broadening the impact FitnessGram can offer nationwide, while helping students achieve their goals.

“Our partnership with the Cooper Institute broadens GreenLight’s commitment to using, storing, and sharing data vital to advancing student success,” said Bill Searight, president of GreenLight Fitness, in the statement.

Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.

Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.

One quick signup, and you’re done.
View previous emails.

R E A D   N E X T

  • Lee Bratcher Texas Blockchain

    The inaugural October 8th Texas Blockchain Summit could be a watershed event for making Texas "the jurisdiction of choice" for Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, will host a wide array of speakers including Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis.

  • GreenLight Credentials connects students, educators, and businesses by making records secure and shareable. The startup's tech expands beyond grades to certifications, job experiences, and verified skills. UT Southwestern has taken notice of the North Texas company's tech and is partnering with GreenLight to launch software tools to identify depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses in primary care settings.

  • Learn the ways medical school classrooms are looking more and more futuristic by incorporating simulation learning into their curriculums.

  • "It's larger than every other problem that we face, probably combined," says Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath. The long-term economic impact of pandemic-driven learning loss in Texas could total as much as $2 trillion. An expert panel discusses the challenges—and what's being done about it.

  • BUiLT, nonprofit, Texas, North Texas, Dallas, Dallas-Fort Worth, DFW, Black talent, Black tech talent, Texas talent, North Texas talent, Dallas talent, Dallas-Fort Worth talent, DFW talent, talent attraction, Texas tech talent, North Texas tech talent, Dallas tech talent, Dallas-Fort Worth tech talent, DFW tech talent, Texas business, North Texas business, Dallas business, Dallas-Fort Worth business, DFW business, Texas nonprofit, North Texas nonprofit, Dallas nonprofit, Dallas-Fort Worth nonprofit, DFW nonprofit, symposium, symposia, non-profit, nonprofit, nonprofits, non-profits, cybersecurity, cyber security, north-texas, expo, vice president, Texas symposium, North Texas symposium, Dallas symposium, Dallas-Fort Worth symposium, DFW symposium,

    Nonprofit BUiLT is hosting the event to highlight the success and possibilities of Black tech talent in the region. “There is no talent pipeline problem,” says Peter Beasley, co-founder of the Blacks United in Leading Technology International. “Black tech talent is widely available, especially in North Texas.”