Mind Lab Group InternationalJoin Us on a Journey to the Future of Education

E d u c a t i o n i s C h i l d ’ s P l a y

Welcome!

I would like to thank you for your interest and congratulate you for exploring Mind Lab.

My name is Tzvika Enrique Feldfogel, and I serve as CMO of Mind Lab Group. During the last 20 years, Mind Lab has become a significant part of my life. For me and for all of our partners around the world, Mind Lab is more than a cutting-edge educational method, much more than a rewarding business – it is a way of living. We invite you to join us on our journey to the future

of education.

CMO, Mind Lab Group

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The Mind Lab Mission

Our mission is to prepare the next generation for the complex challenges of the 21st century: by strengthening a broad range of cognitive, emotional, and social skills; by teaching children how to think reflectively; and by encouraging students to learn how to learn.

Most important, Mind Lab helps our children to become fulfilled, contributing, and happy human beings. In order to accomplish this, we empower teachers and schools with innovative educational tools that work.

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About Mind Lab

The Mind Lab Group was founded in 1994. Our activities are all centered on the Mind Lab Method, a unique and innovative approach for the development and training of thinking abilities and life skills through strategy games. Our programs are being integrated into schools’ curricula – from kindergartens to high schools – with lessons delivered once a week throughout the school year.

During 20 years of intensive growth and widespread activity, the Mind Lab Group has become a world leader in the field of thinking and life skills development. The Mind Lab Method has been adopted by thousands of kindergartens and schools in 15 countries. More than 10,000 teachers have been trained and certified, and over 4,000,000 students have used the Mind Lab Method to improve their thinking skills.

Israel

ChinaBrazil

Turkey

Panama

USA

England Italy

The Opportunity

Our experiences while implementing Mind Lab internationally have been invaluable. The macro factors and recent trends in education systems around the world continue to provide us with huge opportunities to grow fast and change the world of education. Here are some of the most important factors and trends:

» Education is the key to competing in global markets

Governments and private sectors around the world acknowledge that they must improve education in order to compete in global markets and prosper. This is true in developed countries, but more than ever, also to developing countries, which include some of the most populous, fast-growing economies, and dynamic education systems in the world.

» Private involvement in education is widely accepted and growing fast

There’s a worldwide trend towards privatization in education, fostering an environment which is very open to for-profit involvement in schools. The United Nations Development Program refers to this issue and recommends as follows: “Education systems can capitalize on what private providers can do well by allowing high-quality for-profit private firms to serve the top 10 percent of income distribution, with private finance.”

» The quality of an education system cannot exceed that of its teachers

Educational quality is constantly becoming more and more quantifiable (for example, via PISA), creating global transparency and stronger motivation to improve. Countries and education systems can identify their weaknesses and focus on improving them. Among many others, an extensive McKinsey study identifies that the quality of educational systems is strongly correlated to the quality of their teachers. Good teachers can make a big difference and serve as catalysts of positive change in their systems.

» To succeed in the classroom, teachers need high-quality methodologies

A significant educational trend is the move away from knowledge-based teaching towards skills-based educational programs. However, there is a huge gap between well-known and widely-accepted educational theories, and the practical implementation of these theories in schools, especially in the area of life and thinking skills. Educational systems are therefore thirsty for attractive student-centered methodologies that work, and schools are looking for innovative programs to enhance learning and life skills.

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Our Solution

Mind Lab provides perfect solutions to the most urgent needs of education systems around the world!

At the heart of the Mind Lab Method is the notion that the most effective way to learn is through an immediate and authentic experience that leaves one wanting more. Game-playing is the perfect example of such an experience – it is entertaining, engaging, and exciting, and therefore stimulates eager involvement. Game-playing also provides fertile ground for the training and application of thinking abilities and life skills.

In other words – the Mind Lab Method both stimulates learning and simulates real life.

The philosopher Plato best articulated this with his sayings:

“Not by force shall the children learn, but through play.”

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

The Method’s Goals

» Developing Awareness – Awareness of thinking processes is essential for personal enhancement in every walk of life. The Mind Lab Method enhances students’ capacity for reflective thinking and enables students to be more aware of internal and external processes.

» Imparting Thinking Skills – In our information-rich age, an ever-increasing emphasis is being placed on the importance of basic thinking skills. The Mind Lab Method provides a broad range of these skills: problem-solving strategies, decision-making models, logical and mathematical thinking, verbal and communication skills, and more.

» Strengthening Life Skills – The game-playing experience is an extraordinary simulator of emotional and social processes. It obliges us to deal with situations involving cooperation and competition, winning and losing, success and failure, and it reinforces our ability to effectively manage and control our emotions, to defer gratification, and to enhance our determination, perseverance, and self-discipline.

» Interdisciplinary Transfer – The application of content and skills learned in one setting to another is considered by many researchers to be one of the most important learning abilities. The Mind Lab Method establishes an organizing base for many aspects of our lives. Through this method, children develop the ability to identify links between different fields of human thinking and activity, and this consequently enables them to transfer knowledge and apply it to other fields.

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Methodology: Practice, Theory and Research

Mind Lab’s learning process is simple, yet extremely powerful. The process begins with children engaging in game-playing, which ultimately empowers them with skills and knowledge relevant to real-life situations. The Mind Lab Method is the bridge that connects the World of Games with the Real World.

The educational process consists of 3 powerful and research-proven stages:Engage Learn Transfer

The Mind Lab Methodology rests on solid theoretical foundations and draws from the ideas and studies of several prominent scholars and researchers, including John Dewey, who already at the start of the 20th century recognized the urgent need to transform education into a more democratic and child-centered practice with his Constructivist Approach; Professor Reuven Feuerstein, who pioneered the successful educational method Instrumental Enrichment and the crucial concept of Mediated Learning; Professor David Perkins, who in his work stressed the need for teaching thinking processes; Professor Robert Sternberg, whose studies have examined the idea of Successful Intelligences; and Professor Howard Gardner who developed the Multiple Intelligences theory.

The efficacy of the Mind Lab Method has been put to the test in a number of comparative research projects carried out in conjunction with senior researchers in various countries, most notably with Professor Donald Green of Yale University. The research verifies that the Mind Lab Method significantly improves pupils’ thinking abilities and life skills. The Graphs below present the results in two of these studies:

Stage 2

They Learnthe Mind Lab

Thinking Tools

Stage 3

Children Transferto Real Life

Stage 1

Children Engagein Game-Playing

Success rate in problem solving tests

Pre-experimentresults

Interim results Final results

Control Group(Standard methods)

Research Group(The Mind Lab method)

Success rate in “language of thinking“

tests

Prior to the start of the experiment

After a three month period

Control Group(Standard methods)

Research Group(The Mind Lab method)

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Our Product

In order to learn in the most effective manner, children must be part of a challenging, captivating, and exciting experience. In order to inspire genuine motivation, children must simply like what they are doing – and for their teachers to engage children over time and impart the educational message proficiently, they need top educational tools.

Our product delivers all this, and more. It actually provides schools with a complete solution to their curricular requirements associated with thinking and life skills, and includes all the materials and know-how required to implement the Mind Lab Method in a kindergarten or school:

» Onsite training and support; online courses for educators

» An extensive series of textbooks and lesson plans for teachers

» Scores of exciting strategy games perfectly suited to the curriculum

» Demonstration accessories for building a complete learning environment

» Student and family kits to continue the Mind Lab learning at home

» Internet and mobile tools for teachers, parents, and children

Kindergarten 1 (Age 4)

Basic Concepts

in Thinking

A Shared Objective

Course 1 Course 2

Kindergarten 2 (Age 5)

Pattern Matching

The Nature of Groups

Grade 1 (Age 6)

Data Management

& Analysis

Skills for Logical

Thinking

Grade 2 (Age 7)

United ForcesFiguring It

Out

Grade 3 (Age 8)

Asking Questions

Deep Waters

Grade 4 (Age 9)

Problem Solving

Planning & Sequencing

Grade 5 (Age 10)

Information Analysis

Resource Management

Grade 6 (Age 11)

Forward Planning

Grade 7 (Age 12)

Benefits of Collaboration

Decision Making

Grade 8 (Age 13)

Tactics and Strategy

Deep Waters

Grade 9 (Age 14)

Effective Thinking

Memory Applications

Deep Waters

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The Mind Lab Advantage

Mind Lab provides perfect solutions to the most urgent needs of education systems around the world!

Mind Lab is equally appealing to all those key stakeholders who are affected by the educational process and commercial engagement, and no other educational program accomplishes this as successfully as Mind Lab does!

Mind Lab is loved by children because it is extremely engaging and builds their confidence and self-esteem. The language of game-playing is universal.

It is valued by parents because it provides their children with the most important tools they need to succeed in their studies, careers, and personal lives.

Teachers enjoy teaching Mind Lab and are empowered by the method. The Mind Lab curriculum does not compete with schools’ curricula. Rather, it complements it by enhancing the teaching-learning process, strengthening life skills, and improving scholastic achievements in math, reading, and other core disciplines.

Private school directors – and also decision-makers at city, state, or country level – often perceive Mind Lab as a most successful and innovative program, and view Mind Lab as an excellent vehicle to improve educational quality, and at the same time, to differentiate themselves from competing institutions (or education systems).

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We believe that the best way to contribute to education is by improving the quality of schools, and one of the best ways to accomplish this, is to empower schools’ own teachers with innovative educational programs that work.

The chart above presents how Mind Lab positively impacts education systems around the world: we start by licensing our curriculum to schools, training their teachers, and improving the “teach-learn” interaction between teachers and their students. This is the focal point of the entire process.

Making a Difference

Student

Family

Community

Teacher

Principal

International

Mind Lab In School

National

We then go on to systematically meet the needs of all stakeholders at the school level. Students, parents, teachers, and principals – all benefit directly from a series of complementary activities and products. These include various School Projects offered by Mind Lab, Parent-Child Events, Student and Family Kits, and more.

On a yet higher level, we initiate projects such as our Web Communities and International Mind Olympics, and leverage these to create a big, global family of Mind Lab students and educators, influencing high-level decision-makers who are able to observe the accumulated positive impact of Mind Lab on their education systems.

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Mind Lab Country Licensees are highly specialized and focused. They operate their businesses in accordance with the following strategic principles:

Direct DevelopmentThey develop the business with highly skillful and committed management teams, and they license the methodology only to end-users.

Focus & SpecializationAlmost all focus on one educational solution, and only teach thinking abilities and life skills using our own-developed methodology.

Clear and Unique MarketCountry Licensees implement our programs where they are at their best: within educational institutions, as an integral part of the curriculum.

Simple and Powerful ModelAnd, although a service model providing Mind Lab instructors is also available in some countries, Mind Lab Country Licensees typically strive to license our curriculum to schools by training and supporting the schools’ own teachers.

Our Business Model

We expand internationally by choosing highly committed and proven entrepreneurs in prime locations. We then create strong and close working relationships with our exclusive Country Licensees and their management teams in order to develop and maintain the highest possible quality standards.

Mind Lab Country Licensees grow their businesses by licensing the curriculum to kindergartens and schools. Our Country Licensees focus their efforts on marketing, sales, teacher training, and ongoing pedagogical support – always striving to create meaningful, long-term relationships with decision-makers and stakeholders.

Mind Lab Group

Country Licensees

Kindergartens, Schools, and Education

Systems

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Client Base

Our Country Licensees develop their client base by servicing private and public educational institutions – from PreK and kindergartens, through primary schools, and up to middle schools and high schools.

The main line of business involves the licensing of our program to primary schools. These schools integrate the Mind Lab curriculum into their own curriculum; they benefit not only from the value of the program for students, but also from the huge added value of built-in professional development for their teachers.

From a business viewpoint, the main advantages of licensing include: having a highly specialized and focused management team; maintaining relatively low overhead and high profitability; and securing better relationships with opinion-makers and decision-makers at schools.

In order to support the main line of business, Country Licensees also offer a wide range of short-term complementary programs year-round: In-School Workshops of 1-12 sessions, Teacher-Training Workshops, Parent-Child Events, our Mind Olympics Events, and many more.

Typically, our client base in a new country starts growing from the private sector, particularly from the most progressive and prestigious private schools. However, our Country Licensees’ ultimate business-goal is not only to conquer a significant share of private schools in their countries, but to win and operate large-scale projects in the public sector – with municipalities, states/provinces, and the central Ministry of Education.

Top Private Schools

Other Private Schools

Top Public Schools

Large Projects with the Public

System

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Working with Mind Lab Group

We have a cutting-edge educational solution. We have a winning business model. And, we are offering the exclusive right to operate Mind Lab and revolutionize the education system in your country. If you are a passionate and business-minded entrepreneur, we invite you to join us on a journey to the future of education!

» Advantages

By joining our network and implementing our business model you would be benefiting from various inherent advantages:

» Exclusive country rights

» International brand recognition

» A proven service-oriented model

» Huge demand to the Mind Lab Method

» Long-term relationships with your clients

» High quality assurance, managing your team

» An exciting, fast-growing, sustainable business

» Resources

As a Country Licensee you would also benefit from a variety of services and resources offered by the Mind Lab Group:

» Access to our complete educational technology (PreK-G9)

» Ready-made and easily adjustable marketing and sales tools

» Initial 5-day training delivered to your pedagogical team onsite

» Comprehensive onsite training for your marketing & sales team

» Our Direct participation in your marketing campaigns and initial sales

» Pedagogical and commercial support and training from our headquarters

» Participation in our national and traditional International Mind Olympics

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Mind Lab Group

20 Hata’as St., P.O. Box 2218, Kfar Saba 44641, Israel

Cell: +972 523 433 442

tzvika@mindlab-group.com www.mindlab-group.com

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