Gainesville startup aims to teach students inquiry skills 

Who, what, where, when, why and how?  

Those are the questions you expect answered at the top of a business profile, and those are the questions AskMeno tries to instill in young students—along with a solid dose of curiosity.  

Since starting in 2022, the company has developed software to draw pre-K, kindergarten and first grade students into asking questions using a machine learning system and a lot of social studies prompts. AskMeno is a sandbox for kids to ask any question, or a series of questions, and still get to the end of the lesson.  

“Typically, when you say, ‘who has any questions,’ they pretty much use statements and tell you things,” said pre-K teacher Jennifer Aderholt. “So, I was very curious on how to get them to start asking questions because it’s a hard thing to actually teach.” 

Aderholt teaches at Eighth Street Elementary in Marion County and used AskMeno during the past school year as one of several trial classrooms. She said first graders’ questions often hit off target, relating to other subjects or lacking logic.  

After working through all 25 lessons of the AskMeno program, Aderholt said questions became focused with clear goals in mind—a result she did not expect.  

“I truly assumed like, yeah, that’s just how it is,” Aderholt said. “Kids just don’t know how to ask questions. There’s not really a way to necessarily teach that.”  

David Massias founder of AskMeno, said the goal is to change how students think and ask questions.  

He started the company after selling his previous startup, Shadow Health. That company developed a training course for nursing students to practice inquiry skills when talking with patients to avoid misdiagnosis, developing a virtual patient that students interacted with.  

After the sale, Massias began looking for other sectors that needed help, and he came across a study that said two out of three students aren’t ready for kindergarten. He said teachers have a lot of material to move through with students, sometimes limiting opportunities to let curiosity and questions flow. 

AskMeno ran pilot programs last school year and started selling the program for the 2023-24 school year. Alachua County Public Schools signed a contract to use AskMeno in all its elementary and pre-kindergarten schools this fall, and the program is in three other Florida schools and Buffalo, New York. 

“We’ve created a content agnostic tool that can teach any subject because what we designed it to achieve is to develop inquiry and communication,” Massias said.  

The program revolves around a young George Washington and the different adventures he has, like forgetting to do his chores in the right order. Students can ask any question about the adventure, no matter how off topic, and the program answers, guiding students back to the topic at hand when they make off-the-wall inquiries.  

The team built the program using hundreds and then thousands of questions—including those used by students in trial classrooms. Massias characterizes the program as machine learning, not artificial intelligence.  

Last year, the program could respond to 10,000 different questions. The response capability has now grown to over 56,500 questions.  

The current material relates to state standards for social studies, specifically learning about timelines and putting events in order. Instead of students memorizing the right answer, they ask questions and experience how timelines work and impact life.  

“Now the way to find out the answer is by each of you pursuing your own line of curiosity, and the learning objective is learning about timelines,” Massias said.  

He said AskMeno plans to expand beyond social studies, but until now, the program has still been adjusting and asking teachers about the experience.  

Marissa Pace teaches first grade at The Rock in Gainesville. She said integrating technology and artificial intelligence in the classroom intrigued her from the start. She used the program last spring and plans to use it again this year.  

“Their question asking skills improved, which is just applicable to every subject area to life outside of school,” Pace said. “That was really cool to see.”  

She said the program’s effectiveness hit home during a math session. In a “classic” kindergarten scene, a student raised his hand but didn’t have anything ready to say or ask. Pace said he glanced at the questions words (who, what, where, when, why and how) still on the board from the AskMeno session and formulated a question about the topic at hand.  

Pace said the program doesn’t require prep, letting her plug any 15- or 20-minute gap that happens in the day.  

“There are so many challenges with things you have no control over, like nutrition levels or instability issues,” Massias said. “You’re up against this larger challenge.”   

But, he said if the program can help students develop curiosity and confidence, those skills will assist them across all learning.