Hosted by OSOS , contributed by yairbh_nc on 3 June 2018
The junior high schoolers of the Akko Education Center are young entrepreneurs. The students paricipating in the program select their roles in the initiative and take part in all the aspects of the "company" and characteristics required: investing, team working, marketing, finance, integrity, ethics, and hard work. At the end of the activity the company will take part in local fairs in the area of the school. The group members decided to create a game to teach kids and teenagers in a fun way about their city - Acre. The game includes questions and tasks about the in the city arranged in 5 different categories about the city of Acre:
- Nature and plants: Coastal Candle, Adad, Samar Hadar, Eshel square and more.
- Geometric structures in the city: the Knights' Halls, the walls of Acre, a lighthouse, a mosque and more.
- Streets and neighborhoods in the city named after famous artists.
- Archeology - Tel Napoleon, arches, Templar tunnels, Turkish bath, island of flies and more.
- Physics fun through the park: Climbing wall, Zip-line etc.
In order to create the game and the tasks in it, the students met with experts in the community, worked with teachers of different subjects, and organized meetings with various city policy makers.
Responsible Research and Innovation
One of the key aspects of OSOS is the inclusion of RRI - Responsible Research and Innovation principles (more information at RRI-Tools.eu). This is how the "Up and Down in Acre" Accelerator fits into the RRI model:
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Governance |
students will be responsible for involving different stakeholders, with whom they will maintain a continuous relationship with the objective of disseminating the game they created and involve more students in it. I.e.: Students will be in continuous contact with stakeholders, who will be involved in the different phases of the activity in order to achieve the best results of the project. students will communicate the different advances in a transparent and reflective way. |
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Public engagement |
Students will encourage the participation of stakeholders in the activity, making it proactive. Students will be able to make decisions collaboratively, sharing responsibility for the final results with stakeholders. I.e.: students will get in touch with families and neighbors, whom they will interview and ask about their experties that can be of use in developing the game. |
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Gender equality |
When considering the scientific project, from its conception to its final solution, students will take into account the gender dimension. To do this, they will make equal decisions and ask both men and women, analyzing if there are differences in their opinions. I.e.: Equal work division between female and male students when working in groups. |
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Science Education |
Students will involve their environment to acquaint themselves with scientific aspects in their home town. I.e.: students will be supported by various types of stakeholders during different phases of the project, including mostly the search for inforamtion. |
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Ethics |
Students will align their research with social values and the needs of the community. For this, they will share the responsibility with different stakeholders (such as neighbors and families), whose opinions will be taken into account when reflecting on the issues presented by the game I.e.: students will be able to take advantage of science to improve the knowledge of the community about their local urban nature in order to protect indangered wildlife. |
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Open Access |
Students will be responsible for creating a game with materials that they can then disseminate to families and neighbors. I.e.: the highlights of the projects and all the materials will be published to the public. The project will be advertised in local media and the facebook pages of the Municipality. |
Feel
Addressed Challenge: This FEEL phase will first introduce our students to the methodology we propose for this Accelerator - learning thorugh innovation and entrepreneurship. Once known, the following phases will allow them to delve into them and begin to propose initiatives.
The stuents began with group discusstions to find a project the problem they want to solve in order to help their community. After deciding which innitiative to pursue, the students began fundraising by oraganazing a bake sale.
Imagine
The students imagined the product they proposed: a Ropes and Ladders game with questions and tasks requiring knowledge about their hometown.
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Create
Additional students from the school's photography class were involved in creating the visual aspect of the game. They went to one day photography session and took photos of all the items in the game.
Share
The students organized an event for their parents and their local community. see the invitation below:
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In the event, the students presented the game and taught younger students how to play it.
The game was also presented in the local science fair held by the end of the school year.