Hosted by OSOS , contributed by Meie van Laar on 30 April 2019
How can you and your capacities be of an added value to your community?
In a new project, learners aged 12 and 13, learn more about how to be more important to their own community. They start their project watching a film about different social organizations from their city made by older learners from the same school who have already visited these organizations and have established what their needs are. Based on these films, learners select an organization for which they want to do something. This could be a fitness center, but also a housing cooperation. Then these learners go to the organization to find out more about it. The learners think about how they can help the organization and have workshops on brainstorming, networking, budgeting etcetera which will help them get ideas and make plans. These workshops are given by entrepreneurs from outside school. During the project, the learners regularly present their plans to the organization. In this way, the organization has the opportunity to give learners feedback. At the end of the project all learners present the final product to the organizations and also to parents, teachers and fellow learners. A final product is for example: leaners have developed a website for videos for old people who have complaints about their housing. The films give the elderly people instruction about how to report, step by step, their complaints on the website of the housing cooperation. The learners have also developed a leaflet describing where and how the elderly can watch the films.
Learning objectives
Get to know your own community and learn to do business in a creative way for someone else:
Idea
The student can come up with a creative idea for someone else together with others.
- Choosing: The student can make a substantiated choice based on personal interest.
- Thinking: The student can come up with a creative idea to help someone else.
- Collaboration: The student can collaborate constructively with fellow students.
Performance
The student can convert his ideas into actions.
- Organizing: The student can organize the actions resulting from his ideas.
- Secure: The student can record the process, from ideas to actions.
Promotion
The student can promote his service and / or product briefly, powerfully and attractively.
- Presenting: The student can present his service and / or product clearly and attractively to others.
- Sales: The student can sell his service and / or product to others.
Finalization
- Development: The student can determine which skills he has further developed with this project.
- Evaluation: The student can determine to what extent the project has successfully completed.
- Reflection: The student can determine his strengths and what he can improve.
RRI principles
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 this Accelerator fits into the RRI model:
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Governance |
Students will share the responsibility of the project with different stakeholders (associations, organizations outside the school) who will act as mentors to students. This will allow them to share the responsibility of the actions to be carried out during the activity. I.e.: students will get in touch with experts from different areas, who will always be informed of the project updates and with whom they will plan the next steps in the activity. |
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Public Engagement |
Students, with the help of teachers and olders students of the school, will contact stakeholders involved in the activity, with whom decisions will be made collaboratively. I.e.: in order to carry out this Accelerator, it is necessary for the school to create a film a film about different social organizations from their city made by older learners from the same school who have already visited these organizations and have established what their needs are so students can come in contact with the different stakeholders. |
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Gender equality |
Students will be able to discuss issues related to gender equality, by contacting experts (including both men and women) in the respective areas. I.e.: Be meaningful to your community will connect students with experts and professionals from all areas, taking into account issues of Gender Equality and creating working groups in which both boys and girls can participate. Students will look for areas and topics that can improve the gender equality of society. |
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Science Education |
Students will be responsible for raising problems and challenges, and for finding a creative solution through critical thinking. In addition, students will share responsibility in the activity and make decisions collaboratively with the stakeholders involved. I.e.: Once the subject is set and stakeholders are established, students will be responsible for finding a problem to solve and to know how to solve it. |
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Ethics |
Students will work on the issues to be addressed through Be meaningful to your community so that they can add value to society in the school environment. In addition, students can learn about the concerns of people around the school and reflect on how to propose solutions that solve these problems. I.e.: students will investigate their environment to look for social problems that they can solve through the project proposed in this Accelerator. These problems will be shared with stakeholders, with whom they will share responsibility in finding the solutions. |
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Open Access |
Students will use scientific materials and literature reviewed by experts to better understand the context in which the problem that the project proposes is developed. I.e.: when planning the project and the challenges, students will investigate the topic by reading dissemination articles that will help them to better understand the social and scientific context of the problem. |
Resources needed
Good relationships with organizations, entrepreneurs and experts from the community. They can contribute to the project in various ways, such as real life projects, workshops and giving feedback.
Time for teachers:
20 hours in the preparation phase
One to two hours a week during the project and the whole project days.
The get more value: make a connection with the school
Possibility to integrate the project with other subjects
Possibility to involve students from other years with organizing the project. This is interesting, because they also can learn from the project and they often have interesting inputs, so the project can better connect to the needs of students.
Stakeholders
In preparation and during the project, the school builds good relationships with organisations, entrepreneurs and experts from the community. They can contribute to the project in various ways, such as real life projects, workshops and giving feedback.
At the end of the project, all students present the final product to the organisations for which they have taken actions. Their parents, fellow students and teachers are also present at the presentations. An example of a final product: students have developed a website with simple instructional videos, especially for the elderly, about the digital submission of a complaint. These films instruct the elderly about how they can report their complaints step by step on the website of the housing corporation. The students have also developed a folder that describes in a simple way where and how older people can watch the films.
The project gets more value if it is connected to other subjects and with the involvement of other years. In addition, the contact with the community ensures that also teachers know more of the needs and working methods of real life companies. They can use these experiences in their own lessons.
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NGOs |
They have real life projects, arising from existing problems of the NGO. In this way, students can experience the practice. In addition, they can also learn students about the working methods and goals of an organization, such as a NGO. |
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Entrepreneurs |
They can help students with getting ideas and drawing up plans, but they can also give students feedback on their existing ideas or plans, after which students can improve these. |
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Experts from different areas |
They can give workshops that support students with getting ideas/making plans and choices during their project
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Media |
Very important, because they can ensure that the community gets familiarity with the project and the individual projects of the students. Media can also support schools to get experts and entrepreneurs who can help with some parts of the project (workshops / feedback students’ plans). |
Planning of the project
- Week 4 Project day 1 (5 hours)
- Week 5 Project day 2 (4 to 5 hours)
- Week 6
- Week 7
- Week 8 Project Lesson (1 hour)
- Week 9
- Week 10 Project Lesson (1 hour)
- Week 11 Project day (3 hours)
- Week 12 Project lesson (1 hour)
- Week 13 Project lesson (1 hour)
- Week 14 Project lesson (1 hour)
- Week 15 Project lesson (1 hour)
- Week 16 Project lesson and final event (3 hours)
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# Session |
Duration |
Description |
Resources needed |
Location |
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Week 4 |
5 hours (without a break) |
08.30 - 09.45 Kick-off project 09.45 - 10.00 Introduction to Padlet www.padlet.com (as a working method) 10.00 - 10.30 Know yourself and your classmate better (team roles) 10.30 - 10.50 Break 10.50 - 11.20 Workshop brainstorming 11.20 - 12.45 Preparation for meeting the non-profit organization 12.45 - 13.15 Break 13.15 - 14.15 Meeting non-profit organizations 14.30 - 15.00 Complete the first day |
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NGO’s School |
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Week 5 |
4 to 5 hours (without a break) |
08.30 - 08.40 Start 08.40 - 10.45 Making a choice to follow one workshop and setting up a fictitious business with groupmates 10.45 - 12.00 Break 12.00 - 12.45 Workshops
12.45 - 13.15 Break 13.15 - 14.30 Assignments to stimulate creativity 13.15 - 14.30 Thinking of creative and fun actions for your business 13.15 - 14.30 Registration companies at the start-up desk 14.30 - 15.00 Preparing meeting with entrepreneurs |
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School |
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Week 8 |
1 hour |
This week, students look back at the start of the project and finally determine what their final product will be.
Creating plans for the coming weeks:
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School |
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Week 10 |
1 hour |
Today, students will advertise their projects
Discuss with the group;
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School |
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Week 11 |
3 hours |
This week, students are working on three things:
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School |
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Week 12 – week 15 |
4 hours |
In these weeks, activities for the project are carried out. In addition, the following:
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School NGO Entrepreneur |
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Week 16 |
3 hours |
Most actions have been completed. Today, students will present their final product. They prepare a pitch of 3 to 5 minutes. In this presentation, they describe the process, present their plan and there is time for questions. |
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School or NGO’s? |
Other suggestions
The project gets more value if it is connected to other subjects and with the involvement of other years. In addition, the contact with the community ensures that also teachers know more of the needs and working methods of real life companies. They can use these experiences in their own lessons.
ORGANIZATION IN CHARGE:
European School Heads Association, ESHA
Herenstraat 35
3512 KB Utrecht, Netherlands
http://www.esha.org/
CONTACT PEOPLE:
Suzanne de Kroon
suzannedekroon@gmail.com