Hosted by OSOS , contributed by Meie van Laar on 6 February 2018
What and how can you do something good for charities, where actions aligned with your personality and interests?
Boss is a project that combines entrepreneurship with social innovation. Students set up companies and take action for a social initiative that they have chosen. Before they officially get started, they are prepared by: getting in touch with social initiatives, being trained in social entrepreneurial skills and developing their business skills. After that, students start officially with their own company and take all the steps that real organizations must take too. They write a business plan, design actions based on personal interests and are supported in different ways. They also consider actions to support their social initiative. Interestingly, this project is being organized by students who did the project the year before. During the project, the students regularly come in contact with real audience that keeps the students sharp. The project results in original and personal actions that students present to anyone who is interested!
https://jijdebaaspg.jimdo.com/
Learning objectives
- Interdisciplinary: Connects subjects like Mathematics, Science, Ethics, Computing, etc. with the real world and real world problems.
- Participation and Citizen Science: Students are required to get in touch with social initiatives and will develop a social bussiness plan meant to support a social initiative or a charity. This teaches them about the importance of taking part in society and of social issues that arise in their neighbourhood.
- Responsible use of new technologies: In the development of their bussiness plan students may come with any (technological) idea to support their idea.
- Promoting inclusion: By getting into contact with various social initiatives each participant receives and shares the experience from other points of view and is able to share their own point of view.
- Empowerment and Engagement: Teenagers interact with the social initiatives and charities of their city, proposing bussinesplan by themselves and execute their own ideas in their own ways. They engage themselves and have to come up with their ideas themselves, and they learn how to accomplish these things.
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 be able to improve their local environment by actively contributing to social initiatives and charities with the support of stakeholders who help and guide them by sharing their knowledge of the topic. I.e.: students can research social inititives of their environment with the guidance of stakeholders from their community (i.e. harities, social initiatives, governant organisations that provide help to those facing social issues.), and then discuss how to improve accessibility with the support of these external agents. Students will be able to propose changes and improvements to the accessibility issues found. |
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Public Engagement |
Students get involved with various stakeholders, especially charities, social workers, social initiatives, etc, who will give students information about the work they do and the (social) issues they face in everyday life in order to come up with a bussines plan to make profit for these charities. I.e.: students will be in contact with people who work in helping others facing (social issues). |
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Gender equality |
Students could work in gender-balanced teams to solve social, urban problems, and could look for gender-neutral solutions to them. I.e.: students should consider gender equality when proposing changes to the environment to improve the accessibility of different places. |
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Science Education |
Students will use their own knowledge of science, technology or computer skills to develop an innovative idea that can be made into a bussinessplan. They will have to actively look for opportunities, think of solutions in a problem-solving way and have to report and present their outcomes carefully. I.e.: Students use problem-solving skills for the development of their bussiness and use their knowledge to come up with ideas. |
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Ethics |
This accelerator proposes to achieve interesting social values for the community, reflecting what students have learnt during the project to become a more inclusive society, including both students and also neighbours, families and other stakeholders. I.e.: students will use what they have learnt to disseminate the need social initiatives, including both public and private spaces. They can reflect and discuss about the need and impact in the surroundings. |
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Open Access |
Students share their ideas in online platforms and by presenting them o the final event.
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Recommended resources
Equipment
- Cameras/mobile phones to make pictures and videos
- Computer room with internet (at least a computer each 4 students) to upload their data.
Human resources
- Several workers from social initiatives and charities to share the importance of their work and the practical daily issues they face.
- Teachers to support the groups.
Other Suggestions
Students could present their ideas on a big sharing event organised by the school. Representatives of social inititiatives and charities, press, parents and other stakeholders are invited as well. Students present their outcome to he public and annoucne the yielded profit for their charity of choice.
To reward students, different prices in various cathegories could e shared such as 'Most innovative idea' 'Most original idea', 'Most profit made' etc.
Interviewing students before, during and after the project and cobining this with clips form the process makes for a nice promotion video, that can be used for students that will do this excercise the nesxt year.
ORGANISATION:
European School Heads Association, ESHA
Herenstraat 35
3512 KB Utrecht, Netherlands
http://www.esha.org/
CONTACT PERSON:
Suzanne de Kroon
suzannedekroon@gmail.com