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Be meaningful to your community

Hosted by OSOS , contributed by 2dimagvarvar on 4 June 2019

 

How can you and your capacities be of an added value to your community?

In a new project, learners aged 11, learn more about how to be more important to their own community. They start their project watching forecasts from television or websites to create a local weather station combining weather and environmentall polution. Based on these films, learners make imrovised weather instruments from recyclabe materials and select an organization to which they want to hist their forecast. This could be the town hall but also a university`s department. 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 physics which will help them get ideas and make plans. These workshops are given by entrepreneurs from outside the 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 through the websites of the participating organizations. A final product is for example: leaners have developed a website for weather forecast for the citizens of Agia Varvara city which will provide awakening as there are many places in the town full of rubbish and spots where there is a risk of floods. The learners will also develop a leaflet describing where and how the people can watch the forecasts

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.

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:

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.

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 enhance the collaboration from different social organizations from their city so students can come in contact with the different stakeholders.

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.

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.

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 natural environment to look for problems that they can solve the social problems that arise, through the project proposed in this Accelerator. These problems will be shared with stakeholders, with whom they will share responsibility in finding the solutions.

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:

10 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 weather foracast videos in sign language, especially for the deafs. These films instruct the people about the weather and give the opportunity to report their complaints step by step on the website. 

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. 

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.

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.

Experts from different areas

They can give workshops that support students with getting ideas/making plans and choices during their project.

  • Social media / advertising
  • Planning and organizing

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 1 Project day 1 (4 hours)
  • Week 2 Project day 2 (3 to 5 hours)
  • Week 3
  • Week 4
  • Week 5 Project Lesson (2 hours)
  • Week 6
  • Week 7 Project day (5 hours)
  • Week 8 Project lesson (2 hours)
  • Week 9 Project lesson (2 hours)
  • Week 10 Project lesson (2 hours)
  • Week 11 Project lesson and final event (3 hours)

# Session

Duration

Description

Resources needed

Location

Week 1

4 hours

(without a break)

Given information and purposes of the project

Watching weather forecasts

Team role separation 

Contacting the non-profit organization

  • Computers with Internet
  • Mobile phone
  • Pen and paper
  • Great location for a start with all students at the same time including a big screen for the presentation and movies of the NGO’s.
  • 1 Classroom per class

NGO’s

School

Week 2

3 to 5 hours

08.30 - 08.40 Start

08.40 - 10.45 Making a choice to make improvised weather instruments

10.45 - 12.00 Break

12.00 - 12.45 Workshops

  • Make a budget
  • Networking
  • Social media / advertising
  • Planning and organizing

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

  • Computers with Internet
  • Mobile phone
  • Pen and paper
  • 1 Classroom per class

School

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:

  1. What activities will students carry out?
  2. When will the activities take place?
  3. What is needed for this? (materials, people? )
  4. How are the tasks divided?
  5. Upload the planner on Padlet.
  • Computers with Internet
  • Mobile phone
  • Pen and paper
  • 1 Classroom per class

School

Week 10

1 hour

Today, students will advertise their projects

 

Discuss with the group;

  • Why is advertising important?
  • Consider which five ways companies advertise.
  • Which three forms of advertising fit well with your company and explain why these forms are suitable for your company.
  • With whom can you best advertise your company?
  • At which three locations can you best advertise your company and explain how you can approach these locations.
  • Computers with Internet
  • Mobile phone
  • Pen and paper
  • 1 Classroom per class

School

Week 11

3 hours

This week, students are working on three things:

  1. Reflection on the project and the group
  2. Make invitations for the organization (invite them for the final event, where a solution for their problem will be presented
  3. Continue with the plan
  • Computers with Internet
  • Mobile phone
  • Pen and paper
  • 1 Classroom per class

School

Week 12 –

week 15

4 hours

In these weeks, activities for the project are carried out. In addition, the following:

  1. Invite people to the final event.
  2. Students provide an update on the progress to the contact person of the organization.
  3. Students engage in a conversation with a real entrepreneur. Each group prepares at least three questions.
  4. Students reflect on their project and their own development. This reflection is about:
  • What they have learned
  • What values do they experience?
  • Conclusions for the future
  • Computers with Internet
  • Mobile phone
  • Pen and paper
  • 1 Classroom per class

School

NGO

Entrepreneur

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.

  • Computers with Internet
  • Mobile phone
  • Pen and paper
  • 1 Classroom per class

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

 

Learning Objectives
Social entrepreneurship, creativity, initiative, influence, problem solving, making plans, final product, project management