The $100 Start Up
Project Description (A Link to An Working Doc of Project and A Link to Humanities Calendar and Spanish Calendar)
The $100 Start Up: Inspiring Innovation for Good
Have you ever thought up a brilliant idea or solution and wondered, why doesn’t that exist yet or what if it worked like that instead of this? Looking back at history, numerous innovators have changed the way we look at and operate in the world. Today, creative minds continue to design and reconsider the ways in which we engage with the world, fashioning new processes and products that will shape our futures. During this interdisciplinary project, you will be asked to create something new, something innovative, but what you create must either contribute to making some sort of positive social or environmental change or use the proceeds from your creation towards that end.
Essential Questions:
How can innovation lead to a better tomorrow?
What can I create that will benefit others?
Products & Benchmarks
Aug. 26 - Sept. 30th (Pitch Day, Sept. 30th)
Deliverables I
8/24 - 9/30
Preliminary Market Research Report
Business Plan
Interview of experienced entrepreneur (Adam)
Exploring the History of an Idea / Entrepreneurs
Crafting Pitch
Proof of Concept
After September 30th - Nov 6th Launch
Students will be evaluated on their progress towards their progress towards their product launch. The weekly grade will be issued based on progress made towards the following as documented in student self and group reflection and teacher mentor documentation.
Expense report for R&D (Daisy)
Projected earnings (Daisy)
Blog (Adam): The Building of the Business
Launch Plan (Teacher Mentor)
Deliverables III
First Quarter Earnings Report (Daisy)
Exhibition Sales Plan (Liz)
The $100 Start Up: Inspiring Innovation for Good
Have you ever thought up a brilliant idea or solution and wondered, why doesn’t that exist yet or what if it worked like that instead of this? Looking back at history, numerous innovators have changed the way we look at and operate in the world. Today, creative minds continue to design and reconsider the ways in which we engage with the world, fashioning new processes and products that will shape our futures. During this interdisciplinary project, you will be asked to create something new, something innovative, but what you create must either contribute to making some sort of positive social or environmental change or use the proceeds from your creation towards that end.
Essential Questions:
How can innovation lead to a better tomorrow?
What can I create that will benefit others?
Products & Benchmarks
Aug. 26 - Sept. 30th (Pitch Day, Sept. 30th)
- Aug 26- Aug. 29th:
- Brainstorming & Grouping - what are issues that need solving / a new approach and how can we address them?
- Aug 31- Sept. 30th
- Preliminary Market Research / Defining & Refining Audience (Daisy)
- Content covered - common core math standards for probability: sample space, two way frequency tables, independent and conditional probability, elaboration analysis) (Challenge option: standard deviation)
- Market researchers gather information about what people think. They help companies understand what types of products people want and at what price. They also help companies market their products to the people most likely to buy them. By gathering statistical data on competitors and examining prices, sales, and methods of marketing and distribution, they analyze data from past sales to predict future sales.
- Career links: Market analyst, actuaries, economists.. http://weusemath.byu.edu/career/
- Business Plan including potential partnerships & corporate structure (Adam)
- Interview of experienced entrepreneur (Adam)
- Exploring the History of an Idea - inventions and inventors. (Liz)
- Students will learn that many ideas build on an already existing idea, take time and persistence in refining, and sometimes, in the end fail many times before they become a success.
- Book Clubs
- Crafting Pitch & Critiquing Ideas “Pre-Mortem” (Liz)
- Students will learn the art of pitching an idea.
- They will pitch an idea about something they are already familiar with (as a model).
- Then, students will write, practice, and pitch their business idea to a panel of entrepreneurs.
- Proof of Concept (Daisy)
- Beginning of the engineering & design process
- Preliminary Market Research / Defining & Refining Audience (Daisy)
- With teacher mentor (Liz, Daisy, or Adam)
- Blog re: experience in product development / working with mentor
- Revise and polish business plan
- Create a launch plan w/ specific details of how will launch
- Develop marketing strategies & branding (incl. logo)
- Prototype/Product refinement (engineering design cycle)
- With teacher mentor (Liz, Daisy, or Adam)
- Blog re: experience in product sales / delivery
- Continue marketing strategy plan
- Product sales / delivery
- First quarter report
- Exhibition of good or service at all school exhibition Dec. 17th
- Univ. of Delaware Competition?
Deliverables I
8/24 - 9/30
Preliminary Market Research Report
- target market (sample space)
- graphs of target market data (two way frequency tables, independent and conditional probability analysis, Venn diagrams)
- mathematical analysis of R&D
- production cost calculations
- price point analysis (how to optimize profits and intro into quadratics
Business Plan
- Executive summary
- Company description
- Market analysis (above)
- Organization and management
- Service or product line
- Marketing and sales
- Social and environmental statement
- Funding request
- Financial projection
Interview of experienced entrepreneur (Adam)
Exploring the History of an Idea / Entrepreneurs
Crafting Pitch
- A polished and practiced 2 min. elevator pitch with prepared responses to a series of anticipated questions.
Proof of Concept
- Rough but functional product or detailed product plan - this is the duct tape & cardboard phase that proves you got something but it ain’t necessarily pretty
After September 30th - Nov 6th Launch
Students will be evaluated on their progress towards their progress towards their product launch. The weekly grade will be issued based on progress made towards the following as documented in student self and group reflection and teacher mentor documentation.
Expense report for R&D (Daisy)
Projected earnings (Daisy)
Blog (Adam): The Building of the Business
- accountability/documentation tool
Launch Plan (Teacher Mentor)
- Benchmarks (asap)
- How will you build community base of support (Adam)?
- How will you maintain community base of support?
- What is the actual launch plan for your particular product (details)?
- packaging
- logo
Deliverables III
First Quarter Earnings Report (Daisy)
- units sold
- price/unit
- gross & net earnings/losses
Exhibition Sales Plan (Liz)