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WMRA Pitch video Thursday June 26, 2026.mp4

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We made a list of roughly 100 ideas, then we took those 100 and grouped them into categories to find recurring themes.

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We asked some questions through a zoom meeting with our ambassador Matt.

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Emailed the Chief Pilot at Metal Flow, got some information about how the airport benefits them as a corporation, but also how the airport enables them to give back to the surrounding community. With this we gained some insightful informaiton how the airport benefits corporation, then how that is a full circle with benefiting the community.

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Determining Importance: Pains and Gains 

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Determining Importance: Pains and Gains 

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We talked about pains and gains related to the driving question.

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After we did 100 ideas, we worked on focusing on specific topics and generating ideas related to those topics.

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Deciding what our audience is before problem solving.

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We spoke with the Haworth group and got cool and warm feedback to reflect on.

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As we narrowed down our ideas, we worked on combining our different ideas into one cohesive solution.

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We also sent some emails to local towns and we were asking how the local airport positively affects the different cities.

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At the end of day two, we would reflect by giving three things we learned, two things we found interesting, and one question we still had.

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We sent Emails to 4 different corporations asking how the ability of having an airport to fly out can help further the company and then with the company thriving they can then set up community event to further the surrounding towns .

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Understanding the Driving Question: Pluses and Deltas

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Understanding the Driving Question: Pluses and Deltas

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At the end of the day one each person gave a plus and a delta surrounding their day.

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"Had a fun time hanging out with new people." -Gizele

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We created character/empathy maps of different people on our Stakeholder Map. Creating backstories of each character then including how they would think, see, do, feel or see regarding the West Michigan Regional Airport.

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We talked to Brad Lotz, the Avflight General Manager, about the airport. We gained information surrounding how the airport runs and what the airport needs. We asked Brad many questions to get answers about our need to know questions.

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We, as a group, generated a list of topics and general things about the airport we would need to know, such as revenue, marketing strategies, community and charity events, to help answer the question we were given. After we brainstormed these questions, we interviewed Brad, a guy who works at the airport, to give some answers; from there, we only have a few remaining unanswered questions.

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Students worked through the design sequence in order to develop a solution and create a presentation for the business!

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We did some dot voting to narrow down some of our ideas

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WMRA is interested in increasing their community engagement. Many people in the community don't know that the airport exists, and WMRA wants to be more visible in their community.

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We came up with creating a coffee drink that will be at many coffee shops and some of the money will go to Wings of Mercy. And we also created a drawing for the airplane golf cart so we could have more of a visual.

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How can WMRA engage community members to feel connected to the benefits of having an airport?

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After picking the ideas that we wanted to include in our solution, we began adding more details to our ideas.

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-Communication

-Ethical Citizenship

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We used the Top 10 List to help focus where we wanted our ideas to go as we moved through incubation.

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The team at FlightPath lead us through a flying simulation called Flight Night. We all got to fly planes!!

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Our Ambassador Matt and other members from the board came to listen to our solution to the driving question.

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"I didn't crash." - Sylvia

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We did values cards and connected the values that were selected to characteristics that employers look for when they are hiring. We also used the values to help establish our norms for our program!

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We were not very specific; our solution was not very air-tight. We need to work on specifying how we can make a more concise solution.

See NUFF Test Below!

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We went and pitched to a group of students and received feedback from judges and other students.

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We did immediately have a van issue the next day... :(

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What went well in this stage?

Our presentation looked great and it was awesome to see the prototypes created by the students.

What surprised you?

I was surprised about how long it takes to create prototypes.

What would you do differently next time?

I would want more time to create different prototypes and to refine the final presentation.

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What went well in this stage?

We landed on a final idea

What surprised you?

How creative our ideas were

What would you do differently next time?

Create more of a specifc solution

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What resources do you need for the Validation Stage?

We used prototypes and created our presentation for our pitch!

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Please include a picture of each teacher and a summary sentence on where and what you teach.

Hello, I am Erin Dood! I am a social studies teacher at Allendale High School.

Hi! I am Chad Sytsma. I am a business teacher at Hudsonville High School

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What resources do you need for the Solutions Stage?

Models of stickers and what we would be pitching to be included in the tent. Also panphlets to be passed out.

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We did a protocol on what is weighing us down from the solution.

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What went well in this stage?

I think we checked in frequently which was helpful. We tried to end or begin our days with reflection.

What surprised you?

I was surprised about how essential it was to have outside perspectives. Some of our best reflection and revision came after we talked to people outside of our group.

What would you differently next time?

I would do more reflection and maybe even have one protocol that was our go to in order to finish out our day.

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What went well in this stage?

We called lots of places to ask questions we were having with our ideas.

What surprised you?

We learned lots of things through other people that weren't at the airport and with people who used to work here we heard from their point of view.

What would you had done differently?

We should've called a bit more people about some new questions we been having like recently we had some questions.

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What resources do you need for the Observation Stage?

Flight Path came in to give us a tour and brought in the simulators for us to try!

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Emails, phone calls, talked to Matt,

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Please add quotes about the experience.

"I love the opportunity to interact with new students and educators who I would have never met without this experience."

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What went well in this stage?

We were able to come up with a ton of different ideas. The 100 Ideas protocol helped a lot to brainstorm many ideas.

What surprised you?

I was surprised by how many different ideas we were able to come up with in this stage. But also, how many of the ideas were all similar and fit under the same category.

What would you do differently?

Something to do the next time differently would be to have spent less time worrying about social media.

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What resources do you need for checking in with your students?

It was always nice to get outside perspectives through things like Critical Friends and having Cathy and Sarah come in to check in with the students. Otherwise we usually reflected individually and shared out as a group.

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Please add a few quotes from students about their experience. Use first names only.

"Had a fun time hanging out with new people." -Gizele

"I didn't crash." - Sylvia

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Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work, to reflect on the authentic audience, the pitch, the final product. Include any information/pictures from your community partner.

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Please get a quote from the business partner.

He was impressed about how great a job the students did with such a hard question!

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What went well in this stage?

The entry event was a really amazing experience! We then spent the afternoon getting to know one another and being introduced to our driving question.

What surprised you?

I was really surprised to learn about the different milestones in aviation history.

What would you do differently?

The entry event was really cool, but it was a little long and took most of the morning.

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What resources do you need for the Incubation Stage?

Dots, Ideas, Voting on ideas

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Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work, links to reflect how your students built empathy, determined Need to Knows, and uncovered important information to solve their driving question?

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Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work, and written documentation to reflect how teams were built, how students uncovered and understood the driving question, the standards covered, and the launch into the project

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Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work to reflect how your students came up with multiple ideas.

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Show through pictures, videos, examples of student work to reflect on the check ins done throughout the project.  How did students reflect throughout the process? How did student critique and revise?

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Show through pictures, videos, examples of works to reflect on how students narrowed their ideas, determined their best solution, and developed the solution.

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Take time to reflect on what went well. What will you change for next year? What feedback did you get from students, the business partner, the authentic audience that can help make this project even better?

I had a great time doing the IChallengeU Program! Even though we can't do this program again, I feel like I have an even better understanding of the design sequence and on a variety of different protocols that I can use in my classroom and in future Fall/Winter Academies.