# data[].attributes.body
"What product can we create to benefit middle school students?"

Students had to understand what could benefit middle school students, what groups of students needed a solution to a problem, what already existed, and what could be created/or made better.

# data[].attributes.body
Middle School students

# data[].attributes.body
CTC - Business. Driving Question: What product can we create to benefit middle school students?

# data[].attributes.body
Students will create an empathy map as well as a pain/gain map protocols.

# data[].attributes.body
Students wrote interview questions for Ruth. We also compiled a bug list. We asked students what bugs them throughout the day.

# data[].attributes.body
Students got to voice their opinion on the final solution and work as a team to complete their presentation. They each got to work on their own slides, as well as choose which part of the presentation they got to work on, (build prototype, designing, research, etc).

# data[].attributes.body
Students all began to head towards one specific solution by completing a NUFF test, and seeing what everyone all agreed on, and decided to start with a "skeleton" of a basic idea. From there, students grouped up in different groups and began researching for their final pitch.

# data[].attributes.body
Students completed a "NUFF" test where they gave a 30 second elevator pitch about the ideas they came up with. From there, students took a vote on a variety of criteria that each idea fell under. By doing this, they were able to find which ideas worked well with their solutions.

# data[].attributes.body
Day 1: Observation - notice how things work and exist

Day 2: Investigation - begin thinking about how things work and how they can create something

Day 3: Incubation - begin narrowing down ideas to begin finding one possible solution

Day 4: Solution - finalize solution and prepare for presenting in front of authentic audience

Day 5: Validation - take time to reflect on what went well and what did not

# data[].attributes.body
Students worked on a Crazy 8's drawing where they had to come up with their ideas to pitch to the rest of the group. From here, they were to choose their best 2 ideas and bring them to the $100 test. From the $100 test, they had to pick the top 2 ideas again, and pitch them to the rest of the group. From there, they voted on their favorite aspects to help shape their final idea.

# data[].attributes.body
What product can we create to benefit middle school students?

# data[].attributes.body
Communication

# data[].attributes.body
Me Cube and tours of Fleetwood Furniture and Haworth.

# data[].attributes.body
Audience is made up of Future Prep'd members, parents, and members from Fleetwood and Haworth. Doing this helps students gain a better understanding of the importance of their work.

# data[].attributes.body
Communication and time managment

# data[].attributes.body
Student were able to complete a rough run through of their pitch to Erin. Erin was then able to provide feedback on how they could fix their presentation for Friday, and also what they might need to think about if someone were to ask a question.

# data[].attributes.body
Students created stars and wishes, which were things they liked and things they wished were different. We talked about each star. They liked the tours and McDonald's. We had two first time McDonald eaters! They also liked the ice cream treat on Thursday. We met a lot of new friends. Our list of wishes were more group activities and more field trips spread throuhgout the week.

# data[].attributes.body
We practiced our pitch and found our idea was not feasible so we went back to the drawing board. We wrote a "break up" letter to our locker and said "Goodbye". We then took 8 minutes to write 100 ideas. After that we sorted our ideas into three groups to see which direction we could go.

# data[].attributes.body
Students completed an "empathy map", where they created their own middle school student and tried to get in the "heads" of different middle schoolers to understand what they may need or want.

They then answered questions about what their middle schooler goes through, such as the good and bad things. This helped them understand all of the different ideas they each can come up with, and how they can combine their ideas together as one.

# data[].attributes.body
Students have only completed a rough draft of an idea for their presentation. Thursday morning they will be adding in prototypes and a slideshow to complete for their final presentation on Friday.

# data[].attributes.body
What went well in this stage?

Students did an amazing job at their presentation. They handled the feedback from the panel very well, and answered all questions from them as a team.

What surprised you?

How receptive they were about the judges feedback.

What would you do differently next time?

Students were asked to complete a reflection called, "two stars and a wish", where they reflected on the week. A large re-occuring "wish", was that they wish they would have had more time on the bubble chair and not the lockers. We think we would switch gears sooner so the students could have more time to work through their idea and come up with a presentation.

# data[].attributes.body
Me Cube - students will design a cube about themselves and share.

Students will be eating lunch at McDonald's.

# data[].attributes.body
What went well in this stage?

Students took a stance in what they believed in what made the "ultimate" locker better. They came up with many ideas and were able to combine their ideas with each other to create an even better idea.

What surprised you?

At first students were hesitant to give up their own idea because throughout the morning, they were asked to come up with their best idea and share it with their peers. However, after some time and discussion, students were open to creating a combined solution using all of their ideas.

What would you do differently next time?

If time allowed, we would add in more time for solution finding to allow all students to have an opportunity to find a solution that includes everyone's ideas from the start.

# data[].attributes.body
What resources do you need for the Validation Stage?

Feedback from judges to reflect on, sticky notes to use for Two Stars and a Wish, and sheet paper.

# data[].attributes.body
After students completed their presentation, they decided that their idea was not feasible and had to figure out where to go before their Friday presentation. They had to work as a group to determine what was the important step to take. They decided to leave their locker idea behind and begin to a new path towards their newest solution to their driving question.

# data[].attributes.body
Lilli Kempisty - 8th grade English at Baldwin Street Middle School, Hudsonville. Lilli with dance students

Keli Olson - 8th grade English at Spring Lake Middle School. Keli with her daughter.

# data[].attributes.body
Students will check in using the talking chip protocol. Each student got two chips that they had to spend by sharing an idea.

# data[].attributes.body
What resources do you need for the Solutions Stage?

Notecard voting, referencing NUFF tests, completing research on Chromebooks.

# data[].attributes.body
Today we created a Crazy 8 board. We each drew 8 pictures of our best ideas. Then we moved into a NUF test to vote on what we liked of these ideas. After we decided on ideas we worked on our pitch.

# data[].attributes.body
What went well in this stage?

Students had to pivot really quick from this morning to find a new direction to take. Students worked really well together and divided and conquered to complete their presentation for tomorrow.

What surprised you?

How willing the students were to start working together and how quickly they came up with new ideas to run with with less than 24 hours on the clock.

What would you differently next time?

Students completed a protocol today called "100 ideas in 10 minutes". This protocol allowed them to generate so many ideas for a solution to their driving question. After this, they took 10 of those ideas and completed a dot voting on those 10 ideas. Doing both of these protocols would have been a better idea to do on Day 2 instead of Day 4.

# data[].attributes.body
What went well in this stage?

- Students were able to come up with some great interview questions for Mrs. Faris.

We created an empathy map. We drew a student and named them. We then wrote what our student might be seeing, thinking, saying, doing, or feeling about our driving question.

What surprised you?

- We were surprised and excited about how willing the kids are to work together to solve our problem.

What would you do differently?

today was a lot of thinking and brainstorming. The students did an amazing job at coming up with questions and ideas. If we could do something differently, it would be take a 5 minute brain break before jumping into the next set of brainstorming/list making.

# data[].attributes.body
Students will be touring Fleetwood Furniture and Haworth Furniture.

# data[].attributes.body
What resources do you need for the Investigation Stage?

We interviewed Mrs. Faris, she is our ambassador.

We created an empathy map to help put us in the minds of our student.

Students were asked to solve an issue in the mindset of Fleetwood furniture and Haworth.

# data[].attributes.body
Lilli - “the kids in our group are AMAZING and love to ask questions to help their understanding.”

Keli - “I loved getting to know the students before heading out for tours, such a great group of kids.”

# data[].attributes.body
What resources do you need for checking in with your students?

Sticky notes, paper, notecards, Chromebooks, sheet paper.

# data[].attributes.body
What went well in this stage?

When the students had to create crazy ideas to dream up their "perfect" locker, they came up with amazing ideas. They also worked great together when they had to combine their ideas and had to choose the "best" one.

What surprised you?

How quickly students were able to come up with ideas to create their perfect locker. Students had to come up with 8 of their craziest ideas and only had 2 minutes per idea. They all did an amazing job with this.

What would you do differently?

This was a fast paced day from all of the investigating from yesterday. Yesterday was a lot of brainstorming and finding how things worked, while today was majorly based on creating ideas. This was a day that went well, but a large problem we ran into, was reminding everyone that we are a group and need to make sure we all keep an open mind throughout this whole process.

# data[].attributes.body
Maggie: At Haworth, “I think I found my new living room.”

Nolan: While touching recycled plastic at Haworth (to show how they use recycled materials), “Oh wow that’s pretty nice.”

Lydia: touring Haworth’s “museum”, “can you buy this furniture?”

# data[].attributes.body
Ruth - “Fleetwood did a great job explaining everything for the students and the students did a great job asking clarifying questions!”

# data[].attributes.body
What went well in this stage?

the students were SO engaged with both tours. They asked the tour guides great questions and were very interested in how everything worked at each facility.

What surprised you?

how great the first day went, how well the kids are getting along, how engaged they are, and how respectful the students have been. It was a great first day!

What would you do differently?

today has been a great day, so there is not much we would do differently. However, we would probably prepare some questions the students could ask at the tours if they got stuck, (even though they were very energetic and had many questions on their own!).

# data[].attributes.body
What resources do we use for the Incubation Stage?

We used the Crazy 8 map, the NUFF test (where students were able to vote on ideas for each other), and Chromebooks to begin research for their final presentation.

# data[].attributes.body
Pictures from today while kids were brainstorming different ways to understand a middle schooler.

After lunch, students were prompted to come up with a “bug list” of things that bugged them about school. Many students found that their lockers bugged them.

Quotes from today:

Evan - “I thought of something when I was at home last night that we could create.”

Maggie - “I learned that we all have a lot in common from our bug list, especially about lockers.”

# data[].attributes.body
Pictures from Fleetwood tour. Students were able to use furniture that Fleetwood creates, tour the factory to see how everything is made, and ask questions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This is our 100 brainstormed ideas, organized into categories, as well as our final top 10 ideas, which were selected through a sticky note voting activity.

# data[].attributes.body
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?

Students enjoyed the week overall and had a great time. Us teachers went through this program for the first time, so it was us learning to see what worked with the students, and what needed to be changed as each day happened. Overall, it was a great learning experience for both the kids and us!

# data[].attributes.body
Lunch at McDonald’s

# data[].attributes.body
Pictures from tour at Haworth. The students LOVED Haworth and what they had to show us.

# data[].attributes.body
During a brain break and “end of the day wrap up”, students got to play a couple of team building games. They held hands to move a hula hoop through the whole circle. The first time it took them 2 minutes and we challenged them to do it in less than 1 minute, which they successfully did.

They also got to play hula hoop rock, paper, scissors.