Cento Anni was a very hands-on business. The students had all the access they needed to the workshop and employees to understand the driving question and receive feedback. Most of our students had previous experience in the program, so their curiosity and confidence was strong from day one.

Adjustments for Next Year

Honestly, this week was a success all around! Cento Anni would be a great business for businesses that are new tp or interested in the Future Prep'd program to learn from.

Feedback from Stakeholders

The students loved working with Cento Anni. From the teacher and parent perspective, it was amazing to see the students be brought into the process and feel like they were heard, like what they were doing was going to make a difference.

Cento Anni employees had only positive things to say about the students and the program as a whole. They are looking forward to continuing to support Future Prep'd in years to come.

The students noticed things on the floor for their "bug lists". Many of the students were actually bugged by the problem we are here to solve.

What surprised you?

Students did not have as many questions at the business as we thought they may.

What would you do differently?

If we had had more time we would have gone to some of the businesses with Cento Anni products. Instead we will visit those locations during the week.

Randy Beute, Cento Anni partner

Students came up with varied and original ideas. Students were passionate about their ideas but also were open to listening to the ideas of others.

What surprised you?

How intense it felt when students were asking questions and explaining ideas.

What would you do differently?

It would have been helpful to have hands on materials for the students to model their ideas.

Chart paper and funny pictures of turtles were also helpful

Year 2 of future prep'd was even better than the 1st. We had a phenomenal group of students and an amazing business partner."

- Mrs. VanDyke

"We had a great group of students who jumped into the challenge confidently while still being willing to ask questions. Cento Anni truly welcomed the students as part of their team, which encouraged the students to be courageous and bring their best ideas to the table. The elements made for a wonderful camp week!"

- Mrs. Webb

We needed paper and writing utensils for the bug list and ice breakers, as well as chart paper.

LEGO's were used for the sorting activity.

The students collaborated with each other to generate questions.

They noticed many things that were not right in front of their faces.

They conducted one formal interview and one informal interview.

What surprised you?

The level of investment in the speedboat protocol. They really embraced the metaphor!

What would you do differently?

If we had more time, interviewing more staff members could have been helpful.

Students were open to sharing during reflection times and offered good insight as well as clearly communicating how they were feeling.

What surprised you?

When it seemed to reach that "awkward silence" point students stepped up and kept the group conversation going with no prompting from the adult leaders.

What would you differently next time?

It would be nice to have more sentence prompts for the students at times. Some students were at first hesitant to give any reflection or thoughts at check in and sentence starters would likely have eased some of their apprehension.

For the presentation we needed our slide presentation, a computer, and access to the AV equipment in the room we are in.

Students did a great job of organizing their ideas and presenting "Elevator Pitches" to other team members and business partners.

What surprised you?

The students went above and beyond with looking ahead and anticipating some the questions from the business partners.

What would you do differently next time?

It would have been nice if both groups had adequate time to practice their pitches. One group was just a little behind and due to time constraints did not get practice time.

The students did a phenomenal job at presenting the creative process and sharing the solution.

What surprised you?

Students showed confidence in their presentation that we did not see from everyone in initial practice runs.

What would you do differently next time?

Used timers more when they were practicing to encourage them to give deeper explanations of each activity and creative process.

Afterwards, the students listed 3 things they learned, 2 things they found interesting, and 1 question they had and shared their thoughts with the team.

Students also received awards for their contributions this week.

We used dot voting to further narrow down the best ideas from there.

Ed, Randy, and Austin talked through the ideas with the students and provided constructive feedback.

Cento Anni asked the students to combine the best elements of the two ideas with the feedback they provided to eventually land on a final solution.

They organized the questions by common themes before writing out an organized list of what to ask Randy.

The team was able to ask follow up questions to make sure they were understanding the problem Cento Anni needed them to solve.

They were asked to share:

• Something new they learned

• Something positive they heard,

• A way that their team lent them a hand or

• A feeling they experienced.

Presenting elevator pitches to Randy & the team on Wednesday allowed students to get actionable feedback to adjust their ideas into a truly feasible solution.

"I like that they start our ideas before we even leave for the week." - Kylie

"I didn't expect them to actually use our idea and instead they are already building it to use." - Annie

They received feedback from the teams as well as a few adults connected to Future Prep'd.

Overall, the feedback was mainly positive, giving the team some great encouragement as they prepared for the final pitch.

This gave them a chance to stretch their pitch from 6 minutes to 10 minutes by adding more details.