Project-Based Learning: Entrepreneurship, Finance and Design

Source: PaperStopper, ASIDE, 2013

Our third fifth-grade Entrepreneur Fair just ended, and we could not be more thrilled with the diversity of ideas by these young minds. It came as no surprise that so many of them paid close attention to every detail of their companies. From their initial business plans to their final presentations, the students worked to bring their ideas to fruition.

These young entrepreneurs took on this project-based learning assignment with great enthusiasm. They worked through problems in the design process to come up with solutions, often revamping their prototypes again and again. Equally rewarding was watching the “ah-ha” moments when they realized they were on to something.

Source: Tree Bark Edibles, ASIDE, 2013

Perhaps the toughest part for them was figuring out how to finance their ideas. Francine Wisnewski, who is one of the lead teachers for this project, worked tirelessly on the financials with the students in math class. Many quickly realized that the cost to make their products exceeded what they could realistically charge to make a profit. Occasionally, too, some had to scrap their ideas and start afresh.

Source: Lights: Out, ASIDE, 2013

The final phase of the project was marketing their goods, complete with brand messaging, packaging, and display. It’s where we hoped all the lessons in media literacy they’ve learned through the years would come together. They did not disappoint us either. To help advertise their wares, they wrote jingles in English class with their teacher, Barbara Thomas, and recorded them in GarageBand with the technology teacher, Leslie Gulbransen.

Two of our most innovative ideas that tried to solve real problems were Lights Out and PaperStopper. Some displayed incredible handiwork in crafting their products, such as Spark Accessories and DnA Bows. Still others, such as Tree Bark Edibles, took a snack recipe and packaged it with an environmental note. Each entrepreneurial idea carefully thought out the packaging, logo design, and branding that showed a continuity worthy of any business. 

Source: DnA Bows, ASIDE, 2013

The pride in what they had accomplished was evident on the day of the fair. They were beaming with joy, and all the practice shined through in their customer service. As teachers, it was an emotional high for us to see it come together. These young entrepreneurs learned far more than they realized, but most importantly, they learned they could do anything if they put their minds to it.

Source: Spark Accessories, ASIDE, 2013

Project-based learning that brings together multiple disciplines allows students to work through ideas, encourages risk-taking, and engages kids on multiple levels. It integrates financial and media literacy into the process and challenges kids to think like designers. It’s more than just a project; it’s a life lesson. All of this is done with a network of dedicated teachers collaborating with one goal in mind, learning.

Make It Pop - What Is The Appropriate Project Pizzazz?

Source: Killer Infographics

One of biggest questions in utilizing technology is how much visual splash to incorporate into student projects. Judicious teachers want to maintain a PBL approach that is grounded in information and meaning. Students, however, often get giddy at the prospect of neon animations and swirling Prezis. The goal is to balance a love of color with an understanding of effective design.

The design firm Killer Infographics created the "Make it Pop!" motion graphic below to highlight the potential innovations of modern media but also the potential excesses of over-exuberant marketers. Their satire of lavish buzz-building hits all of the sweet spots in zinging hyper-aware advertisers.


For teachers, this clip is an ideal reminder of the importance of media literacy. Educators need to guide young children in recognizing the influence of flash over substance. It also offers a fun and gaudy crib sheet in creating projects that optimally blend all of the colors, images, typography, and music.

Essentially, any tech-preneur needs to understand balance. He or she needs to separate the visual wheat from the chaff. Media savvy students need to assess what is dynamic and what is distracting, so they can appreciate what is eye-catching branding verses what is fluffy overkill.

Creating Student Avatars - Balancing Project Design With "Safe For School"

Source: Dude Factory

As school projects migrate to laptops and tablets, student choice becomes a blessed corollary to any multimedia creation. Even the most scripted lesson, when executed via a web tool, can find a way to incorporate a small amount of customization. A lot of Internet resources feature dynamic themes or color choices that permit student individualization. At the very least, however, most blogs and social networks allow users to upload unique avatars to distinguish their profiles.

An avatar is a personalized online icon that represents a user's virtual self. Whether on open-ended web pages or straightforward Prezis, a signature avatar can give a child great pride in his or her masterpiece. There are a lot of quirky avatar generators available on the web. Many of them, though, require accounts. Even if free, these logins require email addresses and erect barriers to ease-of-use and effiency. Also, many of the cleverest avatar sites are not safe for school. For example, Dude Factory has great options, but it allows characters to hoist martinis.

The sites below are free, with neat and appropriate options in creating avatars. They also appeal to the wide range of tastes. By the way, we find it easiest to avoid the process of saving or downloading the finished products, and instead we use the screencap command to select a desired field.

Source: DoppelMe

DoppelMe

DoppelMe offers an impressive range of colors, with upbeat and kid-friendly characters. The accessories and backgrounds provide cute choices for boys and girls. Users can select among basic clothing and expressions right away, but they can gain access to more free items by signing in.

Source: Unique

Unique

The Unique interface presents a Japanese comic book,  anime-style gallery. The cartoon characters have appealingly mischievous grins. The smooth application also presents one of the easiest visual tools of all the avatar sites.

Source: Reasonably Clever

Reasonably Clever

For Lego figures, Reasonably Clever is a terrific option for young learners. The web page and graphic interaction are not nearly as crisp and modern as other sites, but the end products are still winsome for projects and class blogs.

Source: BuiLD
YouR WiLD SeLF

BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF

Sponsored by the New York Zoos and Aquarium, BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF combines essential avatar choices (eyes, clothing, etc.) with outlandish animal features to generate half-human, half-beast images. In an illustrative style, the drawings echo picture books in their artistry.

Source: Bitstrips

Bitstrips

Bitstrips focuses more on the nuances of the face than other avatars. The comics-friendly site uses cartoony animation to offer a host of choices in designing just the right length of hair and just the right creases on the forehead. The final product, therefore, can actually resemble the user, if desired.

Source: Dream Avatar

Dream Avatar

For slightly older students, Dream Avatar is surprisingly sophisticated in its spectrum of creative elements. The icons evoke images from manga, and the accessories allow for a fully realized backstory to each character. Some teachers may not want children selecting among the more teenage options, but the good thing about the site is that it can appeal to any age of techie (including adults).

For other avatar generators, check out Picasso Head for older students or Square Face Icon for younger students. In addition, this Copyright Friendly wiki lists 30 - 40 possible avatar choices.

The Design Of Project-Based Learning - Color Theory For Web 3.0

Source: Colourlov.in

One of the promising truths about project-based learning (PBL) is that it's coming whether schools like it or not. Even in an age of race-to-the-top testing, children are slowly but surely doing more and more work via technology.

Even as some instructors fall back on "project-oriented" learning, rather than true PBL, the gradual spread of tablets and BYOD tasks will invariably shift classroom education toward a more hands-on model. The hope, therefore, is that personalized iPads and home tech assignments will encourage creative interactions and self-directed investigations.


Color Theory Infographic from Sean Ferguson on Vimeo.

One of the most basic choices in producing a technology project is the selection of color. Students in their iMovies, Keynotes, and Tumblrs can now pick from a palate of pixelated paints. All too often they get over-excited and click on a madcap miasma of mismatched hues. Knowing a little bit about color theory can go a long way toward designing an appealing and effective project in the open-source web 3.0 world.

Source: Visual.ly

Many of the modern concepts around the use of color, particularly in technology or multimedia formats, spring not from classes in oil painting but from theories of branding. Crafting an alluring logo or a unique web banner both draw from evolving notions of Internet marketing. These graphic schemes can relate effectively back to the classroom, as students pair fonts and tints in their Prezis or as they select background themes for their project blogs.

The motion infographic above by Sean Ferguson gives a crisp and helpful primer in fundamental color theory. It lays out the guidelines of partnered tones, in addition to other considerations of visual design.

Source: Feel Guide

For other resources about color theory, we recommend:

• The Role Of Color In Marketing
• Color Science
• Psychology Of Color
• The Faber Birren Collection of Books on Color - Yale University Library

Choosing among styles of lettering, by the way, can often have the same positive impact on projects. Check out "A New Typography Of Language" for ideas on teaching students about fonts.

Inside-Outside - TEDxNYED 2013

Source: TEDxNYED

The theme for the fourth annual TEDxNYED conference was "Inside-Outside." Presented in the majestic 91-year-old auditorium of the Brooklyn Technical High School, on Saturday, April 27, 2013, the series of talks focused on learning inside and outside of the classroom. Or, to quote Jonathan Soma, one of the day's presenters, the motif can be flipped to view outward-facing education as earning grades for college and for parents, and inward-facing education as nurturing life-long hobbies and self-betterment.

TEDxNYED, April 27, 2013 -
Source: ASIDE

Each passionate speaker shared insights about a unique slice of modern learning. Some common strands, however, wove through all of the orations, including:

• Meaningful person-to-person interactions are essential, especially in the emerging world of automated education
• Experience is more important than content
• Motivated educators are carving out niches of hands-on discovery, despite the impediments against them

If you were unable to attend the gathering, the talks will soon be posted online. Here's our recap, which highlights just a few of the ideas that struck us as worth sharing. Also, be sure to check out the Twitter #TEDxNYED archive for a lively real-time record.

Sabrina Stevens, TEDxNYED, April 27, 2013 - Source: ASIDE

Douglas Rushkoff (@rushkoff) - "Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now"
In a world that is constantly connected, we need to exploit a peer-to-peer culture of learning. Most digital interaction is based on scripted "Read Only" performances in what is actually a "Read-Write" world. One of the best roles of online learning is using computers to teach computers. Programming is about engineering, liberal arts, and culture.

Sabrina Stevens (@teachersabrina) - "On Love, Democracy, And Public Schools"
What makes you respected as an independent school educator makes you a dissident in a test-obsessed public school. We keep waiting for the "justice fairy" to fix our schools. This is the wish that "somebody" is to blame and "somebody" needs to do something. Disempowerment is a cooperative act, while empowerment is an act of love that requires teaching.

Ahmed Abdelqader & Jason Nadboy - "Math Matters"
Students teaching other students, from high schoolers to middle schoolers, can produce inspiration in math enrichment. An ambitious spirit can kindle curiosity through game theory, graph theory, and magic squares.

Trung Le (@lecannondesign) - "The Third Teacher"
A school's environment can be emblematic of a desire to inspire thinkers. The design of the physical space can enhance the ecology of learning. Many schools currently treat learning as separate buckets of paint, but life is a messy splatter of hues. With information free everywhere, the value of school is no longer the content but the experience. Deep learning powered by technology leads to transformation.

Trung Le, TEDxNYED, April 27, 2013 - Source: ASIDE

Gary Stager (@garystager) - "Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering and Engineering In The Classroom"
Young people have a remarkable capacity for intensity. Why do schools, therefore, insist on whole-class instruction and full-frontal teaching, killing flow with too many transitions? "Settle-down" time really means "wait for the next instruction." Those who remember a time when classrooms included play, gerbils, and imagination have a responsibility to remind their colleagues and inform their students, starting immediately. Complexity is possible when we make simple things easy to do.

Stephanie Rivera (@stephrrivera) - "Teacher Under Construction"
When you dreamed of being a teacher, did you dream of being a doormat? How many educators have silently sent in their resignation letters? Don't ignore the negative stereotypes of teachers. Speak up, or others will speak for you. Learning is not a standard and teachers are not puppets.

Kristen Swanson (@kristenswanson) - "Viral Learning"
Viral ideas are small, infectious notions that replicate inside living organisms. If learning is participatory, personal, and powerful, it becomes shareable and spreadable. It takes on a feeling of epicness.

Jen Messier & Jonathan Soma (@bkbrains) - "Brooklyn Brainery"
If you throw a rock, you can find an enthusiast or expert on almost any topic. The challenge is convincing them they can be teachers. The only credentials necessary are passion and a connection to the audience. The surprising truth is that everyone is interested in everything. You just have to give them the avenue to learn it.

Audrey Watters (@audreywatters) - "The Laws Of Educational Robotics"
Robots today can do almost anything, but can they recognize human cognitive differences? Computers can automatically grade essays and assess understanding, but can they teach us how to learn? If computers read as well as humans, it's because we've taught humans to read like computers. With no rules to govern them, will educational robots harm our humanity?

Math Matters, TEDxNYED, April 27, 2013 - Source: ASIDE

Justin Lanier, Paul Salomon, & Anna Weitman (@mathmunch) - "Math Munch"
What is the nature of math discovery? Does it take a genius? Is the culture of math off-putting? We can draw kids into the creative experience with puzzles, art, and imagination. We can tell children that their mathematic, literary, and artistic works have a place in the greater world.

Maurya Couvares (@mauryacouvares) - "ScriptEd"
We must give low income students the options of careers in computers, where they can both use technology and create technology. Mentored by experts in the field, coders become creative. Kids cannot rely on a select group of insiders to design their futures. Children must be the creators in their communities.

Reshan Richards (@reshanrichards) - "Don't Control The Learning Experience"
Learning is spontaneous and complicated. Despite all those who try, it cannot be controlled. The biggest mistake in education is thinking grades are the same as assessment. Open-ended tools and user-designed applications can stretch the bounds of what is possible. We should not try to control the learning experience, but guide it.

Don Buckley (@donbuckley) - "Building A Culture Of Innovation"
To build a culture of innovation, you need the right people, the appropriate incentives, and a common language. Through design thinking and ideation, you can survey the landscape and find areas of opportunity. Schools can even build innovation "pop-ups" to share research and proposals that rethink lunch, homework, recess, and grading.

Math Munch, TEDxNYED, April 27, 2013 - Source: ASIDE

We'd like to thank all of the experts who made it worthwhile to spend an unseasonably sunny Saturday inside a dark theater. The event organizers, such as Patrick Honner (@mrhonner) and Basil Kolani (@bkolani), also deserve our appreciation for their hard work and unruffled manner. If you happen to be in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, we recommend the iced coffee at the charming Cammareri bakery.

Don Buckley, TEDxNYED, April 27, 2013 - Source: ASIDE

By the way, here's the rundown of last year's TEDxNYED 2012, if you want to compare the affairs.

Motion Infographics - The Science Of Sports

We've been using motion infographics more and more in our classrooms. These animated visuals can help explain the complicated world of economics, the effects of adolescent stress, the inequality of wealth, and the fluidity of language. Mesmerizing, computer-generated videos can grab our students' attentions and, as a result, can illuminate relevant teaching points in colorful, appealing ways.

One of the emerging uses of motion graphics is in the joint world of sports and science. Coaches and athletes are looking for ways to capture their teams' performances and gain a leg up on the competition through technology. Kinesthetic and physiognomic sciences are revealing dynamic representations of the human form.


Forms (process) from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

The visually arresting video above is a prime example of graphics' viral appeal (h/t @Storybird). Created by Memo Akten and Quayola, it renders the movements of elite athletes into digital reverberations and, in doing so, creates fascinating abstract art.

The clip reminds us of ESPN's groundbreaking series about Sports Science. These popular segments overlay live action shots of professional athletes with data, figures, angles, and calculations. The physics and biomechanics of gymnastics, for example, come to life in the classroom through the video below. It would be a prime opener to a biology or health lesson.



The Coach's Eye app for tablets seeks to document similar feats through slow motion recordings and editing tools. Also, the Graphics Mafia site serves as a clearing house for creators of sports motion graphics. One of the vanguards of interactive graphics, The New York Times, features a slightly different but highly engaging animation of the entire history of the Olympics 100-Meter sprint. Even if you are not a fan of international sports, the craftsmanship of this video tells an enthralling story about running history and human evolution.


For more examples of well-designed image films, check out Video Infographics.

Stressed Out Students: Rethinking Pace And Expectations

Source: Daily Infographic
(click for detail)

In addition to fêting poetry and financial literacy, April also honors Stress Awareness Month. In our classrooms, we notice more and more that stress can be debilitating for students. In fact, we spent much of our transition night a few weeks ago trying to assuage families' apprehensions as their children get ready for middle school.

News outlets have reported that in higher education, stress levels are at an all-time peak. Students across the board may actually be more anxious now than during the Great Depression. Interestingly, gifted children may be more susceptible to strain, because of possible social isolation or class boredom.

The number one cause of nervousness in schools is the undue emphasis on standardized testing. Children realize quickly that their days spent doing test preparations place an enormous weight on the eventual tests themselves. Many of the nationwide opt-out movements are springing directly from a desire to avoid putting manufactured test pressure on young learners.


Motion Infographic - Stress from Shaun Chan on Vimeo.

Source: Column Five Media
(click for detail)

The motion infographic above highlights startling figures about the extensive effects of stress. Designed by Shaun Chan using statistics from the Global Organization for Stress, the video presents a compelling case for reducing anxiety in our students.

For learners, a primary trigger of stress is uncertainty. When children are thrown into the educational deep end with no guidance or with vague instructions, they panic in trying to meet expectations. These expectations create other sources of anxiety for students, particularly in the academic grades that some parents presume their kids should be able to attain.

Source: Sweet & Simple

The best cures for student stress are adjustments in pace and tone. By giving more time for everyday activities and by allowing an appropriate rate for understanding, teachers can alleviate situations that cause agitation. A lighter tone from teachers and parents can also have a salubrious effect. Something as simple as relaxing and smiling can inspire children to loosen up and enjoy learning.

For other resources about reducing student stress, we recommend:

• "Help Students De-Stress For Success," from Edutopia
• "Stress Relief Activities," from Confidence Coaching
• "The 4 Main Stress Factors And How You Can Reduce Their Impact," from The Entrepreneur Blog