Several employees from Slalom Consulting spent over three hours at Amundsen High School on a Friday morning at the end of the school year. This meant bells ringing every class period, music pounding between periods to motivate students to arrive to their next class on time and the seniors returning all their textbooks, paying fines, and congratulating friends on graduation at last. No doubt it was still a marvelous experience for 26 students.
Through Lumity’s relationship with Slalom, the match was made between teacher Jenny Nguyen, an Amundsen alumna herself, and five Slalom professionals. Lumity, Slalom and Nguyen worked together to plan the Real World Project. She and the team approached this planning differently than others in the past. They asked the students what the project should be. Project ideas came from the students’ everyday world.
The volunteers from Slalom developed this innovation workshop to demonstrate students on what a problem looked like, how to identify the need, the customers or those who serve to benefit from the solution and how to pitch the idea to others. The Slalom team even taught the importance of responding professionally and letting things go if their idea was not ultimately selected.
Project ideas ranged from determining appropriate student attire to addressing global warming on the local level to bullying. Every student came prepared with a graphic representation of their perceived problem and presented a two minute pitch to the entire group. Everyone was prepared and professional.
To learn more about Real World Projects, visit our STEM Collaboration website.