Post-Meeting Report

     Today we met for the first time with the teacher at El Sol Academy in Santa Ana after school.  Mrs. Zavala was very interested and receptive to our plans and ideas, and was excited to learn more about the program.  After looking over our syllabus and the other materials we had prepared,  Mrs. Zavala spoke with us about our future plans for the group.  She was very confident in the potential of this group, and was not only eager to speak with us about her students, but also eager to spread the word of our group to other teachers at the school who might be interested.
     We look forward to further tailoring our syllabus and curriculum to fit her individual needs, and also to keeping in contact with her over the next few weeks.  We're very excited about the future of this group, and we can't wait to begin our service visits at El Sol!

Activities

Here are the first few of the activities that we have formulated for our group

Activity Examples

1.   Supply and Demand

Group A

You have a pencil and need candy.  You have to trade your pencil for candy.  DO NOT TRADE YOUR PENCIL FOR LESS THAN 10 CANDIES.

Group B

You have 15 candies, but you need a pencil.  You have to trade some candies for a pencil.  DO NOT TRADE MORE THAN 5 CANDIES FOR THE PENCIL.  

2.   Product Design and Innovation

Students will be given an object(s), a time limit, and told to create something from it. This is basic activity that spurs excellent results and students enjoy.

3.   Sell me this pen

In groups of twos, students will engage each other trying their ability to “sell” their partner a given item. I.e. pen, pencil, binder, etc. Whoever thinks they have the best sales pitch can present to the class if they so choose.

4.   Marshmallow Activity

The purpose of the game is to teach the students the power of patience and conserving. The ability to be patient and conserve is valuable and in all realms of the business and entrepreneurial world.

Everyone in the class receives a marshmallow.

For every minute they wait, they will get double the current amount of marshmallows they have. (1 -> 2, 2 -> 4, 4 -> 8) At 8, we will stop.

The “Call” Option. For the last minute, the students will be presented an option. If nobody eats any of their marshmallows during the last minute, everyone will end up with half what they currently have. Any single student can decide to eat all of his marshmallows, but then nobody else will be allowed to eat theirs. Address that, in the end, all students might not be left with any marshmallows. This will further their temptation to eat them.

5. Budgeting activity

This activity involves building a tower from two types of blocks, each with a different price.

Students are given a starting amount of imaginary money, let’s say $100 dollars. With this budget they may then buy a certain amount of building blocks for their tower. One type, a domino, will cost $5. The other, a jenga block, will cost $10. The goal of this activity is for students to create

the highest free-standing tower while staying within their budget. To add another aspect to the game, students may be able to make deals with other students and alter prices as they come up with creative solutions.

6. Creation activity

Students must identify a problem with a toy, utensil, appliance, etc. of their choosing. They will list all of the problems with this particular object, and propose ideas for either a way to improve this object or a completely new object that fills the same niche as the previous object, but better. After all students have come up with individual ideas, they may collaborate and form groups. Students develop a prototype (drawing, sculpture) and hypothesize the materials needed to create this new invention, and then develop a pitch (poster possibly)  to present to a supervisor (a good way to incorporate art or other visual media into our presentation). The most important part of this activity is to get the students to recognize things that are wrong with the things they use on a regular basis.

Mission Statement

The following is our service group's Mission Statement

Entrepreneurship is not

-Magic

-Mysterious

It is a skill and can be learned

What are entrepreneurs?

They are people who see opportunities where others see chaos and confusion.

What do they do?

- Entrepreneurs are always looking for something new.

- Entrepreneurs have the ability to think big.

- Entrepreneurs try to do the impossible.

- Entrepreneurs love innovation.

- Entrepreneurs are tolerant of people who make mistakes.

What is good about being an entrepreneur?

You…

- Do what you enjoy

- Help your community

- Can even make a bit of money

Purpose: To promote the entrepreneurial spirit and stimulate inherent intellectual creativity in young students.