Innovation, Creativity and Collaboration
Throughout our 3rd quarter as a grade level we challenged the students to create an invention that would fill a need or solve a problem. After viewing several clips from the ABC television program Shark Tank, students were able to understand the process of inventing a product and getting it out on the market. Student evaluated the good and bad of different inventions from people of all ages including kids then struck out on their own to develop their own products. This wasn’t the easiest of tasks but through hard work and collaboration students created their presentations and were ready to present to the BCS team of sharks. This was initially comprised of their classroom teachers. Teams that made it to the finals would be given the chance to present to a new panel of judges that would listen and evaluate looking at product, presentation and the ability to respond to questioning. At the completion of the product students and teachers were astonished to see the diversity that students bring to a creative and innovative team. Each of the finalists each stood out to the judges and audience for unique reasons. Some were great at the invention; others had the ability to captivate the audience. When we finally put the unit to rest the consensus among students was the desire to do this type of unit again.
