Innovation & Enterprise

This semester in InnovatEd, we did a project where we went to RAAFA and showed various types of technology to the elderly people living there.

At the beginning of the project, we came together and discussed ways in which we could show the elderly technology, and came up with different ideas for what kind of technology we could show them. We had to come up with technology that they wouldn’t already know about and that they would find interesting, as well as displaying it in a way that they would understand.
Some of the ideas we came up with were communication and social media services, technology features and accessibility, school technology, useful applications, new technology such as drones and VR, applications for entertainment, AI, and security. We also decided that we would have tour guides showing the people around to different stations.
In the end, we removed some categories to focus on others. My focus was school technology, which was technology that we use in school today. I showed the Classpad, Teams, and OneNote.

Before the Tech Fair, twice we met with a man working there, who discussed with us the elderly people’s knowledge of technology and showed us where the fair would be held so that we would be able to plan a setup for it, as we would need to know where screens and power points were.
For the actual fair, I was originally going to show the actual physical Classpad and demonstrate with that, however, we could not find a good way to display it as there were no suitable cameras, as the Classpad screen would reflect the surroundings and significantly decrease the visibility of what was being shown. In the end, I had to use the virtual Classpad, and display it on one of the large screens. This meant that the elderly people were able to take a look at the physical Classpad while I demonstrated.
Some of the college capabilities that I had to use included problem solving (such as when I was trying to find out how to display the Classpad), collaboration (by working with our peers to come up with ideas for the fair), and organisation (to organise the things such as what we would need for the fair and how we would complete all of the tasks. We did this using an online program called Trello, on which we made a SCRUM).

In the end, the fair went very well, and the people were very intrigued by the technology that we use at school. They were especially surprised by the Classpad, as, by using it, it was very easy to get answers, and they thought that it was like cheating. They were entertained by the fair and enjoyed using the technology.

Excerpt from the tech fair

In term 4, we worked on a project in groups for economics where we made products to sell at the Christmas Market. We received an investment of $30 to start off our business for buying materials to create the products. After selling the products at the market we would pay it back, along with the profit which would go to charity and the float which we were allocated. My group (Amelia O and me) made $64.90 in profit, and the total profit of the whole of year 7 was $1953.

Our products for sale at the Christmas market.

The first step in the Christmas market project was where we, in InnovatEd, got into random groups, brainstormed ideas for what different people would want for Christmas by interviewing each other and researched sustainable and ethical gift ideas. Over the weekend, we also interviewed some other people such as family members about what they would like for Christmas and what they think that other people would like for Christmas. This was useful and important for the Christmas market project as we would learn about good gifts for people and what to make to suit our target audience. This was the ’empathise’ part of the design thinking process.

Next, in class, we discussed what many people wanted for Christmas (from what we had learnt from the interviews) and shared with the class something important or useful we had learnt about that. This was the ‘define’ part of the design thinking process.

After this, we started the ideate part of the design thinking process. This was where we brainstormed ideas for products which we could make for the Christmas market. Some ideas that I came up with were rope bowls, reusable bags made from t-shirts and bookmarks made from ironed plastic straws. Then, we got into our groups and shared the ideas, then chose one to do for the market.

Next, we would pitch to our teacher our idea for the market, and they would decide whether or not to let our idea go ahead and invest the $30 in it. During this stage, we would research the product to see if we could make enough and if it fit in the budget. Then we could make a prototype if we wanted to see if we would be able to make it easily. We ended up deciding to make rope bowls made from macrame cord and rope bowls made from upcycled t-shirts. We were originally going to make sets of the products for people to buy, which is when we came up with the idea of the beeswax wraps to put in the set, but in the end, we didn’t sell the products in sets.

Next, we would start making the products to sell. Amelia worked on the macrame bowls and I worked on the braided rope bowls. On one weekend, Amelia came over to my house for us to make the beeswax wraps as we were using beeswax from my beehive. Meanwhile, in Digital ICT we made a spreadsheet on Excel to account for things such as the costs and profit/ loss of our products at the market.

In English, we worked on a print advertisement for our products. Before the market, we put them up in the canteen and in some areas at the year 5 and 6 building.

To do this, we learnt about advertising techniques, the types and purposes of advertisements and analysed advertisements.

Then, we sold our products at the Christmas market at lunchtime. Our products sold out, although near the end of the market, when we had two small beeswax wraps left, we had to lower the price from $2 each to $1 each because nobody had enough money anymore.

I think that the Christmas market project was a fun way to learn about economics, advertising and spreadsheets and it was useful that we were actually doing the market instead of just learning about the things in theory. I think that we did well at the market as we sold all our products; they were sustainable or made from upcycled materials and we made a profit of $64.90, which went to the Salvation Army.

Category: Innovation & Enterprise

RAAFA Tech Fair

The Christmas Market