Managing E4E Projects

‘To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now, so that the steps you take are always in the right direction' (Covey, 1994). Below is some useful information that teachers have found worked well for them and their students: Working to a Process Points to Note Project Ideas by Subject Please click here for an E4E Resource Template.

Working to a Process

E4E activities should start by looking at the desired outcomes and then identify the processes required, the expectations and the teaching needed to enable the students to succeed.

Identify an opportunity, issue, problem or need:

Students and teachers generate ideas through discussion and brainstorming to reach a common understanding of what is required to develop the opportunity, resolve the issue/problem or meet the need. Teachers to assist linking the learning to real life experience.

Define the goals and outcomes:

Identify the desired outcomes – what will the students know, understand and be able to apply? Include the key competencies and values the project will address; teachers and students decide how the students need to demonstrate these qualities and determine the appropriate evidence. Assessment is an ongoing part of the learning process that needs to be designed early so teachers and students can create the best learning experiences in order to achieve the desired outcomes. Clear criteria needs to be set out for evaluation.

Plan the project or activity:

What learning experiences and teaching promote understanding, interest and excellence. Break down tasks, organise resources, delegate roles to team members, allocate responsibilities and decide on timeline. Teachers and students design the sequence of learning experiences together to improve their knowledge, understanding and application. A cross-curricular inquiry approach should be used that involves students in questioning, hypothesising, researching, analysing, making choices, working collaboratively and making connections in  order to develop a deep understanding and the ability to make contributions.

Implement the plan:

It is important to provide open briefs to a project but set clear limits – the task needs to allow the student to be enterprising, think creatively and use their initiative but specific enough to allow the teacher to plan activities and provide support. Throughout their learning, students are taught to select and use different thinking strategies. Ensure there are clear, timely communications with all stakeholders.

Regularly monitor progress:

Ensure continuous reflection occurs to assist students how to recognise, celebrate and reflect on their learning and to identify their next steps for learning. Track action plans and ensure people are taking responsibility for actions, making changes as necessary.

Evaluate the process:

Review activities and outcomes, reflect on lessons learned and assess the skills, attitudes, qualities and understanding acquired and further application.

Celebrate the successes with stakeholders:

Organise opportunities for parents, community members and businesses to participate in the students achievements.

Points to Note

‘Schooling is the one compulsory experience of society that will have an effect on the capabilities and skills that people have to contribute to their community.'

While teaching in the past has mainly been teacher dominated and anchored in abstraction, enterprise education requires students to become more self-directed and self-responsible with their learning. Students may initially have the expectation that they should be given more direction with their learning as they have been in the past, so it may take a while for them to accept this challenge and develop confidence.

Think more outside your personal comfort zone and be prepared to take risks and present (controlled) risks to students. Accept there are more diverse ways of learning and knowing. Being prepared to give up some control over the learning situation requires bravery, prudence and trust – three qualities that could represent the enterprising teacher. Be prepared to let students take more control of their E4E projects, right from the planning stage; encourage them to take responsibility for their tasks and achievements but acknowledge personal learning capabilities and opportunities.
 
It is important to provide open briefs but set clear limits to the project – available expertise, time, budget etc. The task must allow students to be enterprising, think creatively and use their initiative but at the same time it must be specific enough to allow the teacher to plan activities and provide support. Encourage students to reflect and comment on their use of enterprising attributes within the project – an excellent opportunity for self-assessment and goal setting. Equally, it is important for students to discuss issues arising from activities within a project and consider where they might fit in other curriculum areas and contexts.

Share learning outcomes with other teachers and students, as well as ensuring the community partner is fully involved in the evaluation and reporting process. Consider all projects as potentially sustainable for the school and the partner.

Encourage collaboration and teamwork between teachers within a school and between schools. Identify processes and practices currently operating which are having a significant impact on student achievement and try to include these in projects. There is no need to discard methods schools have been using; rather, develop these ideas and methods to generate new ways of thinking and working by providing opportunities for meaningful application.

Many teachers recognise the issue of managing ‘failure' should not be ignored. Setback and frustration are perceived as inevitable in learning environments that encourage risk-taking and greater self-reliance. Students learn ways to overcome and deal with problems that arise in a supported environment where they are encouraged to challenge themselves and be responsible for their successes and mistakes. This enterprising approach demonstrates how taking risks and developing ideas is a normal, daily business process.

Where possible, develop projects that stem from a local context that allows students to discover more about their own community through interaction with a range of community groups and businesses. The students develop a strong sense of engagement when topics link to a local aspect. It is important to link the task to a need or want that is meaningful to the students and allow plenty of time in the planning stages. They also need time to work through their own ideas and suggestions and be prepared to question other people's ideas. Students must understand and be interested in the brief and allowed to have fun with it so be sure to choose engaging tasks.

The outcomes for students are directly associated with the vision identified in the NZ Curriculum. E4E can provide opportunities for students to become better engaged with their learning, better connected with their community as well as improve achievement levels. Students should be able to describe their own learning in relation to a wide range of enterprise capabilities.

Consider how to include enterprising attributes into curriculum planning:

• Schools should be able to identify what is already being done in the school that fits the enterprising criteria. Quite often schools already have topics being covered that just require some tweaking or partnering with a community organisation to make them truly authentic learning opportunities.
• Cross-curricular collaboration is useful and informative for both teachers and students, giving a better insight into utilising multiple subject learning, which is more in line with current employment practice.
• Extra-curricular activities should also be able to identify what activities students could be engaged in to produce a more meaningful experience. Eg; Students could manage the budgeting of a school drama or music performance – this could involve students who are already performing or be another group not otherwise involved.
• Parents of the school community can be a useful source of partners for topics, especially if the school holds a database of their occupations and skills.

"Memorising facts and information is not the most important skill in today's world. Facts change, and information is readily available – what's needed is an understanding of how to find, make sense of, and use relevant information for specific purposes."

Project Ideas by Subject

These are some ideas by subject for intermediate and secondary level students. All the projects have been undertaken previously by different levels and have proved worthwhile in terms of student interest and outcomes. As more topics prove their worth they will be added. Click here for project ideas on the TKI website

English

• Poetry created that links with local museum, heritage place or feature. Finished work could be donated to local library or place of interest in hard or digital copy. It could even possibly be made into an art work for display at the appropriate site.
• Students create and voice adverts for radio on topics such as road safety, tourism, health issues eg: drugs. Links can be made with the community groups that deal with the topic for classroom presentations as well as copy writers from local commercial and community radio stations.
• English/Media Studies -  class links with local company, community organisation or eldercare facility and produce a news bulletin with content  to the client's  brief.
• Community organisation suggestions;  SPCA, local sports club or any volunteer group.
• Link with local newspaper for advice on layout and content – this could involve a visit to their facility to experience the production process.
• Different classes provide the community library with book reviews on a regular basis.
• Organise and hold a celebrity debate with local and/or national guests. Suggest topics eg: Are Gen Y ready to become the business leaders of NZ – should the grey make way?  Debate to be an annual event held as a fund raiser with school ownership. Students research cost to import speakers ie: travel, accommodation, meals etc.

Music/Drama 

• Students take more responsibility for the planning and running of any public performances including any catering requirements.

Maths

• A good website for maths resources is  http://nzmaths.co.nz.
• Consider linking with local community partners to bring an authentic experience to the topic chosen.
• Cycle Track: design a fun cycle track for school grounds including understanding of compass points, measuring to scale  and distances.
• Download resource level 1 – 4 from http://education.nzta.govt.nz/curriculum/cycle-safety/mathematics-and-statistics.
• Plan and construct something useful for the school that involves measuring, quantities, budgets and ratios eg: an outdoor seating area, a specific sporting area.
• Develop a survey around a topic of interest to the class that enables them to work with graphs and statistics. This could also be conducted in response to a need for a business or community group ie:  smoking, drugs, alcohol, asthma, influenza, burning fossil fuels and ways to reduce the environmental impact. Students to present findings to appropriate authority.
• Link with a large company; preferably a manufacturing industry to see how statistics are used in their Quality Control.
• Link with building company and/or sub contractors to access plans and prepare calculations for quantities of materials, including calculating carpet and wall paper amounts. Compare student results with the company's.
• Students study how statistics are used for performance tracking in sport. Link with local representative sporting group eg: rugby and basketball as well as apply the learning to own school teams.
• Childs' Playground: calculate angles, gradients and use formulae in planning a childs' play area.  Link with local council for safety requirements and use a daycare or kindy as a client.
• Position and orientation -  students work on co-ordinates, distances and bearings on maps. Link with GPS users – Rescue Helicopter or local flying school. Students could plan a local orienteering course to utilise skills.
• Maths/Social Sciences  -  Statistical analysis in farming, cropping, orcharding, viticulture.

Measuring

• Link with local engineering, manufacturing and calibrating firms on site to experience the different measuring devices they utilise. These could include devices to measure weight, length, area, volume, capacity, temperature, angles, time. To record distance travelled on any map visit :  www.trails.com/googlemap.aspx. eg:  use it to measure distance student bikes to school or plan an orienteering course.

Calculus

• Partner with engineering companies for real applications of calculus. Students project can mirror a company brief then compare their solutions.

Graphics

• Investigate and design a recreational facility for young people; eg: kindy /daycare centres.
• Research and design a community facility eg: perfumed garden for the blind.

Technology

• Visit www.techlink.org.nz/case-studies. This website has case studies and ideas for science and technology classes at many levels.
• Students plan and produce ‘goodie-bags' for local conference attendees, preferably on a local theme using local resources or products. All areas of technology could be involved in creating and packaging of the products the client selects. Business studies students could be involved in sourcing sponsorship for this project in the form of finance or products.
• Fabric Technology students design and make the costumes for a local production (consider local kindy and other school productions as well).

Food

• Students take responsibility for catering food for school events eg: sports days, cultural performances, meetings.  Students to research appropriate food items to produce and are responsible for budgeting for the occasion. Produce chocolates/treats for sale at school production or as school fundraiser.
• Partner with a local food producer – study the business from different aspects and work to a brief from the business that requires the students to research a new product for the company.
• Students research and produce a food product with specific focus or link to the school that can be used as a sustainable fundraiser for the school eg: chocolate (needs to be different from what is already on the market), fruit bar, or etc. Consider allowing a specific amount of time to be allocated in the timetable for production to include all year levels in varying tasks. Production can then be for a finite time only so as not to disrupt classes too much.
• Students research and produce a healthy eating plan for elderly or other group. Link with eldercare facility or community partner to prepare a meal for them.

Electronics/Robotics

• Link with local Search and Rescue organisation (Police contact), coastguard and helicopter rescue for practical demonstration of  GPS  receivers.
• The RoboCup NZ competition is held late in year after regional competitions. Visit www.robocupjunior.org.nz.
• There are many fruit handling companies in Hawkes Bay that utilise robotic systems that would give students an introduction to a commercial application. However, they normally only operate in the early half of the year.

Art

• Students design and produce themed cards and/or calendars of their own work for sale.  Business studies students could approach local corporate groups as clients. Designs could also be etched onto glass and made as coasters. These items could be developed as a sustainable fund-raiser for the school.
• Students organise and run an art auction that can be of their own work or combined with notable guest artists. This could be held in conjunction with a local gallery so they learn the business and compliance aspects of the activity.
• Students create ceramic tiles on local themes to be inserted in pavements or places of interest locally. eg: library or civic building entrance or another significant facility

Health

• Health Expo: students research, set up and run a health expo at the school as a school community activity or open to the public. Students link with local healthcare professionals for guidance and who would be interested to participate in the expo. Target groups should reflect issues of interest to the students eg: diet, exercise, bullying, sexual health, drugs and alcohol.
• A class could link with a corporate group and develop a survey of health, exercise and eating. They could then develop a healthy lifestyle plan under the guidance of health professionals for a group of volunteers from within the group.
• Going Flatting:  a study of the costs involved, budgeting, insurance, banking, legal obligations (renting), filling up a supermarket trolley. Link with appropriate agencies for presentations.

Social Science: Exporting

• What products go through the Napier port and what is the market worth to Hawkes Bay? Students link with the port at Napier and various exporting companies in the region to consider future prospects, in terms of products and markets.
• How do free trade agreements affect companies exporting and what documentation is required? 

Social Science: Rights and Responsibilities

• Students link with various businesses to understand how producers and consumers exercise their rights and meet responsibilities in the community. Local legal advisors are useful partners as they deal with both sides of the issue as is the local disputes tribunal.

Census

• Visit www.censusatschool.org.nz.
• Visit the Schools Corner section of the www.stats.govt.nz website for resources and activities for students with the ideal model for statistical information level 3-4.
• Statistics New Zealand also have plenty of other useful data on many topics available at  www.stats.govt.nz.
• Students investigate natural disasters and explore ways for local people to be better prepared. Link with local Civil Defence, local council and other community groups eg: Red Cross, and prepare a resource for local population to assist residents prepare. 
• Link with local council or organisation and look at how they use GIS for future planning.
• World Environment Day (early June)  -  fostering low carbon economics - audit carbon footprint of school  - power/energy, water, waste, recycling, resources (eg; paper) and research suggestions for change from an economic aspect eg: ethical sourcing of products.
• Identify various volunteer groups in the community and study their focus. Students choose a group or groups to assist with their work and undertake some form of fund-raising activity.  Arrange a celebration to thank the volunteers.

Road Safety Education: Cross curricular approach or individual curriculum study

• Thirteen priorities have been outlined under three headings: areas of high concern, areas of medium concern, and areas for continued focus and emerging issues. All areas of the curriculum can be involved in different topics.
• Students select the topics to focus on and plan ways to raise public awareness of the issues. Drama classes can create a performance for their school as well as other local schools to address a specific issue. Community surveys can be undertaken as part of a maths statistical project. A science project on forces and motion can link with road accident evidence to reinforce how speed affects stopping ability (use local transport authority personnel for practical demonstrations).
• Health classes can link with appropriate community health organisations to tackle the issues of alcohol, drugs and fatigue as well as studying how age affects mental responses and reflexes. Students can develop educational resources on the topics studied to be made available to the public. Business studies students can be involved in organising fundraising and advertising.

Areas of high concern:

• Reducing alcohol/drug impaired driving
• Increasing the safety of young drivers
• Safer roads and safer roadsides
• Safer speeds
• Increasing the safety of motor-cycling

Areas of medium concern:

• Improving the safety of the light vehicle fleet
• Safer walking and cycling
• Improving the safety of heavy vehicles
• Reducing the impact of fatigue
• Addressing distraction

Areas for continued focus and emerging areas:

• Increasing the level of restraint use
• Reducing the impact of high risk drivers
• Increasing the safety of older New Zealanders

Careers

• Students investigate career opportunities and the relevance of their learning to current employment needs. They should compile a questionnaire before visiting various companies and organisations of interest as well as receive school visits from human resources personnel.
• Students could create a learning resource for their library or school on their findings for each career area studied.
• Careers studies can be undertaken in the context of specific subject areas eg: maths students can look at a variety of careers areas of interest with a focus on the maths required and to what level as well as a broader study of the career.

Science

• Visit www.crest.org.nz. CREST is the Royal Society of New Zealand's international awards scheme designed to encourage years 6–13 students to be innovative, creative, and to problem solve in science, technology and environmental studies.
• Visit www.techlink.org.nz/case-studies. This website has case studies and ideas for science and technology classes at many levels.

Biology

• Students link with local council and consulting companies on a specific marine environmental project of their choosing.  They can research the topic and present findings and proposals to the community partners. If public education is deemed necessary, students to research most appropriate method to implement this.
• Students rate the carbon footprint or undertake an energy audit of the school and present findings and recommendations to management and the school Board. A school calculator for this purpose can be found on this website along with other helpful information. www.carbonzero.co.nz.
• Link with local abalone producer for study on paua. Include future outlook for the industry locally and in a global context. (cross-curricular link with Social Science).
• Students link with local councils to study available water supplies in the area. Students could assist with monitoring water quality or surveys of major water users in area.

Sustainability

• Research waste at local hospital or aged care facility and propose strategies for change or improvement. Composting could be one method of handling bio-degradable waste.  www.reducerubbish.govt.nz  Link with local compost manufacturer for further advice and visit local recycling station. Students could design and construct a compost bin or worm farm box for the school.
• Check with local Bio-Security Officer on local projects that students could become involved with on a practical level.
  Link with large manufacturing company on waste water recovery, and heat recovery if applicable.
• Auckland Regional Council and Environment Waikato websites have useful environmental education information
  investigate future food production methods eg: aeroponics (growing crops in misted air conditions without soil, on roof spaces or between buildings to save on land area).
• Investigate future methods of producing electricity ie: wind turbines at sea. What methods would be appropriate for Hawkes Bay and/or NZ.
• These websites have useful information on environment education in NZ.  www.eednz.org.nz and www.emap.rsna.org.         
  Also check the pages of the local regional council. www.hbrc.govt.nz.
• Link with local authority to assess air quality in urban area or specific area around a large industrial operation.  (Geography, Maths).