Term 1 – The making of great teams and project concepts.
The Year 10 students have had a whirlwind semester in the DeLorean Project. The term started with a focus on developing teamwork and collaborative skills; aimed at equipping the students with skills and strategies to enhance the effectiveness of their team and ultimately their business projects. Part of the process involved the students taking personality tests and exploring what strengths and weaknesses different personalities bring to a team and how to accommodate and utilise these. Based on their experiences, students were able to form their teams for the project and it is encouraging to see the progress that the teams are making.
In the last weeks of the term, students started exploring possible business ideas. It is exciting to see the imagination and passion that went into either solving a global problem or recognising a niche market to create a list of projects that have enormous amounts of future success. The businesses for this year’s project involve a social enterprise for homeless people, game controller device, capturing elderly people’s life story, DMC coffee van, surfboard modifications, healthy eating app, mobile phone case, website for motorbike parts, fidget spinners, exercise classes, basketball competition, sportswear modifications and a storage solution for commercial kitchens to prevent cross contamination.
Term 2 – Swimming with the sharks!
The motivating factor for this term was for the teams to conceptualise and pitch their ideas to a team of sharks; industry representatives with a flair for entrepreneurial initiatives. The sharks consisted of Macca Reardon, an 18 year old entrepreneur who was somewhat of an inspiration for the Year 10 students. Kayleen Thompson, co-owner and manager of Pakton Technologies; John Sterling-Carter, a Productivity Ecologist who coaches in growth and development for businesses; Graham Scott, an ex-high school PE teacher who is now a successful entrepreneur with his establishment of two businesses, Wheelhouse Coffee and The Crow & Arrow bar; and finally, Patrick Twomey, General Manager for Growth and Development at Sunsuper. This line-up of sharks brought an overwhelming amount of knowledge, advice, feedback and encouragement for the students. The sharks were provided with funds to invest in the projects and each team had the opportunity to earn up to $200 in capital investment.
Presenting to the sharks was a nervous task, but the students all rose to the occasion with maturity and confidence. Comments from the post-pitch interviews with the students highlighted the value of the experience in having the opportunity to present their project concepts to real-life industry experts; an opportunity that not too many Year 10 students get in traditional education. Another dimension that added to the experience was that all the Shark Tank pitches were streamed live on the DeLorean Project YouTube channel.
The DeLorean Project is facilitated by a team of seven teachers who come from different teaching areas who all have a passion for preparing students for the future. They take opportunities to step outside the box of traditional education in order to enhance the quality of learning for our Year 10 students. We are always looking for community mentors to connect with our students in ways that will add value to their learning and experience in the DeLorean Project. We invite expressions of interests for any of our GCC parents who may have a high level of expertise or experience in any of the related projects mentioned above, or specifically in engineering, innovation, technology, business, digital marketing, or social enterprise. If you are interested in being involved, please contact Rob Steffler ([email protected]) for more details.
To keep up-to-date with the DeLorean Project or to find out more information, please check out the website deloreanproject.com.au
