Oliver King, Director, Engine group
Ideaplay is based around stories. So on each Ideaplay we have a storyboard and a story around a particular couple of characters who are going through a daily routine and through reading the story the students begin to identify new opportunities for things and how these things could be solved.
Going through the process, what the students then do is come up with a whole range of ideas and within this one story there are hundreds of ideas and typically the students are coming up with 20 or 30 ideas that they then discuss amongst themselves. Ideaplay presents a range of questions that they can use to evaluate these ideas and they boil it down and they pick one and when they’ve got the idea that they really like, they begin to mock it up, so they begin to perhaps do some sketching and visualisation around it, they’ll make models in a kind of Blue Peter style out of egg boxes and cellophane and that kind of stuff and they will begin to mock up advertising, websites, posters, that kind of thing in order to at the end to pitch their idea.
Chris Bodemeaid - Design and Technology teacher, St George’s Foundation School
The children are discussing a range of problems that have been set to them and making decisions in a group environment, which is a tough one because some of the quieter kids don’t sometimes get their voices heard, but here they are. I’ve noticed that while we’ve been here, the whole group gets involved in it. The proof of the pudding for me that this works is that you set them five ideas to do and they’re doing nine and ten and 12. Now that’s a real reward for the challenge set.
Nicola Burr – Project Manager, Canterbury Christchurch University – Centre for Enterprise and Business Development
I think it’s all about confidence. It’s developing their own confidence, giving them some motivation to see that they can generate their own ideas and actually producing something tangible at the end. And also the element of pitching is also a very important part. It may be the first time these kids have stood in front of a panel of people and presented their own ideas. It gives them some ownership of what they’ve developed.
Mike Bastin – Head of Faculty, Business and Enterprise, St George’s Foundation School
The Government’s targets for enterprise teaching is…they’re looking at problem solving, teamwork, leadership and I know today gave the students a full opportunity to develop those skills through the activity that they were participating in. There was clear evidence throughout the morning of students working independently, collectively, taking a step back, students being leaders and most importantly, working creatively to come up with their final designs.
Oliver King
It’s about idea recognition, it’s about spotting whether an idea is good or bad, it’s about evaluating those ideas, it brings out a whole range of presentation skills, it helps them to understand how to develop and follow some form of implementation plan and I think importantly, it builds in them skills of collaboration which means in the future when they’re looking to be entrepreneurial they’ll be able to work with different investors or business to actually bring their ideas to life.
Mike Bastin
One of the fantastic things about this event in such a short space of time is that it allowed the students to go from the idea through to the completion of the idea in a very short space of time.
Nicola Burr
I think this is a bit more fun. It’s not quite as dry. It brings together that team element as well which is perhaps lacking in some areas of the curriculum and gets them actually doing something which is a bit more hands on.
Chris Bodemeaid
It's challenging them to come up with something from their own mind. When a challenge is set to them, how do they cope with problems? What are they going to do about it? What do they all think…rather than just one? And that’s basically that’s a mixing of the minds and a combination of skills of individuals to hopefully come up with, like you would do in any job or environment, to then solve the problem and that’s really what it’s all about - life is that.