I’ve shifted my life a bit and I’m now teaching a program called INCubator. What I do is help kids create businesses and put them in touch with professionals in the fields they are interested in. It’s quite a bit to ask - it’s a digital or in person consultation usually a Q&A for 1.5 hours dependent on your schedule and the students class period.
I have several needs and I figure I might have some luck finding resident experts for my students to consult with. Mind you, this is for a school so I can’t pay you…I can make cookies and invite you to a pretty good Thanksgiving appreciation event.
Here are my current needs:
Vintage clothing flippers
Fashion designers or people that have a boutique
App creators (I have SOOOOO MANY) we use figmas free education account to create demos
Sports tech - GPS micro movement tracking devices
3D printing - design side teachers (we don’t have access to much)
Thanks for responding. #1. is an organizational app - daily organization combined with calorie counter and probably a few more things before they get done #2. is a game - financial literacy - now this kid won money last year but is stuck at creating the app #3 & 4 & 5 are both “storefront” apps - I’m trying to get them to consider Shopify but they are convinced (right now) that they need an app #6 is an app that connects volunteers to a community I’m trying to get them to just consider a database website like voly
Everything isn’t ironed out yet and the students might change directons. But that’s the basics.
side note: I’m tempted to make a “no app” rule in my classroom because it’s the default of what everyone wants to do and it’s the hardest thing to facilitate in my classroom.
Yeah, web apps are one thing… Mobile apps are a whole other thing .
Is the idea that whoever volunteers would come into a class and give a discussion or Q&A to the whole class, or is it breakout style or something else?
I’ve done whole class talks but what’s worked better is for a professional to come in and do a 20ish min talk about
“Hey I’m __________ and I do __________ my typical rates areXYZ and if you would to ever need me to create or consult with _________ this would be the format we would use : demo to the class” and at that point I break the kids who are working on whatever it is with a specialty into the conference room to a closer talk.
My classes are an hour and a half but I typically ask speakers to come in 9-11 so they can hit both classes in a short amount of time 50m in each.
I have two groups currently that have 3-D printing needs. I can handle the printing part. It’s the designing part that they just need help with one team is creating a cleaning product and the other team is creating a what they think is going to be a shoe sole with some embedded tech. However this might change of course. So far the cleaning product is pretty spot on with what they are thinking. I bought a few 3d printing pens for rough rough prototypes but as they get refined they will start getting more specific. I can teach the basics but if I can find an expert to help them with navigating the design we will be light years ahead.
Another great question and information I should have included in the initial post. I see them daily till the end of the year so my calendar is pretty wide open (minus field trips, mentor meetings, guest speakers). Ideally, asap - if it’s in person I need a short little background check done before I can bring someone in (delay of about a week). But honestly as soon as anyone is available I’ll grab whomever can help.
I can share a very ugly calendar with anyone if you would like to see the workings of the classroom and the general openings. Timeframes are 8:25-9:50 and 9:55-11:25 and different groups are in the different classes. I can usually convince teachers to allow me to pull in at different times if need be.
My job is amazing - but it’s also very daunting. Kids are dreaming and I’m the one to find and bring in experts. I do lots and lots of cold-calls now- everything from ghost kitchens to programers to celebrities and on and on. The class isn’t crafted 100% correctly - the students should be hustling for leads and connections…but, because they are minors and can’t be forced to share a personal number with anyone - I need to handle so much of it. Anyways- you didn’t ask for that info- I’m just throwing out a little of the why.
Thank you, I will poke around with it and see if we can fit it into the class. We’re using figma for app demo creation - but the learning curve is steep and I have so many plates in the air it’s hard to deeply learn this enough to teach it. But, thankfully the kids who care are usually quicker and better teachers.
What cad software are they using/ does the school have any native cad software package?
If not, they can get a free Onshape account. If this isn’t the software the school is using… honestly your students may want to sign up anyway as they can work on their projects from anywhere.
As far as education on this front goes- all of the major cad packages have good to fantastic class series available on YouTube which can quickly walk them to being a moderately capable user and power users in 3-6months. I’m happy to talk with the students about designing for 3D printing, but if they have no cad experience at all, it’s not super helpful; If I sat down with them and helped them design their part- it would be me designing it, not them.
If they have specific questions or have a moderate to good background in cad and aren’t sure what to do next, thats where I’d be most useful.
As an example, here’s a plethora of YouTube series by one creator that teach fundamental basics and walk students through a couple different projects step by step. These could all be done in a matter of days- weeks depending on motivation.
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