More than 50 students put their entrepreneurial spirit to work at the inaugural Wake County Public School System Design and Pitch Competition held earlier this month at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.
Led by Erin Krupa, associate professor of mathematics education, and Robin Anderson, assistant professor of mathematics education at North Carolina State College of Education, the event invited 55 students from seven Wake County middle schools and high schools to explore topics rooted in mathematics. We proposed solutions to eight different real-world challenges.
Proposals announced at the April 6 event range from sustainability issues such as using recycled materials to make gas pumps cleaner and creating sustainable water bottles from bamboo to improving teens’ mental health. This ranged from tackling issues to creating an app to support charitable giving.
A panel of 15 volunteer judges selected first, second and third place teams from both middle and high schools. The winning Wake STEM Early College high school team developed a mapping application that allows users to discover hidden gems in their community as they travel, rather than just walking the fastest route to a destination. The winning middle school team from Reedy Creek Middle School designed a business to build a network of solar-powered charging stations to make it easier and more environmentally friendly for drivers to charge their electric cars.
“At first, the students were very nervous and unsure of how the day would go. However, we watched them grow in confidence during their first pitch to the Community Showcase. The students really demonstrated that they were experts in the solutions they designed. The students were happy to listen to the other teams and enthusiastically celebrated each group’s accomplishments,” Krupa said. Ta. “Parents were very proud of the teams who submitted their ideas, judges were very impressed with the students’ ideas and teachers were grateful for the opportunity and proud of their teams. .”
The event was part of a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant project in which Krupa and Anderson will develop tasks rooted in secondary mathematics curriculum.
Encourage students to build, test, and refine a STEM product prototype, design a business plan to demonstrate the product’s feasibility, and pitch the product to a panel of judges. The materials created as part of the project won the International Association for Educational Technology’s Best of STEM award in 2022.
Krupa and Anderson are currently in the process of completing the development of nine new high school level assignments for a total of 18 design and pitch assignments across the middle and high school curriculum. We will continue our research into using these tasks in schools, support teachers in using this material in their classrooms, and plan our fourth annual free Entrepreneur High School Math Summer Camp.
“These events are not only important to our students because they give them the confidence to share their ideas, but they also provide powerful tools to make the world a more hopeful place. It is also important for parents, teachers and the community because it allows them to share ideas,” Krupa said. “These events also help students learn new STEM content and technology, and grow ideas by sharing them beyond the walls of the school.”
