The Story Behind School Supplies
As part of their Social Studies program, students were asked to research Native Americans. The students found very few books to help them in the school library and complained that they were unable to get to the public library because most of their parents worked full time and were unable to take them. During a class session, students brainstormed ways to enhance the school library with more books. They reached a decision to open a school store and use the profits to buy more books for the library.
The initial planning stages involved the whole class. The students then broke into smaller groups that took responsibility for specific aspects of the project.
The students worked on five different teams, researching and investigating the following areas: time lines, start-up funds, expert help, merchandise, and location. But first they requested permission from the principal and the PTA to begin planning the project. They also asked the PTA for the start-up funds to place their first order.
After completing the necessary investigations, the merchandise was ordered and the school store was opened.
The school store is now in operation. The students keep ledgers and the profits are being saved for their first purchase of books for the school library.
The written work produced as part of Applied Learning projects commonly contains some errors. Documentation of these projects includes notes, journal entries and plans that students produced as working documents for their personal use. These kinds of documents were not prepared with the expectation of eventual publication and they have not been revised for inclusion in this book.
It is expected that finished work produced as part of an Applied Learning project will contain virtually error free writing.
| This project
illustrates a standard-setting performance for the following parts
of the standards: |
|
 c |
Communication: Publish information. |
 a
|
Information: Gather information. |
| b |
Information: Use information technology. |
 c
|
Learning and Self-management: Identify strengths and weaknesses in own work. |
What the work shows
a
Information Tools and Techniques: The student gathers information to
assist in completing project work; that is, the student:
| • | identifies potential sources of information to assist in completing the project; |
| • | uses appropriate techniques to collect the information, e.g., considers sampling issues in conducting a survey; |
| • | distinguishes relevant from irrelevant information; |
| • | shows evidence of research in the completed project. |
In order to plan for their school store, the students researched which
of the nearby schools had school stores and decided to call them for advice.
The students brainstormed
ideas for the questions to be used during the telephone interviews. They
then scripted the interview questions for their telephone conversations.
All of the questions sought relevant information and the set of questions
was comprehensive for its purposes and sequenced in a logical way.
The students kept detailed notes of the information they received from
the telephone interviews.
c
Learning and Self-management Tools and Techniques: The student identifies
strengths and weaknesses in his or her own work; that is, the student:
| • | understands and establishes criteria for judging the quality of work processes and products; |
| • | assesses his or her own work processes and products. |
Prior to making phone
calls to other schools seeking advice on setting up a school store, the
students developed a rubric with criteria for self-assessing the quality
of their telephone interviews.
This student used the criteria to assess her strengths and weaknesses
in conducting a phone interview. Her record includes evidence of her efforts
to back up her self-assessment with specific details from the interviews.
a
Information Tools and Techniques: The student gathers information to assist
in completing project work; that is, the student:
| • | identifies potential sources of information to assist in completing the project; |
| • | uses appropriate techniques to collect the information, e.g., considers sampling issues in conducting a survey; |
| • | distinguishes relevant from irrelevant information; |
| • | shows evidence of research in the completed project. |
The students conducted
a simple form of market research by means of a survey they formulated
for grades 3, 4, and 5, to determine which items should be purchased for
the school store and the potential sales. The students reviewed the completed
surveys and used the information to place the first order.
The students researched
and identified potential sources for start-up funds needed to establish
the store.
The students attracted
support for their plan from the school's PTA.
The students researched comparitive prices through suppliers' catalouges.
The students researched
possible locations for their store.
b
Information Tools and Techniques: The student uses information technology
to assist in gathering, organizing, and presenting information; that is,
the student:
| • | acquires information for specific purposes from on-line sources, such as the Internet, and other electronic data bases, such as an electronic encyclopedia; |
| • | uses word-processing, drawing, and painting programs to produce project reports and related materials. |
In order to advertise their
store, the students created a brochure for school-wide distribution using
the computer and related software.
c
Communication Tools and Techniques: The student writes and formats
information for short publications, such as brochures or posters; that
is, the student:
| • | organizes the information into an appropriate form for use in the publication; |
| • | checks the information for accuracy; |
| • | formats the publication so that it achieves its purpose. |
The students designed
the cover of the brochure to attract attention while providing as much
information as possible in the least amount of text. The use of a graphics
program to decorate the border with a paper clips design is not only attractive
but also in keeping with the theme of the brochure. The shadowed boxes
highlight the most important information—that the brochure is about
the school store and the hours of business.
The inside of the brochure is also decorated with graphics depicting the
various stationery products on sale at the store. The use of varying font
sizes and styles again highlights the important information. The joke
on the back adds a little humor.
