Paramedic Science

Objective:

Idea generation
Understanding processes and procedure
With opportunities to:

1. Review the session, understand the concept or steps covered in an interactive way.
2. Evidence the power of group work as more ideas are created through team work
3. Understand team dynamics and how teams come together to achieve a goal
4. Understand the power and necessity for review and reflection of a task or situation.

Overview:

There are times when people’s energy is low during workshops, particular after a long lecture or after a break. After lunch time workshop participants tend to be tired while they are still digesting. It’s fast and fun ways to get participants refocused on the workshop (and topic).  This task can help the group bond or develop their subject knowledge through a “truth and lies” approach to multiple choice statements (right or wrong).

Activity:

1. Participants write on cards / note pads two truths about themselves and one lie.
2. The participants then walk around sharing with one another their three statements – during this participants should reveal which of the statement is a lie. During this sharing it is the goal of the participants to:
           a)    Convince others that your lie is true
           b)    Guess the correct lie of the other participants
3. The participants gather back together in a circle and the first person read aloud their statement to remind everyone.
4. The group then tries to guess which of the three statements is not true – at the end of each statement ask for a vote through a show of hands. ‘Who thinks this statement is true?’ Raise your hands.
5. The participant then reveals says which of the statements is untrue.
   
   Notes:
   •    For large groups (30+), it is best to split into smaller group sizes.
   •    Give example of statements and remind people that they should use short statements.
   
   This task can be undertaken as a lively energiser, or as a subject based/ discipline focused activity.  By providing a slightly longer time for the students to prepare, the statements can be about a revision topic, or a new topic that is being studied.  It is also possible to pre-prepare a set of two piles of statements and invite the students to take them, research them (this can be for the following week if more complex subject related topics) and convince others of their position.  This could be delivered as a panel in front of the group, who are acting as audience. Inspiration for this type of extension can come from the BBC TV format “Would I lie to you?” but requires subject knowledge to make the truths and lies work and therefore the individual panellists can benefit from working in advance as a team to prepare their statements and answers.  By creating teams, with a panel spokespeople, audience engagement is high.

Skill Development:

It is important to ensure that the student groups recognise that the potential of subtle communication skills deployed in this task (such as empathy; humour; rapport).  Discussing the challenge, and what elements were memorable and effective, can highlight how individuals create effective communication.  Whilst they are opportunities to develop a range of communication skills through practice, it is important to look for “future lessons” from this task to build an understanding of the transferable skills that are being developed.  This might include discussion of Opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation; Interpersonal Skills; Communication; Reflection and Action; Team Building and creative thinking skills.  It could be helpful to write up these titles and invite comments on post-its under each title to draw out experiences and feelings. Explore these comments collectively to draw together themes and learning from the whole group.

Resources:

Each participant needs a note pad/card and pen/pencil
If you wish to use this approach to introduce a new topic, or topic extension, then you may wish to pre-prepare the statements for the students in advance for the session – or to issue in the session in advance for learners to research and prepare for the next week panel task.

References:

• Permaculture Facilitator’s Resource Book for Training and Assessment http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Permaculture/Permaculture_Facilitators_Resource_Book-Training_Assessment.pdf
• See examples of panel ‘rounds’ for inspiration (TV Format) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Would_I_Lie_to_You%3F_(TV_series)

Objectives:

After participating in this exercise, learners should be better-able to:

• Achieve higher assessment literacy
• Formulate and negotiate assessment criteria for a task, and undertake the task with the criteria firmly in mind;
• Think constructively about the weighting of assessment criteria;
• Undertake peer assessment of other teams’ performance;
• Undertake self-assessment by reflecting on their own group’s performance;
• Recognise the benefits of team work (and address some of the problems of working in teams);
• On the basis of a ‘fun’ exercise, take forward useful thinking on assessment design.

Overview

The task is for groups of learners to make a container to hold an egg that is capable of being dropped from a specified height and position in the room without the egg breaking. To do this properly you need about two hours in a large flat room, big enough to enable groups to work independently. This is a practice task to familiarise learners with the concepts of meaningful assessment criteria, weighting and agency of assessment and is particularly useful during the first six weeks of the first semester of the first year. It is presented as serious fun which improves learners’ assessment literacy. It’s also a good staff development exercise to get staff to think hard about assessment issues.

Learners in a class (16-70) are divided into groups of 4-6, at separate tables around the room, and provided with a range of everyday objects as resources, including an unbroken fresh egg. They are briefed to use the resources in a specified time to arrange that the egg can be dropped from a specified height and position in the room to ground level, and remain unbroken by the fall. They are to use the various resources in a creative way to achieve this. But first the groups must come up with around five assessment criteria, which will be used by the other groups to assess each group’s achievement of the exercise, and the whole group of learners must assign weightings to each of the criteria. One criterion is not negotiable: “The egg remains unbroken by the fall”.

Activity

1. Divide the learners into small teams (groups of about 4-6 work well). This activity can be done with a class size of up to 50, but for smaller classes the minimum group size is 3.
2. Advise the learners of the purpose of the task, emphasising that it is competitive but essentially fun, and that actually the discussion around the task is much more important to their understanding of assessment conventions than the task itself.
3. Issue the materials to the groups, instructing them that no other items may be used, including waste paper bins, people and furniture. Insist no one handles the materials and egg before the start signal. You may need to be very strict about this. You may also wish to ham up the rawness of the egg by chucking them to the learners or ‘accidentally’ dropping one. Get each group to check their egg is not cracked when they receive it.
4. Ask learners to brainstorm up to 5 criteria on which they should be judged (5 mins)
5. Collate the criteria on a flipchart or white board, and telling them that the egg not breaking is the non-negotiable criterion, get them to collectively prioritise their further criteria. Ask them to include both product and process in the criteria. (Typical criteria include effective planning, aesthetic beauty, sustainability (all items could be reused), using all items provided or smallest number of items, team all worked together well, everyone contributed to the task in some way, achieving the task within the set time, and so on). You shouldn’t need to spend more than 10 mins on this but if you get into discussing how you judge aesthetic beauty it could take 15 mins.
6. Explain the concept of weighting of assessment criteria. Tell them that the egg not breaking is worth 40% and ask them to propose weightings for the other four criteria that add up to 100% with the most important things being given the highest weighting. (5 mins).
7. Negotiate agreed weightings for the criteria for the whole group and put on flipchart or white board. (5 mins).
8. Get the whole group to think up who will actually do the assessmenti.e. agency for 5 mins. Forexample, most product items could be assessed by the tutor or the learners acting as peers rating other groups (inter-peer assessment). If they are judging items like how well they worked as a team, this will have to be rated within the group by four peers each rating the fifth, i.e. intra peer assessment. Self assessment might be used for example if a negotiated criteria is something like individuals contributing to the best of their capabilities or enjoyment. Even if you only use a couple of agents, its helpful to discuss the full range and mention that other possibilities on future group work might include employers, placement managers and clients. (10 mins).
9. Get the groups to talk for 5 mins about what they plan to do and insist no one touches the materials until you start the task. 
10. Start the task advising them they have say 8 minutes in which to complete it. You may wish to add to the sense of fun by blowing a whistle, setting a kitchen timer, phone timer or whatever.
11. Watch learners in action, talking no part in the activity but you may wish to record any breach of the rules which you can bring up in your moderation/summing up.
12. Stop the task exactly on time. Blowing your whistle loudly is fun! Notice any learners who choose to carry on regardless and decide whether to penalise them totally by giving no marks at all (this gives you a chance to mention things like plagiarism policies and rules on issues like mitigation) and the risks learners can run by ignoring the detail of assignment brief.
13. Allow each group in turn to come to the ‘dropping point’ and use their equipment to drop their egg from the specified height to the floor, and prove whether or not their egg has been broken, carrying out the assessment using tutors and peers as appropriate. If you have a lot of groups, this can take quite a while. Discuss the assessment of the first six or so in detail, and then tell learners that to do every one in detail would take ages and this is after all a game about assessment (but do drop every egg and check the egg isn’t broken or else learners will feel cheated).
14. It is really important to get the learners back into small groups after the assessment to discuss the assessment issues for at least five minutes (try to stop them having endless discussions about whether their design was actually best or whether they were fairly treated, and so on) and then have 5-10 minutes in plenary with you summing up the learning points.
15. You might then wish to issue to learners the assignment brief for the next actual assessment task that follows in their course or module, and get them to bring along to the next session any queries they have about criteria, weighting, agency or anything else, arising from their reflections on the egg game.

Skill Development:

• Assessment literacy
• Team working.
• Creativity and originality of design.
• Time and task-management.
• Learners formulating and agreeing assessment criteria for the task.
• Learners proposing and agreeing the weighting of the assessment criteria.
• Peer-assessment of other groups’ performances.
• Self-assessment and reflection on what happened in each group. 

Resources:

Flipchart of white board to display agreed assessment criteria.
Supermarket carrier bag, per group, in which you place:

• a pair of scissors
• a small roll of sellotape
• a selection of about 4 items from the following: a newspaper, a plastic cup, paper plate, tissue paper (or a tissue), length of string (about 2 metres seems to work well), cocktail sticks, wooden or plastic clothes peg, square of bubble wrap (if you want to make it really easy for them) or whatever is available.
• one uncooked egg in shell.

It is important that each bag contains more-or-less identical kit, otherwise appeals of ‘unfairness of assessment’ may arise (though of course you might wish this to be one of the matters which will arise, in which case allow some differences in the kit).

References:

• Brown, S. (2015) Learning, teaching and assessment in higher education: global perspectives, London: Palgrave-MacMillan.
• http://sally-brown.net

Author's Website:

http://sally-brown.net

Objectives:

• The learners will be able to explore the relationship between creativity, ideas generation and problem solving
• They will individually and in groups explore the characteristics of creative persons and creative occupations and they will discuss what stops us being creative
• The group exercise will evidence the effects of 'Unleashing the Power of Routine Activity' as more ideas are created when the brain is occupied by activities that are enacted automatically, without even thinking about them.

Overview:

This activity focuses on how the audience perceive creativity as individuals and establishes a qualitative estimate on how creative each individual in the groups feels they are.

It proceeds with individuals choosing and listing their top 5 creative persons and top 5 creative professions. The names and professions put forward are collated and then act as a focal point for discussing any common traits for creativity that emerge. These traits should be identified as broadly as possible and the links made that everyone will have some of these traits, supporting the proposition that we all are creative in different ways and this brings into focus what stops people from being creative.

The class is then split into groups of 4-6 and goes through an exercise that connects idea generation and creativity.

Finally, the session is brought to its conclusion through comparing the traditional problem solving and creative problem solving approaches.

Activity:

• Ideally this session becomes more exciting and interactive if there is the possibility of interactivity (wifi enabled) between the audience and the person delivering the session, although good old paper and pencil will do the job.
• The activity can be tailored to a 50 minute or a double session, depending on what needs to be achieved, i.e. ideas generation and creativity only (50 minutes) or Idea generation and Creative Problem Solving (double session).
• The session opens with the question of 'What does creativity means to the audience'; they are being asked to write what they associate with creativity (5 minutes). This should bring into focus their perceptions of creativity.
• The audience are then asked to rate themselves on how creative they feel (from a scale of 1 [not creative at all] to 7 [extremely creative]). This can be done by using electronic interactive devices (if available). Typically, the class falls within a normal distribution curve and as this exercise has been done over the years it is good feedback to show them typical curves from past student groups that demonstrate this (3-4 minutes)
• The audience are asked to individually write down (on post-it notes) 2 lists: a) 5 creative persons & b) 5 creative professions (5 minutes). Once the lists are compiled they are brought together on the board or a flip chart and a discussion can follow on what are the common traits of creative people and professions as they are perceived by the group. Points of interest are that few individuals such as Da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. are quite commonly found on their lists and typically there are no women. In addition, on the professions, depending on the audience, engineers usually do not appear as a creative profession, once again typical professions being, artists, musicians, actors, etc. All this points can be used for discussion (5 minutes).
• A short presentation follows on how we learn, mind-sets and how they can be very useful in routine activities but how they can negatively influence creativity. (10 minutes).
• This is followed by a slide describing barriers to creative problem solving in the form of a list and a short discussion as to their effects on creativity (10 minutes).
• What follows is a slide with the 4 (or 5) stages of the creative process and once again a discussion around it. (5 minutes).
• Three examples of historical figures of creative, innovative and enterprising persons are shown and briefly discussed, bringing into focus that creativity is in everyone but innovation and enterprise although dependent on the creative spark, form usually the later part of the innovation process; bringing into focus the relationship between creativity and innovation (5 minutes).
• A slide with a 'Creativity toolbox' showing various techniques that promote creativity, e.g. Brainstorming, Free association, Day-dreaming, Lateral Thinking, Metaphorical Thinking, Free-writing, Drawing & doodling, Synthesis, Crazy questions?, Sabotage thinking, Mind maps, Wear different hats, Role playing, etc. is used to provide the audience with a source of tools they could use in their problem solving exercises (10 minutes)
• Final slide is a conclusion that 'creativity is an attitude' based on openness to experience, flexibility, and receptiveness to changes in conditions and situations. Creativity, is not looking to others for approval, it is the ability to play with concepts and elements, to see relationships between seemingly unrelated elements and concepts, ability to combine them in new ways. (2 minutes)

What follows next is a group exercise.

The audience is split in groups of 4-5 members and are either given a common object, say a brick, and are asked in their groups to find and list in 2 minutes as many uses for it as possible.

The alternative is that each group are given their own object, such as a paper clip, or a coffee cup, or a wire coat hanger, etc. and once again are asked to find as many uses for their object as possible in 2 minutes. (The common object is preferable as it gives a direct comparison between the workings of the groups).

Once this part of the exercise is completed, the groups are now given different tasks to do. 

These tasks have been designed to be under three categories: demanding; non-demanding-routine-repetitive; and one that requires no thinking at all. 

You can engage the students with Legos or packs of playing cards.

• One group is asked to build a house with Legos or with playing cards
• Another group is asked to separate the Legos into piles of different colours
• One group is asked to sit and think of nothing; sleep if they prefer

If more than three groups choose what the other groups should be occupying themselves with, i.e. demanding; non-demanding-routine-repetitive; and one that requires no thinking at all tasks.

Typically there are moans and groans from the groups that are given the menial task and those that will be doing nothing as opposed to the groups that they get to build something and the facilitator has to explain, without giving too much away, that there is a reason behind this process that should come apparent after completing the exercise.

• Give the groups 3-4 minutes to complete their give tasks (more than that it will start feeling too long for those that do nothing).
• Have a timer available to make sure groups are under time constraints and once time is over, stop the exercise.
• No need to admire what the group constructing something have come up with.

The groups are now asked to spend the next 2 minutes adding to their original lists of things to be done with their originally given objects.

After the 2 minutes are up collate the results of 'how many different ways of using their particular object' each group has come up with and most probably the results will show that the group that had the 'non-demanding-routine-repetitive' task will have come up with most ideas. 

The group is then shown a short clip from the BBC Horizon programme: How insight works and are introduced to the summary of the scientific findings of how the brain reacts to being occupied by different tasks, demanding the use of different parts of our brains and how these influence the onset of 'insight'; directly related to creativity. (10-15 minutes)

To close the session few more slides follow on traditional problem solving as opposed to creative problem solving, the use of divergent/convergent approach especially to engineering problem solving and a list of how to 'Get unstuck' in problem solving. (10 minutes)

If electronic devices are available, the facilitator can once again ask the audience to assess themselves as to how creative they feel on the scale 1-7 (as done at the start of the session); the results will show that although the spread of the answers are still close to a normal distribution, there is typically a shift towards the more creative side of the graph, purely because they understand more about creativity and they feel themselves capable of being more creative.

Skill Development:

Through this interactive session the students derive a number of benefits:

• The session is designed to promote creativity as an attitude; it helps the audience to discover how creative they are and give them ownership of the process to make themselves more creative by removing the barriers to their creativity.
• The session provides a hands on demonstration of the relationship of brain activity and insight; the start of the creative process
• At the end of the session the students should be able to choose and employ appropriate creative techniques to enhance their problem solving capabilities.

Resources:

• Post-its or similar sticky pads
• Pens 
• Electronic Voting Devices or any sort of interactive voting system
  Option 1: a brick and Lego
  Option 2: A number of simple everyday items (one per group), e.g. a paper cup; a coat hunger; an A4 sheet, etc. and Lego

References:

Key authors in this area include T M Amabile (1989; 2008) ; Tony Buzan (1998) Mind maps; Edward De Bono 1985 (Thinking Hats) 2008 (Frames for thinking about Information); H Gardner (1983; 2013)

Books: Managing Innovation, design and Creativity, Bettina Von Stamm, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2008

BBC Horizon: How insight works

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1gn21d_bbc-documentary-horizon-the-creative-brain-how-insight-works_lifestyle

Objective:

• To expose students to working within a high pressure, novel, real-world environment.
• To develop students presentation and communication skills.
• To develop students teamwork and interpersonal skills.
• To develop students ability to communicate information effectively to diverse audiences.

Overview:

The ability to work well as a team, to develop and manage effective relationships with a diverse range of audiences, and to be skilled in communication are essential for any student, irrespective of their programme of study, or future career aspirations.

This simple activity encourages students to develop these skills, by inviting them to become the teachers, working in teams to develop presentations, and delivering them to a given audience.

The activity requires minimal presentation, can be easily adapted to suit any group, with ample room to extension activities, and also serves as an effective revision activity for students.

Activity:

Pre-Activity

• Set-up for this activity is minimal.
• You may wish to gather any resources or props in advance of the session, available for students to use in delivering their presentations.
• You may wish to invite in a particular individual or group, to serve as an audience to student presentations.
• You may wish to set students preparatory work to do in advance of the session.

Part 1

• Inform students that they are to prepare a presentation of a given length, on a given subject, for presentation to an audience.
• Provide students with information regarding the subject matter which must be covered.
• Provide students with information regarding the audience for their presentation – To enhance the 'real' element to this task, an external audience may be invited to receive these presentations. This could include students from other courses or year groups, school students, industry relevant professionals or otherwise.
• Provide students with a deadline by which their presentations must be ready to deliver - To provide students with experience of working under pressure, with risk and uncertainly, this deadline could be very tight (i.e. a matter of minutes or hours), with no prior warning of the task. If depth of research and quality of presentation takes precedence, this activity could be spread across a number of sessions, or students provided with advance warning in order to prepare appropriately.

Part 2

• Students organise themselves into teams.
• Within teams, students delegate tasks, and research and prepare their presentations.
• You may wish to allow students access to any appropriate props and resources, computers etc. to support them in this (as time and circumstance permits).
• You may wish to set additional rules to groups (for example, every individual within the group must speak during the presentation).

Part 3

• Students deliver their presentations to one another, and their invited audience.
• You may wish to allow the audience to ask questions to presenters and for students to assess one another as they present.
• You may wish for presentation to be recorded.

Post Activity

• Students can feedback on their experience of the activity (what did they enjoy? what did they find most challenging? what did the activity teach them?).
• If filmed, recording of presentations may be watched and analysed, or made available to students as revision tools.

Skill Development:

• Students will develop their team work and communication skills, be better equipped to work to tight deadlines and under pressure, and more adept at communicating information in an appropriate way for a given audience.
• They will have had opportunities to reflect on their own abilities as communicators, and considers means by which they could improve.
• They will have consolidated the knowledge they were set to present through the task.

Resources:

• An appropriate audience for students to present to.
• Assess to resources, for students use in preparing presentations.

Associated Case Studies

• Teaching the Teachers

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Objective:

• Reflect on the meaning and importance of the nine business model components. 
• Demonstrate how the ordering on the canvas categorizes components as generating value or creating efficiency to deliver value. 
• Discuss and debate the ordering proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).

Overview:

The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/ canvas) has become a popular teaching tool in entrepreneurship classrooms. It is not my intention here to introduce the canvas or illustrate how it works. Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) do a magnificent job explaining the canvas, articulating the theory behind the canvas, and offering many ways to use the canvas. This exercise is a quick game to help students reflect on the nature and ordering of the nine business model components found on the canvas as proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur.

Usage Suggestions

This exercise works well for both undergraduate and graduate audiences. The exercise is best used in a course or class session where the Business Model Canvas is first being introduced.

Activity:

Pre- Work Required by Students - None.

Time Plan (30 minutes)

The Game Setup 0:00–0:05 (5 minutes) 

Before introducing the canvas, simply introduce that there are nine components of a business model. I typically show a PowerPoint slide with the nine components listed in random order. Tell the students that there is a particular order to the components, but they need to figure out what the order is. In other words, they need to determine which of the components should be considered first, second, and so on. What’s most important to start with and what’s least important? Separate students into teams of five (maximum).

The Game 0:05–0:15 (10 minutes) 

Give each team a deck of cards (see resources) and ask them to place them in order from one to nine (10 minutes). After 10 minutes, give each team a long piece of masking tape and have them tape the order of their cards to the wall or board, so everyone can see the differences across the team.

The Discussion 0:15–0:30 (15 minutes) 

Now it is time to introduce the ordering that Osterwalder and Pigneur use. Their book (see Theoretical Foundations) is quite helpful if you are not familiar with the canvas. I typically give out a copy of the Business Model Canvas to each student prior to disclosing the order. The ordering of the components is: 

1. Customer segments
2. Value proposition
3. Channels
4. Customer relationships
5. Revenue streams
6. Key resources
7. Key activities
8. Key partners
9. Cost structure

Usually student teams will have either customer segments or value propositions first and this creates a wonderful debate in the class. Introduce the order of the components one by one while also explaining what each component is. After walking through the components and discussing the differences in order created by each team I end the exercise with a brief discussion summarizing the order. At the end of the day, the ordering really does not matter because the canvas is meant to be an iterative, working document that will continuously change as you learn new information from every action taken or experiment conducted. What is most interesting about the design of the canvas and its ordering is found when you fold the canvas in half (left to right). 

According to Osterwalder and Pigneur, the right side of the canvas is concerned with creating and generating value. The left side of the canvas is concerned with generating efficiencies to deliver that value. As such, an entrepreneur needs to first determine or create the value and then develop the approach to deliver that value. Innovation, novelty, creativity, and competitive advantage are most often found in the value creation. So, start on the right!

Teaching Tips

The most important reason that I do this exercise is to get the students thinking about each component on their own in teams rather than just “telling” them about each component. Expect raging debates about customer segments versus value propositions as being first in the order. It is always a great conversation to have.

Skill Development: 

Key Takeaways

• It is important to think about the ordering of the components but not be wedded to one particular ordering. 
• A business model is about value creation, delivery, and capture – but start with creation and think about cost last. 
• Focusing too soon on cost structure and resources can diminish the innovativeness of new ideas. This can happen when we start on the left side of the canvas.

Resources: 

Materials List

Instructors will need to create decks of “business model component cards.” One deck is needed per team in the class. Each deck is comprised of nine index cards. On each card should be one of the nine business model components: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure. Given that this is the actual order recommended by Osterwalder & Pigneur, it is important that the cards in the deck are not in this order. You may also want to have copies of the Business Model Canvas to distribute as well, but after the game. A copy of the canvas can be obtained at http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas.

The full text ‘Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach’ can be purchased here > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Entrepreneurship-A-Practice-Based-Approach/dp/1782540695 

References:

This exercise is taken from;

•Heidi M. Neck, Patricia G. Greene and Candida G. Brush, 2014. Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach (pp.136 – 138). Edition. Edward Elgar Pub.

Theoretical Foundations

•Osterwalder, A., and Pigneur, Y. 2010. Business Model Generation. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Objective:

• Practice pitching new concepts.
• Critique pitches for new concepts.
• Understand the importance of pitch versus idea. 
• Simulate prototype development and feasibility testing.

Overview:

Rocket pitches or elevator pitches are often the first opportunity for an entrepreneur to convince potential investors that they have an idea that represents a profitable opportunity. These are often only one to five minute presentations, but they can have a significant impact on the entrepreneur’s ability to attract investors as well as other potential stakeholders. This can be particularly true in the early stages of a venture before the entrepreneur has a viable product, and he or she has to quickly convince potential stakeholders of his or her vision and the potential of the idea. Entrepreneurs often think that their idea is the most important aspect of the pitch, but studies have shown that U.S. venture capitalists consider personal characteristics such as the entrepreneur’s ability to articulate his or her venture to be critical in determining whether or not they will reject an entrepreneur’s plan.

In this exercise, students design a paper airplane that must be capable of carrying a predetermined amount of currency in the form of coins. The airplanes will compete in two categories – time that the plane can stay aloft and the distance it can travel. However, students pitch their design to their classmates (the investors) in an effort to convince them their design is the best before the contest takes place. 

The exercise has worked well for illustrating the importance of a good pitch and helps students to better understand what constitutes a good pitch from an investor’s perspective.

Usage Suggestions

This exercise works with both undergraduate and graduate students. It is appropriate for new venture creation courses, entrepreneurship boot-camps, or workshops. The session is best positioned after students have identified a venture concept, project, or family or corporate initiative to pursue and are preparing for an elevator speech or rocket pitch type presentation. Technology entrepreneurship or innovation classes are also appropriate.

Activity:

Pre- Work Required by Students

Students are to be given the following instructions in the class period prior to running the exercise: “You are to design and create a new paper airplane capable of keeping one U.S. dollar of coins aloft for as long (time) as possible while simultaneously transporting the coins as far (distance) as possible. The assignment is as follows:

1. You may work individually or in a group of up to four students; the only group-related implication is that your airplane design must use the same number of standard size sheets as the number of people in the group (for example, a group of four must create an airplane that uses four sheets of paper in its design). 
2. Your plane must be designed to transport one U.S. dollar of coinage (or other local currency). You may choose the number and denominations of coins used; your only constraint is that their total value be exactly one dollar. 
3. You may not simply crumple the paper into a ball, as this would constitute a projectile rather than an aerodynamically sensitive aircraft- based design.

You will be required to pitch your design to your classmates. You will have two minutes to convince your classmates that your design will perform the best. Performance on the exercise will be based on a combination of actual performance of your airplane and the number of votes your design gets from your classmates in each category (time and distance).”

Time Plan (80 minutes)

Because each team will pitch their idea, the time required for the exercise will vary with class and team size. The timing outlined here is based on a class size of 30 students and ten teams.

Step 1 0:00–0:02 (2 minutes) 

Begin the exercise by explaining the voting rules to the students. Students are allowed to vote for only one team (excluding their own) in each of the two categories (distance and time). They are not required to vote for the same design in each category. It helps to provide a sheet for each of the students to record their votes, or, if your students have computers and internet access, you can use an online voting system (this will require you to set it up before the class).

Step 2 0:02–0:27 (25 minutes) 

Next, have each team pitch their idea to their classmates. Teams should be strictly limited to two minutes each.

Step 3 0:27–0:32 (5 minutes) 

Have the students record their votes for the design they think will perform best in each category. Remind them that they cannot vote for their own design.

Step 4 0:32–0:52 (20 minutes)

Take the class to an open area in which to conduct the actual flights. An indoor area such as a gymnasium works best, but you can run it outdoors as well (which can introduce additional uncertainty into the performance for the students). Each team gets one throw. You should have a line that they cannot cross for throwing, and you should record the time that their plane stays aloft. After the plane has landed, measure and record the distance. It helps if you assign this task to one or more of the students.

Step 5 0:52–1:00 (8 minutes) 

Return to the classroom. Record the votes and the actual performance for each team on the board.

Step 6 (exercise debrief) 1:00–1:20 (20 minutes) 

If time allows, you can have a short discussion about their process with regard to creating their design. This can help to illustrate how an entrepreneur can take a constraint and turn it into an opportunity. Additionally, this can highlight the importance of prototyping and learning from failure, and many of the teams that perform well often trial several different designs. Some possible questions include:

• How did they view the issue of the coins? 
• Did they see it as a negative constraint? Why? 
• Did they see it as an opportunity to incorporate it into the design and improve its performance? 
• How did they try to differentiate their design? 
• Did they try to optimize for time or distance or try both? 
• Did they prototype and test designs?

Next, discuss the aspect of effective pitching. The idea here is to get them to appreciate the importance of the entrepreneur and his or her pitch to investors. Owing to the uncertainty inherent in many early- stage entrepreneurial ventures, investors will typically put more emphasis on the entrepreneur and his or her ability to “sell” the idea, as well as their confidence in the entrepreneur’s ability to execute on his or her pitch – one has to be careful not to oversell the concept.

• How did it feel to try to “sell” your classmates on your design?
• What were the biggest challenges? 
• How did you decide to invest? 
• How important was the way in which they presented the concept? 
• Confidence? 
• What was compelling about the pitch or the entrepreneur? 
• Why do you think people did or did not vote for your design?
• What would you do to improve your pitch?

Wrap the discussion up with a summary of the importance of clearly articulating your idea and convincing the audience of your ability to execute on your idea.

Post- Work

Have the students read the following articles (this can be done beforehand if you prefer):

• Elsbach, K.D. 2003. How to pitch a brilliant idea. Harvard Business Review, 81(9), 117–23. 
• Santinelli, A., and Brush, C. 2013. Designing and Delivering the Perfect Pitch. Wellesley, MA: Babson College Case Collection.

Teaching Tips

Students will often try to game the system (depending on how much freedom you give them). For example, they may choose to use different weights of paper or design a flying disc as opposed to a traditional airplane. You can decide how vague you want to be. If you want to have more discussion on the creative process and pushing the boundaries, then being more vague in the instructions can lead to a good discussion on how entrepreneurs try to push the rules and boundaries. Some students will feel “cheated,” but this can still provide a good learning point.

Skill Development: 

Key Takeaways

• Ability to quickly and clearly articulate an idea is often more important than the idea itself. 
• Investors often focus on their belief in the entrepreneur’s ability to execute on the idea rather than the idea itself – particularly under conditions of uncertainty. 
• Prototyping can be an effective way to deal with an unknown environment and develop your product or service.

Resources: 

Materials List

Provide students with paper for their airplanes in order to maintain a standard paper type and weight. Alternatively, you can leave this open to interpretation as a means of encouraging greater creativity among the teams. You will need a tape measure and a stopwatch for the actual competition.

The full text ‘Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach’ can be purchased here > http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Entrepreneurship-A-Practice-Based-Approach/dp/1782540695 

References:

This exercise is taken from;

• Heidi M. Neck, Patricia G. Greene and Candida G. Brush, 2014. Teaching Entrepreneurship: A Practice-Based Approach (pp.131 – 135). Edition. Edward Elgar Pub.

Attribution

• Reginald A. Litz, Dell McStay, Sergio Janczak, and Carolyn Birmingham, “Kitty hawk in the classroom: A simulation exercise for facilitating creative and entrepreneurial behavior,” United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) 2011 conference – Entrepreneurship: Changing the Present, Creating the Future, South Carolina, United States, January 2011.

Theoretical Foundations

MacMillan, I.C., Siegel, R., and Subba Narisimha, P.N. 1985. Criteria used by venture capitalists to evaluate new venture proposals. Journal of Business Venturing, 1, 119–28. 

Ries, E. 2011. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York: Crown Publishing.

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