Global Challenge contest

March 18

Global Challenge Contest

Project level 4

Objectives:

At the end of this project students will be able to:

• Gather information from reliable sources like reviewed articles, scholarly books, web pages associated with governments or universities, or scientific studies.

• Use vocabulary related to a specific topic from their areas of study such as artifacts design, technological devices, experiments, poverty, government corruption, among other topics.

• Analyze these topics by describing their context, evaluating facts and summarizing information about them.

• Give a recommendation based on the information gathered.     

Task Description (purpose, context, situation, audience):

Type of project: video or presentation

Aims:  

• Students will learn about entrepreneurship.
• Students will identify an environment or social issue that presents a significant challenge in their context.The issue may concern environment, education, development, conflict, and/or any other subject that interests students.
• Students will write a project proposal which includes a short analysis of the social issue, the description of a product or service to address the issue constructively, and their aim and objectives.
• Students will have a business pitch to present their product or service to a panel of judges or will present it in a video.

Situation and Context: 

Students will participate in a college students competition called “The Global Challenge Contest”. This is an annual international competition for college students. The objective of the contest is to stimulate proactive interdisciplinary problem-solving analysis amongst undergraduate students around. There are 2 possibilities to participate, one is to create an approximately five minute video in which participants (maximum 4 per group) present one project proposal and explain what the problem is and its possible solution. The other possibility is to present their proposals in front of a group of jury .

Audience: Selection Committee (Teacher, Classmates, other members from the University Community)

Steps and processes:

Step 1: Opening

In class, students learn about entrepreneurship. Students watch a video about the Sunroof project to stimulate the discussion on projects and new projects they would like to develop. Also students learn about different entrepreneurs’ lives and discuss their personal motivations, personalities and aims in their professional lives.

Students set up a professional profile as a part of their application.

Step 2: Set-Up

In class, students discuss their academic interest or projects trying to find common interests. Students organize small groups (3 to 4 students) to work together on this project.

Students will read about their chosen projects, they can be technological or social issues, that present a significant challenge in their context. The issue may concern environment, education, development, conflict, and/or any other subject that interests students.

Step 3: Exploration & Preparation

1. Students look for reliable information about the selected issues and prepare a short presentation about them. This presentation should include a description of the problem, its causes, its effects and possible solutions. (This task might be used as the oral task for this level.)
2. Students come up with innovations to address the issue constructively. Innovations could be a physical product, a service or a combination of both.
3. Students learn how to access databases and other sources of reliable information to search more information about the chosen topic.
4. Students learn about reading strategies to read the selected articles and prepare a graphic organizer to present the collected information.
5. Students prepare a project proposal which includes an introduction (background), objectives, related work, and scope. A template for the project proposal will be provided in the Competition Guide.
6. Students pitch their projects at the Jury or show their videos.

Project designed by Alejandra Jiménez and adapted by Deisa Gómez