Cross Pathway Project
Mr. Pearl
Mr. Elizonda
Ms. Clark
Ms. Martinez
Ms. Shaw
Ms. K
PURPOSE:
Students need to know about what it means to start a business. We are interested in helping them to realize that they might be entrepreneurs. We want them to learn how to start a business that has a social purpose—it represents something that will have impact on others so that they can live in a more healthy fashion. We want them to start a small business that will leave a small footprint in the environment. They can learn how to bring the business to scale keeping in mind the social and environmental impact.
We will focus on specific lifestyle issues that represent our different ethnic and racial groups where we find out what these groups have in common by studying issues of:
- Nutrition
- Health
- Overall wellness
- Culture
OUTCOMES
- Will recognize what is unique about each culture that the students in our school represent and what the different cultures have in common
- Will demonstrate how to apply their understanding of the aspects of what it takes to start a business
- Will demonstrate their capacity to network and interact with others so that they can find commonalities that will help them enlarge their ideas about their business
- Will communicate about their work through social media, writing blogs, video, and visual materials
Pathways / Teachers / Topics / Activities
Renewable energy / Elizandro
Shaw / ✓Farmers market
✓Agri-business*
✓Food Court
Key Question: How do the decisions that we make about what will be sold to the public effect our decisions about food production? / ✓Design specifications for natural irrigation system
✓Greenhouse
Identifies industry visits
Creating natural irrigation system and developing a mini-farm to produce healthful foods
Energy efficiency systems / Moore
Martinez / ✓Irrigation system
✓Energy and natural resources technology
✓Solar project
✓Landscape and design
Key question: How can we build simple, energy efficient systems that can be used in the school and at home ? / ✓Design and build :
✓portable green house
✓Rain barrel irrigation system
Identifies industry visits
construct the green house and rain barrel irrigation system
Environmental Communications / K
Clark
Watts / ✓Agri-Business plans*
✓Use of apps
✓Blogging
Film
Key question: What does it take to start your own business? / ✓Cost analysis
✓Where to get the products (donations, funding)
This group will be responsible for field visits to places such as food trucks, farmer markets, local small businesses
Interview a nutritionist
Develop a budget, marketing, sales
- Agri-business is a culture conducted on commercial properties especially using advanced technologies
- Agri-business includes:
- Agrichemicals
- Breeding
- Crop production
- Distribution
- Farm machinery
- Processing
- Seed supply
- Marketing
- Retail sales
Possible activities
- video ads
- interviews with small business owners
- menus
- services available
- food show with food tasting
- health care and nutrition
- food truck visits
Plan for fall
I attached the document we started when I was there. I modified based on Bertie's feedback. Here is what might work as a plan:
- share this document with each of the leaders in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Have them modify based on their own needs.
- If you like, I could do a skype call with the leaders to help them walk through the proposed plan and modify it as they talk.
- the first week of PD (week of August 9), people should take some time to lay out the TEKS they will cover in the first 4 months
- I will come on August 14 to do a workshop on Project based learning
I am thinking that I might do a workshop where I introduce Habits of Mind and then have people do a project where they use technology and anything else to describe the meaning of the Habit as a project to be shared with the group. I would have them get into 16 groups (one for each Habit). I would be able to give them some time management, some Habits they will need to do the project, and some ways to give them feedback based on criteria.