Do you know that a class business is a great way to engage learners in inquiry and use a multi-disciplinary approach?
Martin Beberman
(bebermma@cmi.k12.il.us)
(ready to use)
ASK
Subject Areas
| Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies |
Grade Levels
| 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Vocational |
Unit Keywords
|
business, math, toys, tops, IPUnitSample |
Rationale of the Unit
Top Speed INC.
A business project affords any elementary classroom with authentic problems to solve and provides memories and learning that last a lifetime.The death of a teacher in our school, Tim Stafford, gave me the impetus to revive a project I’ve done past years. As our customers would be the student body, our class decided to use our proceeds to benefit the entire school. The money we raised bought books for our school library in memory of Mr. Stafford.
In past years we’ve named our company Coffee Table Tops, Tops LTD., and Topsy Turvy. As you may have guessed, we manufacture and market wooden tops. At one dollar apiece, they are affordable to all and bring delight to even the most sophisticated customer. The joy of spinning a top spans all generations. Grandma might not play video games but the sight of a top humming on the kitchen floor is something she can enjoy with her grandchildren.
A classroom business can encompass all manner of goods and services. I choose to make and sell tops with my class because the enterprise can involve all twenty-six of my students in some capacity. My third graders filled out applications for a variety of jobs in our company. Competition for Director of Human Resources was fierce. The position went to a girl who was the only applicant who’d actually worked in a real company, her grandfather’s printing firm. Samantha and her assistant helped me assign jobs to the rest of the class and completed a database file I created the night before our start up. Other positions included Art Team, Advertising, Sanding, Stick Makers, Assembly, Quality Control, Sales Team, Treasurer, and a position we call Mover. The Mover’s job was perhaps the most active. He had the only union job. By contract, no parts or tools could be moved on the shop floor without his help. His grandfather also supplied the wood for the project. This year, all of our tops were made from cherry, oak, and black walnut that his grandfather harvested, had milled and then cured in a shed on his farm. I should mention also, that as the company founder, I am also the owner. It is known to my student employees that anyone can be fired and that the owner can be capricious. It’s an attribute I don’t enjoy in my normal role in the classroom, where even depriving a student of recess can mean an exchange of emails with parents.
Over the years, I’ve refined the process of getting ready for this project. In my first attempts at making tops, I cut the disks for the tops with a hole saw attachment and my electric hand drill. It was hard to bore a balanced piece that way. I found a friend with a drill press in his garage and now I grind out my disks that way. They are just rough enough at that stage that our Sanders have some hand work to do. Our Stick Makers measure, cut, and sand quarter inch dowel pieces that serve as the shafts. The mover takes ready pieces to the Assembly Team where they are glued and sometimes tapped into place with a hammer. The semi finished tops are moved to the Quality Control Team to be tested. With stopwatches they assess whether a top can spin for at least thirty seconds. Tops that don’t pass are rejected and repaired if possible. I’ve had a good deal of fun with the Assembly Team by passing on tops that were obviously flawed just to challenge the kids who work in Quality Control.
Outside of the manufacturing component we have artists and advertisers. The advertisers worked with the Art Team to come up with a logo that would please the owner. They’ve made posters using digital photos of the factory at work as well as artwork from the art team. One of their crew will be the sandwich board man who’ll walk the cafeteria the day before our sales. Our Art Department has spent most of their efforts decorating the tops with paper disks made on the computer or by hand that are interesting aestheticaly or even generate optical illusions.
We allow job sharing and multi-tasking. (OK, I’m a teacher and don’t really know if these are real words.) Kids can try out other jobs and are sometimes directed to do so when production problems dictate our needs. The only place where this has been a problem has been in Assembly. We’ve had people walk in to try their skills and really botch up some tops. Poor Tyler. We called him “college kid” and sent him back to advertising where he’d do less harm.
Some of our best learning this year will come from this project. Problem solving opportunities for all of us abound. As owner and company founder I make lots of decisions that don’t involve anyone. But when I decide to slow things down I can pose questions for them to consider. Before we started our company, I asked them how many dowel rods do we need? There was stunned silence for a moment as the class considered what the problem meant. In our math texts we don’t often encounter such an open-ended problem. This question was authentic and moments later hands went up to define the problem. “How many tops do we want to make? How long should a shaft be? How long is a dowel rod? How much will be wasted?” It was good for my class that I already had some answers ready. We assumed that shafts should be between 3 and 4 inches. The sample dowels I had on hand were 48 inches. That made for some pretty convenient data for third graders just beginning to divide. That was an easy problem for me to anticipate and manage. What was even more valuable were the problems they solved without my intervention. I won’t know what these were. I was too busy at times running the belt sander and worrying about safety and OSHA regulations. They solved problems on their own as they encountered them. They made decisions in a cooperative fashion.
As I write this piece, it’s Spring Break. I’ve replaced the lawn in my backyard and planted my vegetable garden. When we return to to school we’ll sell our stock and endow the school library. The books we buy will be read by students who never knew Tim. But the students who earned the money to buy them will fondly remember the noise and commotion that made it possible. That’s my spin. |
If you want to add your comments on this Unit, please login first.
|
