Education For Enterprise

An article about students at Hastings Intermediate School who needed to develop ideal storage space for the fruit and vegetables from their organic garden. The students created some key objectives for the storage space with the help of their teacher, Mrs Bell. They also enlisted the help of a process engineer from a local factory, who helped them to identify issues that needed to be addressed by the storage space. The students carried out interesting science experiments and also used local expertise to help them design and build the space. They raised money by selling products made from the organic produce that they had grown.

‘Our Pātaka’ illustrates enterprise skills such as:

• planning and setting out objectives
• developing relationships with community organisations
• analysing information
• collective social entrepreneurship.

The KAT team at Hastings Intermediate involved people from their community who had the skills and knowledge to guide them in their planning. They analysed different issues that arose as their concept developed to assist them in avoiding potential problems. To raise the money that they needed to build the space, the students used available resources.

An activity about a boy called Robert, who held a garage sale with his old toys in order to buy a pair of in-line skates and to clear some room before his family moved to a new house. The activity includes prices for different items that are sold in the garage sale.

‘Garage Sale’ illustrates enterprise skills such as:

• using initiative
• making decisions to solve problems
• financial literacy.

Students need to work out what option Robert should choose to maximise his profit when he is offered a price by a second-hand dealer for all the goods in the sale.

An activity about a group of students and their families, who raise money to upgrade their local school hall. The students are required to work out how much money each member of a family has raised through odd jobs and other activities.

‘Upgrading the Hall’ illustrates enterprise skills such as:

• financial literacy
• working out how much each member of a group is contributing towards a goal
• processing information.

Students are required to work out the contributions of individual members of a family towards a collective outcome. The activity uses calculations to measure progress.

An article about fourteen-year-old high school student Kate Johns, who swam Cook Strait. Kate decided that she wanted to swim Cook Strait when she was only 7 years old. She was helped towards her goal by her swimming instructor, who contacted an accomplished Cook Strait swimmer to arrange the swim. Kate undertook an intensive training regime to prepare herself for the challenge.

‘Cook Strait Kate’ illustrates enterprise skills such as:

• setting goals and working towards them
• commitment to an outcome and to overcoming the challenges involved in achieving it
• determination.

As Kate swam Cook Strait, her course changed and she took a path that was different from the one that had been mapped out for her. Kate completed her swim despite the physical pain that she felt and used both her physical and mental strength to reach her goal.

An article about two girls called Emily and Luci, who live by the coast and were concerned that the natural habitats of the little blue penguins in their community were disappearing. The girls contacted a ranger from the Department of Conservation, who suggested that the girls and their friends build safe nesting boxes for the penguins in their back garden. The ranger helped the girls to build the boxes based on models used successfully in Oāmaru by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.

‘The Plight of the Penguins’ illustrates enterprise skills such as:

• identifying a problem
• helping to contribute to the community
• using initiative to get a solution to a problem underway.

Emily and Luci used their initiative to contact the Department of Conservation when they identified that there were problems with the habitats of the penguins in their community.