Nifty Assignmentsin Entrepreneurship Education

NCIIA 2011

organized byClif Kussmaul & Trish Boyles

Muhlenberg College

Every educator wants to find good materials to adopt or adapt.

• Conference sessions describe programs, courses, and materials, often at a high level.

• Colleagues describe individual experiences.• Good ideas may go unreported

or lack sufficient detail.

Nifty Assignments help us to share these ideas & experiences.

• A great NA is:– easy to adopt & adapt– relevant in many settings– thought-provoking– fun for students & teachers

• NA sessions are popular at other conferences,and NAs are archived online.

This session seeks to share NAs & encourage more in the future.

• 8 Nifty Assignments 5 minutes each plus questions

• spontaneous NAs from attendees– simple format:• title, keywords, author info, bullet points

– please pass them to Clif or Trish• general discussion & more sharing

Team Triangle Count

• team dynamics, decision making, problem solving

• Clif Kussmaul clif@kussmaul.org Muhlenberg College(from Carol Wellington @ Shippensburg Univ.)

1. Student teams spend 5-10 minutes counting the triangles in a complex figure.

2. Teams consider team roles & strategies.3. Teams report conclusions to class & discuss.

Team Triangle Count

Golden Rolodex

• networking• Michael Lehman mslehman@katz.pitt.edu

University of Pittsburgh

1. Each student picks 5 people they don’t know.– engineering, law, health sci, industry, etc.

2. Interview each person face-to-face.3. Write 2 page reflection paper.

Shooting Video to Discover Unmet Needs

• perception, opportunity recognition, customer needs analysis

• Jonathan Weaver weaverjm@udmercy.edu Univ of Detroit, Mercy, Mech Eng Dept

1. Show selective attention video (next slide).2. Each student compiles a 10 minute video

of people in typical activities.3. Identify & list unmet needs or opportunities.4. Share videos with class to identify more.

Shooting Video to Discover Unmet Needs

Just Do It: Accelerated Startup Exercise

• teamwork, opportunity identification, action-orientation, bootstrapping

• Trish Boyles tboyles@muhlenberg.eduMuhlenberg College

1. Students teams develop, launch, & operatea startup idea with minimal funding (<$5).

2. Summary presentation one week later onidea, process, obstacles, lessons learned.

Back of the Envelope Calculation

• technical calculation, approximation• Susannah Howe showe@smith.edu

Smith College

1. Each student gets an envelopeand uses it to make a rough calculation,often very early in a project.

The Melting Pot

• brainstorming, creativity• Michael Lehman mslehman@katz.pitt.edu

University of Pittsburgh

1. Each student lists 5 things they like to do.2. Teams of 3 combine 1 idea from each list

and blend them to form a business idea.3. Teams share their idea with the class.4. Teams define target market, competitive advantage,

business name, & logo.

DeBono’s 6 Hats: Innovating on the Common Water Bottle

• idea/concept generation, parallel thinking, team dynamics

• Jonathan Weaver & Darrell Kleinkeweaverjm@udmercy.edu Univ of Detroit, Mercy, Mech Eng Dept

1. Instructor introduces DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats (next slide).

2. Student teams practice each hat to identify innovations related to water bottles.

DeBono’s 6 Hats: Innovating on the Common Water Bottle

• White hat Facts & Information• Red hat Feelings & Emotions• Black hat Caution• Yellow hat Positive and Optimistic• Green hat New Ideas• Blue hat The Big Picture

Transfer Map

• transferable knowledge/attitudes/skills, professional development

• Susannah Howe showe@smith.edu Smith College

1. Each student identifies & lists their own transferable knowledge/attitudes/skills.

2. Student teams aggregate the listsand make a visual map.

Transfer Map

Other Nifty Assignments?

Newspaper Challenge

• teamwork, opportunity recog, skill recog• Frances Mitchell,

Innovation Academy, TCD/UCD

1. Give newpaper to mixed discipline teams.2. Use contents of pockets/bags to create value

from something in the newspaper.3. Present result at end of day.

Reframe the Problem

• redesign• Tina Seelig, Stanford Univ.

1. Students walk around finding problems.2. Analyze & redesign nametags.3. What are the real goals? 4. Reframe problem, prototype.5. (see also Wallet Project)

Elevator Pitch

• communication, networking, marketing• Dean Chang, Univ of MD

1. 1-2 min elevator pitch about yourself1. basic info, e’ship experience, unique features

2. Watch recording of yourself1. 3 good things, 3 improvements, 1 borrowed idea

3. Record yourself on cell phone