We're off to a fast start once again at The Oakridge School! My students in my Honors Tech 2.0 class are currently working on grant proposals. You might be asking yourself, 'why are students in a tech class writing grant proposals?'
When I was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, part of my training was in writing project and grant proposals. I decided that this would be a great skill for my students to learn.
My first step in this process was always making an outline of what I wanted to ask to get funded in my grant. I had my students do the same. A big reason I do this, is so that the students learn how to get the big picture (their idea) on paper; give me the executive summary (30,000 ft viewpoint) of the project or purpose of the grant. The outlines needed to include: 1) introduction, giving me the purpose, background, and significance of the project, 2) methodology, giving me the materials they need, proposed budget and a timeline for completion, 3) anticipated results, tell me in a perfect world how the project will work, and 4) future directions, telling me what the logical next steps for their projects will be, what will be in the next iteration making it better than the last.
The next step, which all of them are currently working on, is writing the full grant proposal. This needs to include all of the sections listed above as well as references. Students that turned in well done outlines, I've found, have an easy time putting some 'meat on the bones,' as I had them think about the outline as a skeleton for their proposal. Once they finish their proposal, they will then need to turn that into a presentation, either using Prezi, Google Slides, or PowerPoint, and give that presentation to myself and other "grant proposal board members." The purpose of this is to give the students experience presenting their ideas in front of a group, because in every profession I can think of, at one point or another, they will have to present something to someone; whether in business it's pitching to a client, or giving a summary presentation to your boss.
As my students are turning their proposals in, I am amazed at the creativity that I am seeing. It also gives me some great insight into what their interests are outside of school.
It is a great time to be an Owl!
No comments:
Post a Comment