Students Team Up To Create Unique Products, Test Work-Place Readiness

In this current economic climate and with the unemployment rate hovering at 9.1%, it’s important for students to learn how to use their creative minds and learn how to work in groups. That way, those students will have the knowledge and skills to someday come up with innovative ideas in their respective fields, making them valuable assets to their employers.

Mrs. Denise Moser, an Applied Practical/Technical Arts teacher at the , challenged her 6^th and 7^th period CAD (Computer Aided Design) students to compete in an International program, which includes an objective of teamwork and innovation in business and technology, and tests work-place readiness.

Moser’s students split up into four teams and worked a week and a half in October on coming up with their own creative mobile apps or games, and making their designs, logistics, marketing and video commercials to go along with their products. Students from Phil Cook’s Film class also joined and were split up between the four teams, filming each team’s 30-second television commercial, which can be viewed here.

On Tuesday, Nov. 15, each team presented their final projects to the class, as well as Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Miceli and Sandra Searing, the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Supervision, during the school day.

“Personally, I was really excited with how everything turned out. I thought everyone was energized and I saw a lot of brain cells flying around the room, people having a good time in the groups, and I was especially proud of how well you all worked in the groups,” Moser said before students presented their final projects. “Each group really came together, whether you were friends or not. It was really cohesive and everyone had a role; everyone kind of gravitated to what they could do to help the group.”

Moser said each team took on a different challenge in this competitive program, which is sponsored by Microsoft, JCPenney, Coca-Cola and the U.S. Department of Education, and one team even made it to the International Finals.

Members of the finalist team, who are Patrick Alexander, Victoria Starr, Annamarie Oswald, Robyn Plocinski, Chris Mendez and Tim Sagandorf, designed a smartphone app that finds attractions in and around New Providence. Moser said this team integrated with Mr. Cook’s class the best.

Team members said they did some research and identified that a key problem in New Providence is that residents are sometimes bored because they don’t know of anything going on in the area.

This smartphone app, called “XPO,” is a way for residents to search by location and category to find local attractions. The app also allows businesses to participate and allows users to get discounts through the app’s points reward system.

“I think it’s safe to say that throughout the whole long run of this project, I’d say that our group was very efficient,” one team member said during their presentation. “I think we all collaborated our ideas. I’d say the collaboration between the video crew and the CAD crew, I think it’s a teamwork experience that will be an asset for us.”

Now that this team’s project has been entered into the International Finals, residents can vote for the project to win. To participate in the voting process, which ends on Nov. 18 at midnight, click here or go to: http://www.nfte.com/world-series-of-innovation/xpo.html. Click on "vote for me," which will take you to the voting form. On the voting form, Select "XPO" under the first question, which asks, "What is your favorite Mobile App Design?" From there, enter your name and email address at the bottom of the form and click "submit."

Moser’s other teams came up with innovative ideas as well, including a 3D catapult game called "Crazy Frogs and Turtles." This game, which uses frogs to save the turtles from the alligators, allows users to utilize their problem solving skills.

This team was the smallest of the four and members used various computer applications, including Flash and iMovie, to complete the project. But team members said they did face many technical difficulties with transferring files from PC to iMacs, as they did some work at home and some work at school.

“You guys came up against a lot of problems with showing what it would look like, figuring how to make things appear and move, and you figured out a lot about Flash and Garage Band,” Moser said to team members. “So there was a lot of technology that the kids experimented with as they were solving their problems.”

Another team, which included eight students in total, invented a new soda along with a new soda can design, graphics and a marketing gimic with slogans.

“This group was so excited about this project,” Moser said. “They all wanted to be a part of it. They were very busy bees and they got involved with lots of programs, lots of people coming together on the graphics, the label, the 3D illustrations, the product design.”

Team members said when they first thought of inventing a new soda, they surveyed other students to see if they were tired of the typical soda cans. The majority of the students surveyed said they were tired of the traditional can. Therefore, the team designed a new, slender can.

After choosing orange soda and cream soda, team members decided to make three can tabs. That way, the consumer could choose to have just the orange soda, just the cream soda or combine the two flavors.

Team members said they designed the can with various computer programs and used the actual colors of the soda in the graphic can design. Finally, members also named the soda “Orange Scream,” because they felt it was a name everyone would remember.

“Every group was supposed to design a commercial to market their idea. So I created a commercial for our soda, something that would be both intriguing and show off all the new features of this can and flavor design itself,” one team member said. “So I used iMovie and Garage Band, and took the videos that Mrs. Moser took during the class and put them together into the commercial. It really helped teach me how to use iMovie and was very beneficial.”

Moser’s final team created a mobile search engine for local high school sports in New Providence called the "New Providence Sports Finder."

Team members said it's often hard to find the correct locations and times of sports events for New Providence teams. With this app, anyone could go on, find the correct time and location, and even get directions.

Further, the students also used photoshop to make the different shots of this smartphone app and used iMovie to create the commercial.

At the end of the students’ presentations, a video showcasing the hard work all of the students put into their projects was showcased. Student Eric Roper made the video with clips shot by Mrs. Moser while the students worked on their projects in class.

“This is really what real life is about,” Moser said to her students after their presentations. “No matter what your job is, it’s working with other people, getting to your objectives and making yourself resourceful and important to the group, inventing your role and developing your job because you’re really the only people who can create jobs. It’s not the president, it’s not even Wall Street; it’s you. When you get into a business and say, ‘well I can do this for you and I can do that for you,’ that’s how you rise in a company – by making yourself valuable.”

Miceli and Searing enjoyed the presentations and Miceli invited any available students to present their class projects to the Board of Education at a meeting this Monday at 7:30 p.m.

Remember, the team that created "XPO" is in the International Finals and you can help the team win. To participate in the voting process, which ends on Nov. 18 at midnight, click here or go to: http://www.nfte.com/world-series-of-innovation/xpo.html. Click on "vote for me," which will take you to the voting form. On the voting form, Select "XPO" under the first question, which asks, "What is your favorite Mobile App Design?" From there, enter your name and email address at the bottom of the form and click "submit."