show videos of past student presentations as
exemplars.
On the last day, à la “Shark Tank for Social
Good,” each team has 10 minutes to convince the
judges to fund their development plan (or their
social media campaign, innovative design, or
funding proposal). Student presentations take place
in each middle school across multiple classrooms,
with five panelists per room scoring six to seven
groups of students.
To judge the presentations, panelists use district-developed rubrics ( https://goo.gl/uEFkL2) that are
based on the same criteria that experts employ in
seeking funding for their real-world projects: Is the
problem clearly defined? Is the reasoning sound and
within the parameters and context of the problem?
Are the solutions offered feasible and likely to
address the problem? The judges must reach con-
sensus on these “impact” criteria. Students are also
evaluated on their ability to effectively communicate
and respond to questions from the panelists. After
their presentation, they receive feedback on their
performance and find out if their project was
“funded” or not.
As a reward—and to encourage healthy competition—the top-scoring groups, about one-third of
the total, are invited to participate in Skype calls on
the following day with international experts. Each
group has approximately 30 minutes to speak with
these experts about their project, and the videocon-ference provides an additional challenge, as students
must adjust the purpose of their presentation from
persuading the panel of judges to engaging in dialogue with an expert. During the 2016–2017 school
year, more than 250 students participated in 60
Skype sessions (across 10 time zones and all in the
span of one school day) with experts such as the
United Nations Development Programme’s country
director for Sudan, a professor from Toyo Eiwa University in Japan, and the communications manager
from the Malala Fund.
