Teacher resources » Sell me something!
Overview
Become a creative innovator and design, build, and implement a new product idea! In this activity, students become designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs as they work in teams to create a video advertisement to pitch their idea.
Students will form design teams and brainstorm a product or invention that they will then create a prototype for. Using the Classroom editor, students will then create a quick, 2 minute video to showcase their product and pitch it to their classmates or wider school audience.
Open-ended, collaborative design challenges are a great way for students to practice contributing ideas in a group setting, problem solving, and flexing their creativity.
Keywords: STEM, Digital Literacy, Collaboration
Good for: Teams, expression
Grade level: K-12
Skill level: Intermediate
Student Instructions
Copy and paste the information below directly into the description box when creating your student assignment, or, use it as inspiration to make your own!
Working in your design teams you will be creating a short, 2-minute video to pitch your invention, idea, or product to your classmates. This video will act as a commercial to convince people that your product is worth buying or that your idea is super innovative! Use stock media, external footage, or a screencast to create your video.
Some things to consider when designing your product or pitching your idea:
- Is there a need or a want for this idea or product?
- How would people use this product in their lives?
- Does your product solve a problem or provide a solution to an ongoing social issue?
- A product can be a tangible object like a new household gadget, game, app or new medical device or less tangible ideas like a new transportation system or a new type of school.
Tips to help your instruction in this activity or help to get you started!
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This activity is open ended and the process might get a little messy! This activity should be focused on the collaborative experience so encourage students to focus on working together, generating ideas and building and making something together. Using supportive language and encouragement, focusing on the process over the final product will help students feel more confident in their ability to be creative with this activity.
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If your students are new to working in teams on more open-ended projects it may be helpful to assign certain categories of ideas that they could design a prototype for and create a video advertisement. Category ideas could include: toys & games, items for the home, transportation, medical devices, or things that might help the environment.
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For younger students it may be helpful to assign groups and assign them an idea from the categories suggested above or of your own design.
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STEM: This activity fits perfectly in a STEM or STEAM lesson plan, unit, or project. Students will be making use of technologies as well as employing scientific and engineering processes to collaborate on a problem centered design solution. This activity can be adapted to fit most scientific content areas. For example students could be focused on designing ways to clean our oceans if you are leading a natural science unit on the health of the world’s oceans.
Digital Literacy: In this activity, students learn how to make strategic use of digital media to craft messages to create a certain viewpoint for their audience. Learning how media is created purposely to deliver specific messages to shape people’s thinking is an important skill for students to learn how to identify propaganda, false narratives, or fake news.
Collaboration: This activity is perfect for group projects. Design and engineering is a social process and is difficult to achieve on an individual level. If you are looking to increase the amount of group projects in your learning environment this activity will help you do just that.