January 18, 2022 — Chardon Middle School social studies teacher Mrs. Rachel Holub and English language arts teacher Ms. Ellen Bostwick led the implementation of the Young Entrepreneur Institute® Pitch Challenge in CMS sixth-grade classes this fall as a capstone project to the classes’ cross-curricular economics unit.
The YEI® Pitch Challenge, a sales pitch contest for Northeast Ohio K-12 students, is designed to help students acquire and apply creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and presentation knowledge, thereby promoting essential workforce readiness skills.
For the assignment, CMS students worked together to create technological inventions paired with business proposals.
“As our students learned about the fundamental questions of economics in social studies, they also studied technological creations and evaluated their merit as helpful inventions in ELA,” said Mrs. Holub. “For the Pitch Challenge, they then worked together with “company” (peer) partners to create a business whose purpose would be inventing a new piece of technology that would provide a service or help solve a problem in the community."
To simulate the economic concepts of scarcity and trade learned in their social studies classes, students were given a limited supply of resources to create invention prototypes. Using communication skills they had acquired through ELA lessons, students pitched their ideas and inventions via ELA in-class presentations on Dec. 17 and Dec. 20.
Mrs. Holub said she and her colleagues are so proud of the students' hard work and creativity shown throughout the project.
“They came up with incredibly clever ideas, and I am impressed with their collaborative efforts in creating a company and items with their partners that they could sell to solve real-world problems,” added principal Tim Velotta. “Inventions included the Easy Meme Oven, the Outfit Matcher, the Swisher Hooper, Handy Candy Robot, the Automatic Super Mop, sound-canceling Blur Your Brother Headphones, the Helpful Pencil Grabber, the Automatic Lawn-Buddy, Mini Spray Wipers for eyeglasses, the Trash-Sorting Eco 2021, and the Hands-Free Grocery Holder.”
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District Media Contact:
Kelly Misch
Communications Director
Chardon Local Schools