[ibimage==46866==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]A SEE-Chicago class learning about plastic injection molding with Northwestern mentors, by molding chocolate
For the past four years, students at Nettelhorst, a K-8 elementary school in Lakeview, have received a dose of real-world engineering and entrepreneurship skills — all thanks to Chicago’s Science and Entrepreneurship Exchange (SEE-Chicago).
Ted Ganchiff, executive director of SEE-Chicago, co-founded the program four years ago with Mike Beltran, a mechanical engineering professor at Northwestern University. Ganchiff said the idea came from working on business projects with his son, a student at Nettelhorst. He didn’t know interest for such a program would be so strong.
“We thought it would be neat to fuse engineering with entrepreneurship,” he said. “We didn’t anticipate that we’d be building a program.”
But build a program they have. Nettelhorst, an 850 student public school, has served essentially as a pilot for SEE-Chicago, which Ganchiff said is funded privately and via donations.
Third graders learn to make one of something, according to Ganchiff. They learn how to take a problem-solving idea and turn it into a prototype on the table, using modern manufacturing tools such as 3D printers. Then, in fourth grade, students learn to make a lot of something, focusing on the manufacturing process and on material sciences, Ganchiff said. Entrepreneurship comes into play in fifth grade, he said. That’s when elementary students begin work with mentors, be them students from Northwestern University (DePaul University will start working with students next year) or working professionals.
Nettelhorst students learn market research and ideation. They then pitch their ideas at Catapult in a Shark Tank-like environment. Eighth graders, meanwhile, are split into eight teams, each tasked with solving an assigned problem such as home organization. They too pitch at Catapult, and then the entire grade focuses on the winning prototype, creating a Kickstarter project in an effort to bring said product to market.
In 2013, Nettelhorst eighth grade students raised $10,864 for their Elephant Hooks. The students raised $13,519 in 2014 for their Smart Mail product, and they raised $7,388 this year for The Jewel Tree. A party is held after each Kickstarter campaign to celebrate the class, regardless of how much money was raised, Ganchiff said. Essentially, SEE-Chicago works to help young kids know the value of manufacturing.
“We’re trying to change the conversation about manufacturing,” Ganchiff said. “Everything is digital now, but making things drives economy, and making things, for kids anyway, is definitely not a path that teenagers see themselves getting on. It’s sort of like grandpa’s industry.”
The challenge of scaling
Ganchiff said many people showed enthusiasm for SEE-Chicago now that the ball is rolling, but scaling will be tough.
The issue is twofold: many of the schools that have expressed interest in SEE-Chicago come from rural areas, and there is concern, Ganchiff said, that too few people live close enough to some of those schools to consistently help with the program.
Another obstacle is finding willing, like-minded schools. While Ganchiff said he prefers the program to be brought into the daily curriculum — and it indeed is at Nettelhorst— he admits that SEE-Chicago is better suited for summer programs. Why is that? Students will be able to put in the necessary time for the projects. Additionally, Ganchiff said summer programs will allow students to be be evaluated in the right way.
“Right now, schools are evaluated on test scores, so everybody is obsessed with tests and getting the right answers,” he said. “And guess what? We aren’t about that. There may be 10 right answers in what we’re doing, or 50 or 100, and you’re going to go through some number of the wrong ones before you get there, and that’s just not what schools do now. There’s that disconnect between real life — where everybody screws up everyday and then falls forward and kind of fixes it, particularly in engineering and entrepreneurship.”
Going forward, going online
This year, the SEE-Chicago team will see firsthand just how well the program does in the summer, as it is prepared to hold its Summer for Talent Development camp at Northwestern University.
In terms of the challenges that SEE-Chicago faces, Ganchiff said the number one goal this summer is to create online delivery of the program.
“We’re fortunate at [Nettelhorst] that we can kind of swarm these projects with people, but mentor management and volunteer-based programs are notoriously difficult to run,” he said.
According to Ganchiff, volunteer management has been the “number one issue” for SEE-Chicago. Therefore, the team will make a push to bring the scheduling and distribution online. Furthermore, to aid in the scalability challenges outlined above, Ganchiff said SEE-Chicago will be looking to put mentor videos online, and the program will increase its use of Google Hangouts video conferencing.
Ganchiff said economic development groups in particular have shown interest in SEE-Chicago. They are concerned about how young students will ultimately fare in the workplace and want to see that SEE-Chicago develops entrepreneurial passion and skills within students. In order to do so, Ganchiff said students need to be exposed to such ideas at a young age.
“You really start selecting who you are in middle school,” Ganchiff said. “When you try to broaden horizons after kids have self-selected, it’s really difficult — everyone knows what teenagers are like. But, when you get these little kids, they’ll do anything, it’s amazing. Everybody’s a product designer in fifth grade, everybody’s ready to get up and give a venture capital presentation, because they don’t know they’re not supposed to be good at it yet.”
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