Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

30 minutes	Part B: Making A Plan
15 minutes	Part C: Comparing Your Plan To The Global Problem Solvers
5 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Differentiation:

Where students have completed this earlier lesson (Generating Solutions to Problems):

Remind students of the Global Problem Solvers team and how they developed solutions for a problem with wells in Malawi. Invite students to reiterate this problem and the solution developed by the GPS team.
Next invite students to remind themselves of the solution their group created in response to this problem.

Where students haven't completed that earlier lesson (Generating Solutions to Problems):

Explain to students that in this lesson they will be exploring a problem that is based in a part of Malawi. This problem will be identified and discussed by the characters of an animated series called Global Problem Solvers:
“Meet the Global Problem Solvers: Adrien, Beela, Cristina, Kelile, Putri, and Satoshi. They are teenagers who each possess a unique skill to solve social problems. Putri, the team leader, summons the teens to an airship and identifies their first challenge: to provide access to clean drinking water in Malawi. With guidance and help from the Malawi people, the team devises a solution: sensor technology that will notify local technicians when a well needs repair.” TIP: You could share Episode 1.3 The Solution with students to give them a deeper understanding of the issue being addressed by the GPS team: (((video://vimeo.com/259753818)))
(Source: https://vimeo.com/259753818)
Break students into groups of four or five students. Give each group a copy of this factsheet about the series (Background Information - Season 1) and ask them to read through it, focusing on the solution created by the GPS team. Students will need to be familiar enough with this solution to create a plan for enacting it. You may also choose to watch these other clips which explain the solution in more detail: https://vimeo.com/259753818 and https://vimeo.com/259753960

Step 2.

Now pose the following question to students:

Now that you have a solution, what’s the next step in bringing your solution to life?

Explain to students that they’re not expected to know the answers to this question. However, in the rest of this lesson they will be exploring the answers in detail.

Part B: Making A Plan

Step 1.

Explain to students that the first step in bringing a solution to life is to make a plan. Having a plan means that:

Everyone in your team knows what you are trying to do and why
Everyone knows what actions you need to take and what materials and equipment you need
Other people can see what you’re trying to do and will want to get involved
You can identify what you need to get done in order to be successful.

Step 2.

Differentiation:

Step 3.

Each group needs to work through the following activities (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Take a moment to describe and demonstrate each activity with the class before the groups attempt them. You could move around the classroom as groups are working to assist where necessary.

1. Defining the problem and the solution

Each group needs to discuss and record answers for the following questions (example answers included):

What is our team called? Example answer: Middle Unit 2 Problem Solvers
What is our solution?
Example answer: A well repair robot. Each well will be fitted with a transmitter that tells the base when a well is broken. A drone operated robot with repair equipment can be flown to the well and the robot can then repair the well.
Why do we want to do this? What problem will it solve?
Example answer: Wells are breaking down and people are needing to walk long distances to get water. This is a job that typically gets left to girls and young women. Because of the broken local wells, the girls and young women have to walk long distances to get water from more distant wells, which takes a long time. They are having to miss school in order to get water.
How will our solution help address the problem?
Example answer: Our well repair robot can fly into any place where there is a broken well and can repair the well quickly. This means people have access to water and girls and young women can return to school.

2. Identifying materials and equipment

Students should think about the following question: What materials and equipment does your solution need?

Each group needs to create a mind-map that describes what their solution needs. This map should include any materials and equipment required for the solution.

NOTE: Students are not expected to know exactly what equipment is required to build and operate something like a robot; the aim here is to ensure that students include all the main components they included in their solutions and to demonstrate some creative thinking about what these components might be comprised of. For example:

3. Challenges

There’s a good chance that student solutions will come up against some difficulties that they'll need to think creatively about addressing. The newest technologies can fail, the weather can be unpredictable, and even the best people make mistakes. When these things do happen, we can of course learn from them and make improvements. However, it’s a good idea to have a plan for when some of the more typical problems arise.

Students should think of some problems that their solution might face, and how they might prepare for those instances, and then add them to the table below:

Challenge	How we could address this
E.g. Drone battery failure	All drones have to have battery checks before being sent out, and spare batteries should be attached to the drone

4. Evaluation

Evaluation is something you do at the end of the project to work out whether your project has been successful. But it is also something you need to plan for. You can set yourself a target of what success will look like. For each of the categories below, students should circle one numbered response. You can only circle each number once (i.e. you can only circle number one once, number two once, number three once, and number four once).

Getting girls and young women back to school

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Not important at all

Making sure our equipment stays clean

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Not important at all

Having our technology work perfectly all the time

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Not important at all

Making sure everyone knows what we’re doing

Extremely important
Very important
Quite important
Not important at all

Alongside each point that they circle, students should also explain why they’ve chosen this point. This will help them understand what the most important things are to them and why, and will help them understand what success will look like for their solution.

Part C: Comparing Your Plan To The Global Problem Solvers

Step 1.

Students will now see how the Global Problem Solvers have created a plan for their solution. Explain to students that the GPS team have called their plan a ‘business plan’, which is a document that includes information about what you are trying to do, why you want to do it and how you will do it. The GPS team want people to donate money and equipment to their solution, which means they need to be able to show that they have really thought about how their idea will work, how it will be successful and how money won’t be wasted. Having a document like a business plan is an easy way to show that you’ve thought about how your idea is a good investment.

Explain to students that for this activity, it’s not necessary to think about how their own solution will be financially successful.

NOTE: If you are planning on continuing through this unit and completing the social action lesson (Turning Plans Into Action), students will have the chance to think about financial resourcing during this process.

Share the following clip with students:

(Source: Global Problem Solvers: The Series - Episode 1.5: The Business Plan, https://vimeo.com/259754084)

Step 2.

Once complete, engage students in a class discussion around what they observed in this clip. Consider the following questions in your discussion:

What did you see in this clip? What happened?
What was interesting to you?
What factors were important to the GPS team in terms of having a plan?
Did you see anything in this clip that made you think about the plan your group has created?

Where students have identified opportunities for improvement or changes to their plan, allow time for them to regroup and make amendments.

Part D: Communicating Your Plan

Step 1.

Once complete, each group needs to communicate their plan to the class. Students could do this by creating:

A poster divided into four sections with each section addressing one aspect of the plan (i.e. Defining the problem and solution, Identifying materials and equipment, Challenges, Evaluation).
A presentation of four slides where each slide addresses one of the four aspects of the plan
A booklet where each page of the booklet addresses one of the four aspects of the plan
Something in another medium that addresses these aspects.

Once complete, each group could either share their work with another group or with the class. Audience members should reflect on the work of the presenters and answer the following questions as feedback:

What do you like about this solution and the plan?
Do you think there is anything missing from this plan? Can you suggest anything to improve the plan?

Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback:

Some tips for providing feedback
*Be kind - it can be hard sharing your ideas with other people so make sure you remain kind and supportive.
*Be specific - be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying "I like the facts", say something like "I like the way you used facts to provide justification for the actions you have suggested".
*Be helpful - try not to just say what is strong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to respond to the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Why do you think it is important to have a plan?
How can the plan help us to create a successful project?

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Cisco GPS - Making Your Plan

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