Entrepreneurship, Marketing & Advertising

Have you ever had a product and thought “why didn’t they do it this way” or “if they added x,y or z, this would function better”? Now is your chance to fix it or create a product that does not exist! The focus of this seminar is entrepreneurial start up ventures and design thinking through the business model canvas and IDEO’s innovation process. We will be working with UWM’s Lumbar Entrepreneurship Center throughout the process of creating a startup idea with each student. Students will be using the Business Model Canvas to evaluate products, the product users, product design, empathy of design, market research and more to design their own product. Students will create multiple iterations of design sketches, problems to solve and product models/prototypes and learn inquiry based questioning, to iterate multiple drafts of an idea and to present ideas in a formal setting. Math concepts will be integrated into data analysis, model making and more. Students may be selected to present products and ideas in collaboration with UWM for MKE startup week.

Final Product/Project:

• Start Up Business Pitch: Students will take the best of their iterations and make a final prototype paired with visual data, design drawings, research and other needed information to pitch their idea to a panel of community members. Some projects will be chosen to move on the MKE Startup Week.

• Students can go further into any area of choice to enhance their project, secondary project that would support deeper learning in a specific subject area, standard or personal passion.

EMPOWER Skills:

• Refinement

• Ownership

• Evidence

• Problem Solving

IMPACT Experiences:

• Working with UWM and Milwaukee Start-Up Week

Academic Pathways:

• EMPOWER Pathway

• Art

• English

• Math