Technology

Earlier this month we had a market day with all the year 5’s creating something which can be upcycled. When we started planning this last term, we wrote a business plan including our prototype and steps on how to make it. Once we finished that we did a business review. We had to apply for what we wanted (Stall fee, public Liability insurance, business registration, marketing fee and equipment hire). Next on the review we did the things we included, the photo of materials/equipment before design production, photo at the beginning of production, photo during production and photo of the finished product.

Next we created our prototype which took about half an hour for most people. Then we did our evaluation. ‘We all participated well in the prototype design!” At the start of this term we did a product sheet in Seesaw. In the activity, you had to put in a photo of your product, photo of product from start to finish, a selling slide (Who are your target customers? How much will you sell the item for?), picture of your poster and how will you use dangerous items safely? Then we made our good products. We were able to make them over the holidays or after the holidays during week one. On week two on Tuesday after lunch our market time was on. Some products were outstanding and amazingly created and designed! Some people had scrunchies, decorative wine bottles, pencil holders in a mug, waterproof book holders, face masks, herb cartons, picture frames and much more! Some students even made more than one thousand dollars(Banqer money, not real money)! One student made six thousand dollars! The market session went from the end of lunch to the end of the day! I think people struggled with taking the stall fee money from what they made on the session. On Wednesday, everyone was still pretty pumped about Tuesday!

By Daniel Poga

Last term Mrs Evans and Mrs Matsen told us some amazing news that in technology we were  making an invention out of up cycled products. We watched a video about a group of kids who up cycled  toothpaste tubes and made them into bows for the top of Christmas presents. I decided to work on my own, but other people decided to work in groups.We wrote our business plans and decided what to create. Some products were scrunchies ,finger skateboards and magnets.  I decided to up cycle milk cartons into potted and hanging herbs. I grew basil, parsley, thyme, mint and chives.My business was called Clean Greens.We learned all about how much it costs to run a business and what capital you need. We needed to pay for insurance, rent and even if we borrowed a pair of scissors! Throughout the holidays we needed to build and prepare for our market day.

Finally market day arrived.We all set up our stalls and were so excited to sell our products.

Everyone was talking about what they were going to buy and estimating how much money they were going to make. Everyone’s stalls looked great and really professional. After a busy sale session,I sold out of my plants for a grand total of $1675. I loved this activity because it taught me real life lessons about money and business.

By Sophie De Masi