What is an
"Enterprise" Project ?
Sadly, this has nothing to with the NCC-1701, James T Kirk or Mr Spock !
This is all about generating income ... making money to cover the costs of some of the activities we have planned, and to cover some of the costs for things we have already done.
This might seem 'tight' but think about the skills and values that children could learn from carrying out a similar activity.
"Education Scotland believes that, in the next decade, we will change how we view entrepreneurship. 'Young people', it says, 'need to be prepared for a world which is changing rapidly. Many of the jobs they will do when they leave school do not yet exist and they will probably have several jobs during their lifetime'. Schools should give learners opportunities to think and act in enterprising ways, and develop skills essential for business, such as solving problems, making decisions and assessing risks. According to Forbes, these are the skills employers most seek in graduates, along with the ability to talk to people inside and outside an organisation."
(https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/why-should-children-learn-about-social-enterprise, 2016)
Even from a young age, children can be involved in making things and selling them. Older children can be involved in providing a service to the public, and receiving payment for doing so, payment which funds resources and activities. If the children are aware of the result of their efforts, and of the benefits gained from their endeavours, they develop a healthy approach to work, and a positive mindset in relation to their ability to succeed.
Mindset and Emotional Resilience
This is because, with appropriate guidance and support, emotional resilience also improves. They become aware of the need to produce a quality product or provide a quality service, and so undertake a form of quality control, a 'self audit' of their own contributions. With support if necessary, they learn that what they perhaps didn't quite get right on their first or second attempts, they can, with practice, develop the required skills to get it right on subsequent attempts. They learn they can 'bounce back' from failure, hopefully deriving a sense of pride and satisfaction from having done so, a feeling they will be keen to experience again, and so they will endeavor to always 'do their best '. The rewards (of the enterprise activity) ... the 'pot of gold at the end of the rainbow', may appear to be the activities or resources they gain from their efforts, but the real benefits of a well managed enterprise activity are the developments of healthy mindsets, and children who do not fall at the first hurdle.
Enterprise activities are not the only kind of activities where growth mindsets are promoted and emotional resilience develops, but is it recognised that the collaborative nature of some kind of 'reward based'* enterprise activity provides excellent opportunities for the development of these important skills and qualities.
*Reward based - this does not necessarily mean the child benefits materially from the activity. Working to be able to donate money to a charity, for example, can be the 'reward'.
Definitions
Growth Mindset : The belief that one can develop and improve skills and abilities through effort.
Fixed Mindset : The belief that skills and abilities are fixed and cannot be improved.
Emotional Resilience : The ability to bounce back after 'failure' and to to work through a difficulty so that you are left feeling more confident about your ability to cope with a similar situation in the future.
Enterprise Project
Building Squirrel Feeders
Winter is an exciting time for children ... bonfire night and fireworks, fallen leaves, snow on the ground, and, of course, Christmas ! It is also, however, an excellent time to get children thinking about the challenges of winter for animals. With the long, warm days of summer giving way to the short, cold and damp winter days, animals can find it difficult to survive.
Some birds, of course, migrate to warmer climates to see the winter out, while hedgehogs, hazel dormice and bats hibernate, sleeping the winter months away until they re-awaken in Spring.
Others, like badgers and red squirrels, can enter a state of torpor, Unlike hibernation, torpor is involuntary. Wikipedia describes topor as "a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually marked by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. Torpor enables animals to survive periods of reduced food availability."
In other words, they "shut down" temporarily so that they can to survive times when it is particularly cold or when they are struggling to find sufficient food. It is a survival mechanism. Torpor usually only lasts for a short time (days or weeks rather than months) and can be re-entered into easily if they are woken too early.
Others, though, must continue to feed themselves and cope with the hard winter months. Rabbits, foxes, birds and deer are some examples.
For this project, then, you are going to build a squirrel feeders which will help squirrels by providing them with a source of food during the winter months.
This project helps children connect with the natural world around them, develop an understanding of how we can help meet the needs of animals (which can lead to discussions about being kind to one another) and can also lead to discussions relating to how we look after the natural world in a wider sense ... climate change. (For more on this topic, see the section of this website called "The Climate Emergency".)
Squirrel Feeders - Resources
To build the squirrel feeders, you will need ...
Screws
