"Using the information you've collected through your Empathy Interviews, combined with your prototype solutions to solve your How Might We statements, you're going to create Project Proposals to submit to the Alpha Admin team (and no - a Project Proposal is nothing like the kind of proposal on this slide."

"So what is a Project Proposal? Let me start by explaining how Proposals work in the professional world.

"Imagine you own a shop that sells furniture. You hear about a brand new office building that just went up - and has no furniture yet. You want to sell to them - because if you fill up their whole office building, you can make a TON of money.

"Of course, you are not the only one trying to make a TON of money selling furniture to this office building. There are others out there - competing for the job. So what do you do? Most of the time, you submit a business proposal (and so does everybody else).

"The business proposal is a document (often up to 100 pages) that covers everything the other people need to know to decide if you are the one to buy furniture from. So this would cover cost and how fast you deliver, but also evidence of how reliable you are, and why they should trust YOU to do the job.

"What do you think would be important to have in that proposal, then?"

(student share)

"When it comes to proposals, though, there's one thing that is the most important . . . how professional the actual proposal looks. If you give your customers a hand-written piece of paper that's only one page long, do you think you're going to get the job?

"Of course not. And that's how proposals work. They are a good way to see how professional the company is. The more professional a proposal, with the more reasons for the client to take it seriously, the better chance of getting business.

"The same thing is going to apply to the proposals you submit to the Alpha Admin team. They will take your ideas as seriously as you take them - and it will show in your proposal. You can have the best idea in the world, but if your proposal is sloppy - just like in every profession - they will let it show how sloppy your idea is . . . and throw it in the garbage to save time.

"However, if you put together a professional proposal . . . they're going to treat it professionally, and they will actually implement any projects that are well thought-out. So work hard, and you can see some of your changes start happening in school next year."

"So you should have a prototype idea for something that would benefit the school. Before you write it into a proposal, though, you need to make sure it would really work. The worst thing that could happen is that you don't do any research and you turn in a proposal that Admin can tell in 5 seconds wasn't fully thought-out or researched.

"So you start by doing some research. Look up similar projects, see how long they took, what problems they faced - and get ideas to make your idea stronger. There are going to be people that have done things like you are suggesting - learn from their mistakes!

"Another way to research your idea (which is even better than relying on internet sites) is to find an expert and tell them your idea and get feedback. Let's brainstorm and come up with a list of possible professional experts for the types of projects we're doing. Who would be a good expert? What kind of people and jobs would know about this?"

(student thoughts; school officials, education experts, teachers, etc.)

"Now that we have a general idea of some possible experts and what to research, you will have some time to do some research and take notes on your 'Project Research Notes' worksheet. Again - your main purpose is to improve upon your current idea, and make sure you catch any major problems with your plan before you write it into your proposal and have it get ignored. Keep careful notes! You will need to make a note of the research you did in the actual proposal . . ."

(Depending on timing, this should be the last slide you show today - they will need a lot of class time to do the research)

"When you are writing your proposal, there are a few key pieces to know about. Let's go through them now."

"Your objectives are your goals - what are you trying to achieve through your idea? What problem are you trying to solve? Remember to make these objectives adhere to our SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely)."

"The Limits are the obstacles that make it hard for you to achieve your objective. In this case, Limits are the other things going on at school that get in the way of your plan. Maybe they are schedule issues, or the fact that every student needs to actually learn here - but what are the things that limit what you can do? For example, I bet students would work harder if we paid them $20 per worksheet, but we don't have money for that - so money is a limit."

"Every solution has some benefits AND costs. In other words, there's always something good that comes from a solution, but there's also something that it will cost - something that we have to put in to make it work (and take away from something else). For example, if we were going to hire an extra FTLC to help students who are struggling, academically, a COST would be the money for that person's pay. That would keep us from buying more books, perhaps - or computers. So the costs start with money, but might go more. If we don't hire the FTLC, but do something else, another COST might be how much time an Administrator has to spend to work with those students, instead.

Think of what people have to put in to make things happen - that is the COST, while the BENEFITS are all the good things that would come from it - time saved, money saved, problems solved."

"We will spend the rest of this time working on our proposals. Remember that it never hurts to get more feedback from your classmates or more experts. We want these solutions to really work, so get that feedback!

Again - don't think of this as an assignment - because it's not one, really. It's real life. It's your chance to actually have a say in what your school looks like, and how it gets better. If you do "just good enough" to answer all the questions, that will be a proposal that's 'just good enough' for folks to not take seriously. Do the work. Be professional. And see what it looks like when you turn in professional work and get treated like a professional . . . "