is anyone interested in how I taught 6th and 7th graders a basic project management class for 8 weeks?
Joanne Aaronsonformer PM Consultant, now probono offers of support| Life Transformations LLC, retiredReston, Va, United States
At a private learning summer school I was given free rein to teach "analytical thinking and leadership". Being a PMP-certified project manager, I decided to teach it through the elements of project management. Want to know more? Saving Changes...
Joanne Aaronsonformer PM Consultant, now probono offers of support| Life Transformations LLC, retiredReston, Va, United States
ok, please understand these were young kids. I do get that Analytical thinking is not project management - at least not formally. but one has to use the left side of the brain - analytical side or detailed side so to learn to think analytically one can use paradigms from PM. For example, how do you establish the initial project perspective? What will the framework be? There is an analytical side as well as a right-brain creative side. This alone is a big discussion. I did many presentations for PMI years ago on Creative Project Management and Right-Brained Project Management. I also incorporated intuitive thinking. Next, I only had 12 weeks to do the class of one hour/day. I settled on 4 weeks of interpersonal communications which helped the kids to learn how to develop a speech (precursor to doing a presentation on their project). What goes into the speech? Intro, middle and ending (big bang - how to ask for what you want - like the money for the project). The rest was team building since the kids broke up into groups to do the work.
The second module was on time management - kids need this big time.
The third module was a real intro to PM - using the time and communications modules they had to come up with example projects and build a project plan (cost, schedule and requirements). Each team elected a team lead, developed the project on paper and then presented it. Most of the presentations were 3 minutes and I filmed them on utube. it was really adorable. I feel the kids got alot out of it. Very challenging. Some of the projects were birthday parties and vacations but others were software development and trips to Mars. I enjoyed it myself. Saving Changes...
LORI WILSONRETIRED - Technical Project Manager| RETIRED - LifePoint HealthClarkston, Wa, United States
Thank you for sharing, Joanne. Thank you for taking the time to support these kids and to introduce them to project management. Excellent! Saving Changes...
