FAQs

• What exactly is Student Solve?

  Student Solve is a 4-hour virtual “ideathon” (think in-school field trip) where a class works with an industry mentor to tackle a real problem from a Massachusetts company. We recommend checking out the video above for what Solve looks like inside a classroom!

• When is it and how long does it run?

  Friday November 20th from roughly 9am-1pm.

• Who can participate?

  Any educator in a One8 funded grant program of OpenSciEd, or PLTW may register one class or group of up to 25 students. Maximum two classrooms (50 students) per program (OpenSciEd, PLTW Launch, Gateway, Engineering, Biomed, CS) may participate. Each teacher supporting one classroom of up to 25 students should complete a separate registration.

• How do I pick which students to bring?

  It depends on the educator and school! Some schools aim for a mix of grades and voices. Others invite just one class section.

• When do I need to sign up?

  Registration opens at 9/16, and we recommending registration as soon as you can to ensure your students are matched with an industry pro to collaborate with. Registration officially closes 10/15 (unless we fill up early!).

• What if I want to register both OSE and PLTW Gateway teams at the same school?

  If your school is participating for both PLTW Gateway and OSE, your school can have a max of 100 students – 50 students (2 teachers) for PLTW Gateway and 50 students (2 teachers) for OSE! Each teacher supporting one classroom of up to 25 students should complete a separate registration.

• How many student teams can I bring?

  Students will work in teams of 3-5 and there can be up to 5 teams per teacher (25 students maximum per teacher), in order to facilitate mentor matching. Students working independently are not eligible to participate.

• What if I have more than 50 students in my program who want to participate?

  We set a student-teacher cap of 25 students per teacher (two teachers per program) to facilitate industry mentor matching and interaction. Reach out to [email protected] if your school has a large group of students and teachers interested in participating; we are always open to thinking through some creative ideas for how to make things work.

• Do the students need to all be PLTW or OpenSciEd students?

  Yes. Students will be using PLTW or OpenSciEd tools and processes to solve the problem, and therefore need to be enrolled in a class using in OpenSciEd or PLTW.

• Do the students need to all be from the same class?

  No, you can have students from different sections of PLTW or OpenSciEd participate together, but the day’s activities will use PLTW-specific or OpenSciEd-specific tools and processes, so students in an OSE room should all be from OSE classes.

• How can I help my students prep?

  We suggest the best way to prepare for Student Solve is to work through your curriculum with your students and build strong routines of collaboration and iteration throughout the year. The problems are designed with the curriculum routines in mind, so teachers with the most success have built strong curriculum-based routines. There is no way to prep for the specific problem itself, since it will be revealed to you in real-time!

• What is an example of the type of problem my students will solve?

  A bike company was having a big problem with bikes getting damaged during delivery. Your students could come up with the best-padded bike box ever. Or they could do what the company actually did and come up with an adaptive solution – making their boxes look like they contained TVs, so they were handled more cautiously during delivery.

• What materials will I need?

  Two devices to connect to your industry mentor via Zoom – one set up facing the classroom for whole-group discussion and one for teams to meet individually with mentors. Plus a Google-connected device per team to access a Google site with Google Suite resources and tools day-of.

• How do we figure out lunch day-of?

  Lunch is built into the Student Solve agenda from 12:20 to 1:00 pm, during the closing session. Students eat in the classroom while watching the closing, so plan for lunch to happen in your room rather than the cafeteria. Many teachers have students grab lunch from the cafeteria and bring it back up to the classroom. Since this is likely different from your school’s usual lunch time, coordinate with your building leadership and cafeteria staff as early as possible.