Science Labs Plus
For my venture, I have created a fictitious online software program called Science Labs Plus. This program sets students up for success by giving them the correct lab format, where they can easily fill in all of the steps of the scientific method for any experiment they can dream up. The program even offers data collection tools that allow one to collect real-time data for pH, salinity, temperature, motion, etc. Furthermore, the final product is printed to PDF for easy submission to teachers, and sharing with group members, who can work collaboratively online together on the report.
Please click on the following link to view my website on Science Labs Plus: http://christinemargaretc.wixsite.com/sciencelabsplus. This site includes my elevator and venture pitches.
Reflection
This ETEC 522 course on Ventures in e-Learning Technologies has caused me to reflect upon how business and education are related. I have often wondered about how we can get more technology into the K-12 classroom, and the answer often appears to be branding.
The founder needs to consider if his/her core beliefs are more in line with business or education because the founder’s values will certainly influence the direction of the company, how decisions will be made, and how resources will be allocated. In the education world, the best interests of the students should always be at the core.
For my Science Labs Plus venture, my customer is really the school board and the classroom educator, and consequently the student. The success of Science Labs Plus will be determined by reviews of teachers, who will see improvement in their students’ creativity, understanding of the scientific method, and more professional products for student lab reports.
There are many other factors to impact the adoption of product, such as size of school, previous experience with product, training accompanied with the product, and online technical support. Therefore, although Science Labs Plus is an excellent product in theory, it would face problems with implementation at the board level. It is difficult to say whether school boards of individual schools would be willing to purchase the product. I would like to be offer a free trial version to get them hooked. In my pitches, I am targeting the educator because they have the power to influence their administrators and school boards.
For my venture platform, I decided to use a wix website to give the pitch a structured approach with headings for the introduction, marketing, investing, founder, contact information, and references. I feel that this gives the company a more professional, believable look which potential investors would be more likely to buy into.
As a science teacher, I really enjoyed considering how a new technology model could benefit my students. If it really existed, it would be something that I would personally use in the classroom.