Product Menu Board

Be sure you have a clear goal. What can you, as a Senior in Akron Public Schools, do to raise awareness or assist with a problem or issue in your community? Plan to invest about ten to fifteen hours of your time before January 18, 2018, to create and implement your product. Below are some ideas to get you started or click on Product Brainstorming to the right.

Volunteer: Call around to find volunteer opportunities that you can put your effort into. Get friends or family to come along and help too! A good site to search for causes that are important to you in Akron is https://www.volunteermatch.org/ .

Host a lunch table: Pass out flyers or materials to your classmates or make items to sell to raise money or funds for your cause. For example, you could ask students to bring in donations to go to an animal shelter (once you find out what they need) or gently used clothing for a homeless shelter.

Job shadow: Increase your personal skill set and experience by job shadowing. Set up an appointment with an adult to learn about his/her career on the job. Gather and share materials and what you have learned as a result.

Mentoring: Help or assist younger students, such as creating a welcome video for incoming freshmen.

Public involvement: Attend or speak at a school board meeting, student council, or city council meeting expressing concerns about an issue. Start a letter writing campaign to the state or federal government.

Create an online resource: Using online resources is one of the best ways to get your information out there. Some sites you could use are:

• Create a website: https://www.wix.com/ or http://sites.google.com
• Make a video or photo slideshow: https://www.wevideo.com/ or create a Youtube library. (Here is an example senior project video)
• Create a poster: https://www.postermywall.com/
• Start or share a charity fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/
• Create a tutorial with Screecastify: https://www.screencastify.com/
• Make an infographic: https://www.canva.com/
• Write a song: https://soundcloud.com/
• Publish a short story or poem: https://www.booksie.com/
• Use social media: Create a twitter, instagram, or facebook group/topic that gains followers to discuss your issue.

Student product idea example:

Joe is a 12th grader in Akron. He lives on a street where a house fire recently took place. Joe used to mow their lawn and knows the family well. Although no one was hurt, he found out later that they did not have any smoke alarms in the house. He talked to a few of his classmates and realized several people, including his own family members, do not have smoke alarms either. Joe has decided to make this his Senior Inquiry. He did some research through his local fire department and found out that they, through the Red Cross, have free fire alarms to install. Joe wants to get this information out to the people in his neighborhood, because he doesn't think they are aware of the program. He is going to create a poster with key information about the program to hang in his local grocery store, library, and schools. He plans on sharing the information with his family and friends online as well.