Paddle Up
By:  Casey Wollenzier

Project at a Glance :

This project involves working with a local pickleball paddle company in Holland that was started by a former West Ottawa student. Students will learn how to play pickleball and then dive into a project.      
 
Driving Question:

How do we get school kids (K-5) interested in playing more pickleball?           

Standards:

• ​Communication
• Cooperation
• Collaboration

Team / Culture Building:

• Creative DNA ​

• Raft Protocol 
• Collaboration Tower 
• Hashtag Moodboard 

• ​​What I Value activity

​Entry Event:

• Students will be learning how to play pickleball and taking a trip to Revlon Sports to learn about the local paddle company. 

Field Trip

• Use the Observation Rubric for feedback.

Stakeholders:

• Students
• Employees of Revlon Sports
• Local pickleball players
• Lakewood Elementary Staff and Principal

Empathy Building:

• Stakeholder Map ​

• Empathy Map - Template
• Create a Pains & Gains Map

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Students conducted interviews with a variety of people to gain insights. Including:  Pat Collins - Panther Pathways Coordinator, Pete Schwallier - WO Varsity Tennis Coach, Todd Tulgetske - Assistant superintendent West Ottawa, and Jorge Capastany - Manager of Dewitt Center at Hope College.​

Visit from Mr. Collins

Incubation:

• Idea Quota ( 100 Ideas)​​

• Speedboat 
• Love/Break Up Letter 
• 5 Whys 
• Incubation Rubric
• Collecting Data for West Ottawa

Checking in:

• Feedback Rubric 
• Squiggle Birds​

• Crazy 8’s
• Anti - Problem
• Analyzing Analogies
• Rip/Slap/Pass

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Solution Building:

• $100 Test​​​

• Group & Saturate

Critique and Revision: 

• Critical Friends​
• NUFF Test

Authentic Audience:

• Students
• Employees of Revlon Sports
• Local pickleball players
• Lakewood Elementary Staff and Principal

Final Presentation:

• We had parents, WO staff members, community members, our business partners and a tennis pro at our presentation.

Revolin Sports was a great business to partner with. So incredibly positive and willing to help us.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• Use the Fast Rubrics for feedback.
• Feedback Rubric 
• Complete the Validation Google Form​
  
• "I love how you thought about the business aspect of the project as well as the driving question of how to grow the sport. That isn't easy to do." ~ Greta     "Thank you so much for the invite! I am always eager to help in any way I can and more importantly I too am so impressed and fulfilled when visiting such a fine group of students! Thank you for all your wonderful work with these students!" ~ Pete  

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:
​
Casey Wollenzier teaches 3rd - 5th grade Advanced English at Lakewood Elementary, West Ottawa Public Schools.

     “Go Big or Go Home”. "Often students are worried about constraints when learning or developing ideas. I love encouraging them to put these struggles behind them and to come up with ideas where there are no constraints. ( Don’t be afraid to think big and outside of the box) When doing PBL units let your ideas soar and remember there are so many solutions and possibilities. In school, we often teach our students there is only one answer.  Design Thinking encouarages students to all be heard, think big and not to let anything stand in their way of  creating the solutions they are passionate about. ​