Frequently asked Questions
MODULE 2 "The Product Development begins"
Who, What, Why, How? Explained below
What will Module 2 accomplish versus Module 1
Module 1 a business school format of education, provides our students the skills and learning to get their own startup going. This is meant to seed creativity, turn unique ideas and business pitches. At the end of this phase 1, teams have been formed and they are converging upon a business plan which is submitted and approved by the class instructor here. At the final session of module1, the teams have gotten feedback on their business plans from the judges panel bringing some real word perspective to their business plans. The original business plans are tweaked and ready at the end of this phase based upon all the feedback. Each team will have entered their final business plans here http://tinyurl.com/EnterYourIdea
Module 2 will use these business plans as a foundation and help the students to turn their ideas into a finished product (or close to). Just like the experience of a startup, Module 2 of our program will provide a collaborative, team oriented learning program to enhance skills and sometimes learn on the fly, even finesse the product vision to ensure we arrive at a great prototype that the world will be excited about and that will serve some great purposes to it's customers.
What is the format of the class?
The class format is a combination of flavors: from the world of Startups and "FLL Lego Robotics"
There are two learning opportunities every week: team meetings and class meetings
- During the week, each team will congregate to have focused product development sessions and make rapid progress under the guidance of parents.
- Every weekend, teams will huddle at their weekly sessions and discuss progress, and present their status and also have working sessions. They will share successes and this weekend gathering will become an opportunity to collaborative with other teams too. If teams are stuck with a specific task or programming element, mentors will seek to help. The weekend class coach will also identify gaps, and provide help as needed. The mentors will seek to provide any help needed such as User Interface design, Coding/programming, building business plans, filing patents, finding funding sources etc. Weekly presentation / status updates by project teams will provide them an opportunity to get feedback from the mentors.
NOTE: Each location will see some variance to the above
Are we expected to meet outside of the regular weekend weekly class?
Yes startup takes hard work! We are recommending at least 10 hours of work every week by each team to make progress with their product development and coding. Teams can pick slots that work for them and a meeting place. Adult supervision (by the two adult parent coaches) is recommended. The Team Coaches help out best as they can and also escalate project issues to the class coach as needed.
How should each team be organized for success?
Not every child is a coder, so leverage the strengths of every child on the team. Distribute the tasks and ensure the team succeeds.
We suggest having a CEO, a team project manager, a Bug-Test Manager etc. - distribute the tasks and create focus
Each team will have two adult parent coaches - yes parents from each team will volunteer for this role
Ideally, every child is exposed to programming during the product development phase
Please see criteria for the pitch fest evaluation below that will provide you insights on emphasis areas
How will my child learn programming in Module 2? I thought Module 2 is an instructional class on programming
Just like startups, the module 2 seeks to provide a collaborative, teaming, self-learning experience.
Teams will learn as they go relying upon online tutorials, online videos, parent coaches and mentors to grow their skills towards building their product.
We will have an initial class to get the students oriented with product building that will cover the following topics:
- Process to create an app and have it available on the app store
- Tutorials/ videos/online learning tools available for self learning (just links)
- Download Software needed for app building
- Walk through an exercise, at the end of which the students will have a finished app
Once this class has kicked-off Module 2, the students will have started their product development in all earnestness
How can my child have access to mentors?
There are 3 levels of mentors
Parent coaches will be Level 1 support for the students
The Class coach (who runs your location) will be Level 2 support for the students
The mentors who are signed-up to help our coders club, the experts, will be Level 3
What tools do you recommend for the app building?
Please see "App building Overview" deck that is shared at http://facebook.com/groups/siliconvalleycoders
Here is a good website to create a simple design of your prototype https://marvelapp.com/
My child is not ready for app building as it is too complicated?
We do have a few young kids in the class who may not be ready for app building
We suggest building a website using tools like weebly.com (drag and drop capabliities) - a website targeted for their customers and picking up from the business plan
When and how will the mentoring sessions be conducted?
Your class instructor will provide you details - varies by location
How will my child have the collaborative teaming learning experience?
Every team will likely have 3 to 5 team members who will collaborate and learn the teaming approach of project building and success
At the weekend weekly class, the following will occur that will promote cross teaming between teams:
- Each team will present their project status
- Each team will present the gap in their project they need help with
- Each team will share their success
- Each team will have a huddle ‘working’ session, perhaps with mentors in the room
How are teams invited to present to the VC panel at the Pitch Fest section of Silicon Valley Youth Tech Day?
The Instructor-coaches from each location will pick out the best 3 teams to invite to present to the VC panel at the June 11th Technology day. A variety of factors will be part of the evaluation process - every team will be considered. A huge component of team success will be progress made with the product development and will be one of the criteria used by the instructor-coaches in picking out their top 3 teams.
Every team will have an opportunity to setup a demo table, trifolds that displays their work so far. We don't expect a finished product, but some sort of a working prototype of their idea will make it a good show and tell.
I would love to mentor. How can I sign-up?
Do you have programming expertise? We are requesting mentorship support for the phase 2 of our program which is mentorship based collaborative teamwork coding/development of your business plan into a prototype/product via a project plan. Sign up here http://tinyurl.com/MentorsSignUp
What is Module 3 of this semester long program?
Module 3 is "Silicon Valley Youth Tech Day" where all the locations converge upon and present their projects. See details here http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/annual-tech-day.html
A key component of what goes on at Tech Day is the Startup Pitch Fest - where teams present their ideas, projects/ finished product to win the grand prize of $1,000, perhaps startup funding from the VC panel. Each coach from the various locations will pick the top 4 projects - based on progress made with the product development - to present to the VC panel.
How are the pitches evaluated at the Silicon Valley Tech Day by the judges panel?
Each presentation is restricted to a total of 5 minutes.
Judges will rate based on the criteria below.
There are 5 components to the evaluation:
- Team work and collaboration: Is this team successful because of strong teaming.
- Idea: How "gripping" is the startup idea proposed by the team
- Business Model: Has the team given the business components enough thought
- Product demo: Where is the product today based on the business pitch that was developed
- Q&A responses: how did the team respond to answering questions
Who, What, Why, How? Explained below
What will Module 2 accomplish versus Module 1
Module 1 a business school format of education, provides our students the skills and learning to get their own startup going. This is meant to seed creativity, turn unique ideas and business pitches. At the end of this phase 1, teams have been formed and they are converging upon a business plan which is submitted and approved by the class instructor here. At the final session of module1, the teams have gotten feedback on their business plans from the judges panel bringing some real word perspective to their business plans. The original business plans are tweaked and ready at the end of this phase based upon all the feedback. Each team will have entered their final business plans here http://tinyurl.com/EnterYourIdea
Module 2 will use these business plans as a foundation and help the students to turn their ideas into a finished product (or close to). Just like the experience of a startup, Module 2 of our program will provide a collaborative, team oriented learning program to enhance skills and sometimes learn on the fly, even finesse the product vision to ensure we arrive at a great prototype that the world will be excited about and that will serve some great purposes to it's customers.
What is the format of the class?
The class format is a combination of flavors: from the world of Startups and "FLL Lego Robotics"
There are two learning opportunities every week: team meetings and class meetings
- During the week, each team will congregate to have focused product development sessions and make rapid progress under the guidance of parents.
- Every weekend, teams will huddle at their weekly sessions and discuss progress, and present their status and also have working sessions. They will share successes and this weekend gathering will become an opportunity to collaborative with other teams too. If teams are stuck with a specific task or programming element, mentors will seek to help. The weekend class coach will also identify gaps, and provide help as needed. The mentors will seek to provide any help needed such as User Interface design, Coding/programming, building business plans, filing patents, finding funding sources etc. Weekly presentation / status updates by project teams will provide them an opportunity to get feedback from the mentors.
NOTE: Each location will see some variance to the above
Are we expected to meet outside of the regular weekend weekly class?
Yes startup takes hard work! We are recommending at least 10 hours of work every week by each team to make progress with their product development and coding. Teams can pick slots that work for them and a meeting place. Adult supervision (by the two adult parent coaches) is recommended. The Team Coaches help out best as they can and also escalate project issues to the class coach as needed.
How should each team be organized for success?
Not every child is a coder, so leverage the strengths of every child on the team. Distribute the tasks and ensure the team succeeds.
We suggest having a CEO, a team project manager, a Bug-Test Manager etc. - distribute the tasks and create focus
Each team will have two adult parent coaches - yes parents from each team will volunteer for this role
Ideally, every child is exposed to programming during the product development phase
Please see criteria for the pitch fest evaluation below that will provide you insights on emphasis areas
How will my child learn programming in Module 2? I thought Module 2 is an instructional class on programming
Just like startups, the module 2 seeks to provide a collaborative, teaming, self-learning experience.
Teams will learn as they go relying upon online tutorials, online videos, parent coaches and mentors to grow their skills towards building their product.
We will have an initial class to get the students oriented with product building that will cover the following topics:
- Process to create an app and have it available on the app store
- Tutorials/ videos/online learning tools available for self learning (just links)
- Download Software needed for app building
- Walk through an exercise, at the end of which the students will have a finished app
Once this class has kicked-off Module 2, the students will have started their product development in all earnestness
How can my child have access to mentors?
There are 3 levels of mentors
Parent coaches will be Level 1 support for the students
The Class coach (who runs your location) will be Level 2 support for the students
The mentors who are signed-up to help our coders club, the experts, will be Level 3
What tools do you recommend for the app building?
Please see "App building Overview" deck that is shared at http://facebook.com/groups/siliconvalleycoders
Here is a good website to create a simple design of your prototype https://marvelapp.com/
My child is not ready for app building as it is too complicated?
We do have a few young kids in the class who may not be ready for app building
We suggest building a website using tools like weebly.com (drag and drop capabliities) - a website targeted for their customers and picking up from the business plan
When and how will the mentoring sessions be conducted?
Your class instructor will provide you details - varies by location
How will my child have the collaborative teaming learning experience?
Every team will likely have 3 to 5 team members who will collaborate and learn the teaming approach of project building and success
At the weekend weekly class, the following will occur that will promote cross teaming between teams:
- Each team will present their project status
- Each team will present the gap in their project they need help with
- Each team will share their success
- Each team will have a huddle ‘working’ session, perhaps with mentors in the room
How are teams invited to present to the VC panel at the Pitch Fest section of Silicon Valley Youth Tech Day?
The Instructor-coaches from each location will pick out the best 3 teams to invite to present to the VC panel at the June 11th Technology day. A variety of factors will be part of the evaluation process - every team will be considered. A huge component of team success will be progress made with the product development and will be one of the criteria used by the instructor-coaches in picking out their top 3 teams.
Every team will have an opportunity to setup a demo table, trifolds that displays their work so far. We don't expect a finished product, but some sort of a working prototype of their idea will make it a good show and tell.
I would love to mentor. How can I sign-up?
Do you have programming expertise? We are requesting mentorship support for the phase 2 of our program which is mentorship based collaborative teamwork coding/development of your business plan into a prototype/product via a project plan. Sign up here http://tinyurl.com/MentorsSignUp
What is Module 3 of this semester long program?
Module 3 is "Silicon Valley Youth Tech Day" where all the locations converge upon and present their projects. See details here http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/annual-tech-day.html
A key component of what goes on at Tech Day is the Startup Pitch Fest - where teams present their ideas, projects/ finished product to win the grand prize of $1,000, perhaps startup funding from the VC panel. Each coach from the various locations will pick the top 4 projects - based on progress made with the product development - to present to the VC panel.
How are the pitches evaluated at the Silicon Valley Tech Day by the judges panel?
Each presentation is restricted to a total of 5 minutes.
Judges will rate based on the criteria below.
There are 5 components to the evaluation:
- Team work and collaboration: Is this team successful because of strong teaming.
- Idea: How "gripping" is the startup idea proposed by the team
- Business Model: Has the team given the business components enough thought
- Product demo: Where is the product today based on the business pitch that was developed
- Q&A responses: how did the team respond to answering questions