STEM Center

The reason I choose this specific topic it because reflects a personal experience I

had, I’ve practiced very similar activities while doing it, it was the Learning Launch

tool that I’ve learned a while ago, but now I feel more confident in my information

and improved it in a way that I’ve couldn’t imagine. As mentioned above, I’m going

to use the Learning Launch tool to proceed with my idea. Let me give a quick

summary of what it is.

My idea was to open a STEM center, Its an edutainment center for children aged

between 8-16 to learn the fundamentals skills in Science-Technology-Engineering-

Math. The challenge was to introduce something new to the market, of course,

there are many risks accompanied with every new idea being entered into the

market. I’ve chosen to test my idea directly, getting feedback from parents or even

the children about what they think about it, are they willing to send their children to

my center?

It was the national Children day where all the children were gathering happens in

the city center, playing, singing, dancing and celebrating the day. It was the perfect

time and place to get their feedback, I managed to take a small cubicle on the

street to show and present my idea. I bought a few types of equipment just to

demonstrate the idea so my customers can come and try it.

First I tested my hypothesis about the need for such a center, I always thought that

our education system misses some key elements in the way they teach, it was

mostly theoretical, my solution was to mix the fun and the learning process together

by creating new experience in my center.

To be sure about not getting caught in the confirmation bias loop, I asked for my

friends to work in shifts in the cubicle, people with different visions and background

to interact with customers, I’ve asked each one them to collect the customers

feedback in an excel sheet since it was only a day-long project, we tried to get as

much as feedback possible and filter it out later and organize it. In which after it we

did a GroupThinking process to construct the perfect data sheet in which my

decision will be based on. Some criteria we used were the price(how much they are

willing to pay), the necessity of such center, the recommendation of what they might

want to find in the center while visiting, and some others. Along with all of this, I was

watching how everyone was interacting with the equipment (mostly scientific toys,

puzzles, riddles, ….etc.) made some notes based on it.

The results were shocking, although my assumptions were very high in the need of

such center, it seemed everybody was showing interest at the first look, but the

continues and the long-run survival rate wasn’t what I’ve expected. After some

researches in such business combined the results of the Learning Launch

experiment I’ve done, my overall decision was not to proceed in the way I was

planning, something had to change in it.

I decided to Pivot my idea, not just a center where children can come to play and

learn, but they can also be enrolled in specialized courses in Science-Technology-

Engineering-Math, courses with certificates and decided to add “Coding” lessons

for children as well.

My plans are now bigger and more enhanced, I have a complete plan now to

demonstrate. My next target is to ask again my potential customer about the ides

and give them a sense in which they can try it again.

