Neenah High School Students Design And Market New Products, The Future Of Movies

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If you’ve ever been frustrated by the movie selection at your local cinema, you might be wondering how movies end up there. We talk to the author of a new book that explains how the current trends may shape what makes it to big screens in the years to come. We also hear from a teacher and students from Neenah High School about their INCubator class.

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  • Winnebago County High School Students Compete In 'Shark Tank' Class

    Entrepreneurs pitch business proposals to a panel of investors, convincing them to buy into a new product or service.

    That’s the premise of the hit reality television show “Shark Tank.” But, it’s also the reality for a group of students from Neenah High School enrolled in a “Shark Tank”-like class of their own.

    “It was definitely a little bit nerve-wracking at the beginning,” said Luke Meyer, a student in the class, which is called “INcubator.” “But after we started going and seeing our investors’ faces sort of light up and really understand our ideas, it got a lot more smooth and we gained confidence.”

    Meyer and his classmate Jordan Setterstrom have spent the year creating a product called “Cord Clip,” which protects smartphone charging cords.

    They whittled down to that idea from a list of 20 to 30 problems, what their teacher Dan Putman calls a “bug me” list.

    “You in your daily life and the people around you, you look for things that causes problems or things that bother people,” Putman said.

    Meyer and Setterstrom decided that broken charging cords were a common enough issue that a product to solve it could catch on.

    Neenah’s class was modeled off of a class in Illinois, which Putman observed and loved. He brought the idea back to the school superintendent in Neenah.

    In a few cases, the class has even led to real-life success. A student in a Chicago-area high school INcubator class brought his product, SnapClips, in front of the “Shark Tank” panel and landed an $150,000 investment from Sharks Mark Cuban, Alex Rodriguez and Lori Greiner.

    But more than money or instant success, Putman said the class is about teaching his students real-life skills. They have to come up with their own product designs, and it’s not hypothetical. They take the designs to manufacturers to see how the design might work in real life.

    “I think for us as a school district we see this as what we want education to look like,” he said. “It’s the idea that kids are able to follow a passion and do things in the real world and to be out talking with businesses. To experience those things in this area in this time of their life is probably the most beneficial thing for them.”

    For students like Meyer and Setterstrom, the class has helped them shape their passions, like design work, into a potential career.

    “You’re not walking in, sitting in a desk and listening to a lecture,” Setterstrom said. “You’re actually working on something that you have a passion for. It just makes the class super interesting.”

  • Wisconsin High School Creates Their Own 'Shark Tank' Class

    Students in one Neenah High School class are learning about all the aspects of making a valuable product or service, from brainstorming problems and solutions to making the actual product and pitching it to local professionals. We talk to the teacher and two students about the class experience.

  • What Does The Future Of Movies Look Like?

    Ever found yourself frustrated by the options at your local movie theater? Sure, maybe the occasional Phantom Thread-like art film shows up every now and then amid the numerous superhero movies and endless sequels. But for many film fans, it’s not enough. So why do we have the options that we do? And why is it seemingly more difficult for unique, standalone movies to make it to the big screen these days? A reporter breaks down the state of the movie industry, and how the current trends may shape what makes it to big screens in the years to come.

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Natalie Guyette Producer
  • Chris Malina Producer
  • Dan Putman Guest
  • Ben Fritz Guest

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