Holiday entrepreneurship
Published 8:04 pm Thursday, December 22, 2022
Students in the Engineering Exploration classes at Smithfield High School recently had hands-on practice running a small business by creating and selling plexiglass snowflake ornaments. Students, including Daniel Cooper, left, and Will Rudy, designed the ornaments and developed several prototypes. They gathered product data from focus groups to determine which designs were most appealing to consumers. Once the top designs were identified, students manufactured the ornaments using equipment in the SHS Maker Space and sold their ornaments at the school’s Dec. 13 craft fair. Students interacted with customers and handled all transactions. The project raised $157 from the sale of the ornaments. Manufacturing students participated in the craft fair, selling cutting boards and trivets created in the Maker Space. Their projects netted $260 in sales. Heather Greer is the engineering teacher and Adam Shipman is the teacher for manufacturing. (Submitted photo)