Ron Hazelton, The House Doctor presents a mini-case design challenge for Camp BizSmart students
Ron Hazelton has been a national home improvement television personality for fifteen years. He has hosted two national home improvement shows, The House Doctor and Ron Hazelton’s HouseCalls. He’s also been the Home Improvement Editor for ABC’s Good Morning American, hosted The History Channel’s series Hands on History and authored three books on home improvement. Ron hosts the website: www.ronhazelton.com
Ron grew up playing in his father’s workshop and learned, early on, the value and fun of working with his hands. He firmly believes that children who have the opportunity to build things, develop life-long practical problem-solving skills and are better able to make sense of conceptual knowledge such as math and writing by applying it in fun, challenging, real life situations.
Intrigued by this idea, he founded DaniMax Corporation (named for his two young children Danielle and Max) and created iBuild2 is a building system designed for children 9 – 12 that enables them to use safe power tools to cut, shape and fashion a non-wood material into practical projects.
Ron and son Max
Daughter Danielle
The system is designed to engage, entertain and educate pre-teens by giving them a real building experience normally reserved for older teens and young adults. The system uses power tools that won’t cut skin and employs a non-wood (polyurethane) material. Children use power and hand tools to fashion the polyurethane into components and then assemble those components into finished projects.
Part toy, part tool and part learning experience, the iBuild2 system empowers kids by encouraging them do as well as hear and see.
A key marketing objective is to create a series of project kits that would appeal to kids in this target age group. The kits need to be relevant to the age group’s interests, within their level of ability and capable of being made using iBuild2’s tools and material. Interestingly, the enjoyment and satisfaction comes from the actual building of the project. However, the completed project – the end result – provides the motivation and must be something kids ultimately want and find worthwhile.
This mini-design case requires Camp Bizsmart students to look back a few years to their own interests and experiences during their tween years and also use their powers of observation to see what today’s pre-teens find appealing. Then, using this experience, observation and information, develop a real project for the iBuild2 system. Working on this mini-case the students’ at both the Stanford University and Santa Clara University, Camp BizSmart sessions, will practice design and creative innovation brainstorming helping them gain important skills to use when solving their own team’s business challenges. A great benefit for everyone!
Tags: brainstorming, Camp BizSmart, creativity, design, Design Challenge, Good Morning America, Hands on History, hands-on learning, Home Improvement, HouseCalls, ibuild2, innovation, project based learning, real world business challenge, Ron Hazelton, Santa Clara University, Stanford University, The House Doctor, young entrepreneurs