The Passion Pitch:

Imagining Your Future Selves

 

STEAM Challenge

 

Submission Due Date: April 5, 2024

 

Designed for Middle School and High School Students

 

Designed in collaboration with Gabriel Rshaid, The Learner Space

Table of Contents ·      The Challenge ·      Assumptions and Logistics ·      Process ·      Meridian Support Resources ·      Presentation of Learning ·      Evaluation Rubric ·      Essential Questions ·      Student Proficiencies ·      Curricular Correlations – Common Core and National Health Education Standards

Range of Activities ·      Exploration of Personal Future Opportunities and Aspirations ·      Development of Real World Initiative for Community Impact ·      Vision, Mission and Plan for Action or Business ·      Development of Story to Persuade: Pitch Video ·      Digital Literacy Skills: Podcast pre-production, production, and post-production ·      Human Skills: Collaboration, Creativity, Critical thinking and Presentation Skills.

The Challenge

What do you want to be when you grow up?

That’s a loaded question these days! We used to know the options, the choices, the opportunities. But now, the nature of the post-secondary professional world is changing rapidly. Education is fundamentally based on preparing students for a somewhat predictable working environment. That predictability is evaporating. So, given the dramatic changes society is undergoing, for what are we, the teachers, preparing, you, our students?

The answer: a culture of omnipresent change.

Ok, cool. But what does this even mean? How do you prepare for a world that you can’t quite envision because it’s constantly shifting? Peering out into your future, what do they see? Among other things, we suspect, a complexly vast world peering over several enticing but unknown precipices, as parallel to your smaller, personal world characterized by a foggy vision of …uncertainty.

That uncertainty about your future; that unpredictability about your personal professional trajectories, has ramifications. Regarding adolescent identity, the American Psychological Association (APA) notes the following: “Identity refers to more than just how adolescents see themselves right now; it also includes what has been termed the “possible self”—what individuals might become and who they would like to become” (American Psychological Association 2002).

The Passion Pitch challenges you to work in teams to concretely imagine who and what you want to be in the very near future, with an eye toward creating positive community impact. The Passion Pitch digital stories will be about starting a new company post-secondary education, or launching an initiative – an action, a movement – right now to catalyze change and thought.

Narrative Framework – The Passion Pitch is not your everyday straight-up digital storytelling Challenge. The Passion Pitch asks you to explore the tenuous bridge between that which is within you and the everchanging world outside of you. How do you articulate that bridge and then create it? That requires both discipline and flexibility in the storytelling structures and The Passion Pitch provides three narrative frameworks to help guide you to your destinations.

1. The Pitch/ Commercial/ PSA – These short formats are all about creating stories designed to persuade; designed to move the viewers from an existing attitude or belief to a new attitude or belief that will, ideally lead, to action: a new behavior.
2. Move Trailer/Show Open – Both of these formats are designed to simultaneously introduce an idea, while building intrigue. Usually quick cutting and non-linear in nature, they demand visual creativity and cohesion, while balancing narrative complexity with clarity.
3. Vlog/Day in the Life – These formats are based in a personal journey; a journey that takes the viewer to an unexpected place, while traveling along familiar pathways. Intimate and casual, inviting and relatable, these formats seek to create a strong identification with the audience in order to win their support and engagement.

Teams can choose one of these three basic narrative formats – all of which will be fully defined and detailed in the Process to follow – for your Passion Pitch.

But hold on, hold on. These stories are designed to be thought-provoking, engaging and shared widely. Therefore, they must be …fun. Funny, perhaps. They must embody some of the qualities of unpredictability itself. So, there is a surprise twist to each of these stories. In each digital story, the teams must find a way to integrate one surprise twist, from the list below, into their Passion Pitch.

 

In the grid below, to get you started, you must pick one idea from each of the three columns. Take a look and start brainstorming.

Suggested Subjects	Formats/Genres	Twists (minimum: 20 seconds)
Food/Agriculture	Pitch / Commercial/ PSA	Dancing
Social Media	Movie Trailer / Show Open	Singing
Gaming	Vlog / Day in the Life	Mysterious, wrapped box…to be opened
Energy		Animation
Transportation		A Parade
Education		Two Outlandish Costumes
Sports and Recreation		Three Original Flags
Animals		Silence
Urban Planning/Construction		Gymnastics/acrobatics
Water		Rapping
Media		The making of original art
The Arts		Puppetry
Medicine		Glorious Nature
Engineering		A surmountable …Wall

Deliverables Include:

• The Passion Pitch (this is the only Meridian Stories deliverable)
• Pitch Summary (at the teacher’s discretion)
• Story Outline (at teacher’s discretion)

 

Assumptions and Logistics

• Time Frame – We recommend that this digital storytelling project takes place inside of a three to five-week time frame.

• Length – All Meridian Stories submissions should be under 4 minutes in length, unless otherwise specified.
• Slate – All digital storytelling projects must begin with a slate that provides: 
  • the title of the piece;
  • the name of the school submitting;      
  • the wording ‘Permission Granted’ which gives Meridian Stories the right to a) publicly display the submission in question on, as linked from, related to or in support of Meridian Stories digital media; and b) use or reference it for educational purposes only, in any and all media; and
  • We strongly recommend that students do not put their last names on the piece either at the start or finish, during the credits.

• Submissions – Keep in mind that each school can only submit three submissions per Competition (so while the entire class can participate in any given Challenge, only three can be submitted to Meridian Stories for Mentor review and scoring).
• Teacher Reviews – All reviews by the teacher are at the discretion of the teacher and all suggested paper deliverables are due only to the teacher. The only deliverable to Meridian Stories is the digital storytelling project.
• Teacher’s Role and Technology Integrator – While it is helpful to have a Technology Integrator involved, they are not usually necessary: the students already know how to produce the digital storytelling project. And if they don’t, part of their challenge is to figure it out. They will! The teacher’s primary function in these Challenges is to guide the students as they engage with the content.  You don’t need to know editing, sound design, shooting or storyboarding: you just need to know your content area, while assisting them with organization and time management issues. See the Teachers Role section of the website for further ideas about classroom guidance.
• Digital Rules/Literacy – We strongly recommend that all students follow the rules of Digital Citizenry in their proper usage and/or citation of images, music and text taken from other sources. This recommendation includes producing a citations page at the end of your entry, if applicable. See the Digital Rules area in the Meridian Stories Digital Resource Center section of the site for guidance.
• Location – Try not to shoot in a classroom at your school. The classroom, no matter how you dress it up, looks like a classroom and can negatively impact the digital story you are trying to tell.
• Collaboration – We strongly recommend that students work in teams of 3-4: part of the educational value is around building collaborative skill sets. But students may work individually.

 

Process

Below is a suggested breakdown for the students’ work.

During Phase I student teams will:

• As a team, the place to start is to identify a common passion that will bind you together. It can begin with a discussion that leads with the question, ‘What do you want to be when you finish schooling, whether that be high school, college or graduate work: what do you want to be?’ From there, find common ground. Part of this Challenge is about adaptability and compromise and collaboration. This is about a team’s passion, not a singular person’s. You need to find that.
• Translate your common passion into a professional journey, mission, or destination. Each team is challenged to create a short digital story about a business or collective action that they want to start – for which they want funding and support – that is designed to a) reflect a vision of who they want to be in the very near future; and b) positively impact their community, near and/or far.
  • The choices in Column A are suggestive. You may come up with your own subject for this pitch.
• Once you have a clear direction – a project or initiative – write up your vision for this. Some questions to help guide this process include:
  • What is it called?
  • What are the two driving objectives of this initiative? Keep in mind that community – or regional – impact is meant to be a part of your thinking.
  • What do you need to get this project going? Correlatively, it would be good to know how much money you anticipate needing to get this project going.
  • How long will it take before launch?
  • What is the process – step-by-step – to move from scratch to realization?
• Once you have a general sense of the answers to these questions, write up a summary of these ideas. Putting this all on paper helps to concretize your passion – your entrepreneurial, mission-driven idea – and move onto the next step. One approach to this summary is to do this as a timeline.
  • Teacher’s Option: Pitch Summary – Teachers may require that teams hand in a two to three page Pitch Summary, addressing the questions above, for feedback and review.
• By the end of Phase I, teams should have a clearly outlined understanding of their passion pitch. Keep in mind that this idea will most likely be a combination of reality and the aspirational; an idea that could happen but is also driven by hope and reaching far. In short, dream big. Now, … it’s time to tell a story about that dream.

 

During Phase II student teams will:

• Take a look at columns B and C and make some choices as to the kind of story you want to tell. Which narrative format best encompasses your idea; is best suited to its content? And which twist …makes your team laugh and gets you all pumped up?
• A quick note on these three formats:
  • The vlog: A good vlog has a theme. That theme can certainly be about talking to farmer’s market retailers or working through a favorite video game, but the story being told needs to take the viewer on a journey with the vlogger in that activity. The goal is to get your viewers to go on a journey with you; not watch you during your daily activities. The driving force behind successful vlogging is character. This format leads with personality. The story that is being told begins and ends with the vlogger(s) – you and your team. The vlogger(s) needs to matter; needs to give the audience a reason to care about them. And finally, as with most storytelling formats, the next level beyond theme and journey are the details of the story itself. The beginning, middle, and end; the obstacles and the climaxes. Vlogging is no different but can be harder: finding the drama in the details …of an idea and the deeply familiar.
  • PSAs – PSAs are a particular breed of commercial that are not designed to sell a product, like commercials, but, … an attitude: they are a format designed to change people’s attitudes about an issue, like eating healthily or appreciating and respecting diversity. That is what you are attempting to do as well: not change so much as shape an attitude about your idea. You are selling an idea and you want your PSA to open up your audience’s mind to that idea. Not buy the idea – that will take several steps – just consider it, seriously. The Ad Council is a fantastic website that features many PSAs. To find a PSA-driven narrative strategy that works for you, we recommend screening several campaigns, take notes and decide: what is working and what isn’t? Then adapt those strategies for your PSA.
  • Movie Trailer/Show Open – This is a really fun format. It’s both linear and non-linear simultaneously. It is designed to both tell a story, while teasing you want to know more. It’s often fast-paced with many cuts. The Movie Trailer is specifically about providing you with enough information about plot, idea, and character, to entice you to desperately want to know how the story ends. The Show Open can be more of a mood piece that is designed to give you the flavor of a show, as well as point to a few key components, such a setting, character, or the central conceit. Either can play it literally or abstractly. In both cases, you will most likely want to use music/percussion to drive this from start to finish. Music and sound are especially important in this narrative format.
• Now choose your twist.
• At this point, you have a lot of information. Your idea and its component parts; your narrative format; and your twist. You also want to look at your ‘self’ in this idea. Part of the driving force here is this idea of ‘imagining one’s future self.’ Are ‘you’ a part of the story your team has created?
• Outline your story in terms of a) the sequence of events with key words attached to each part; and b) the sequence of shots/visuals that you will be shooting/creating to communicate this story. Digital storytelling is ultimately a visual form of communication, so you need to think visually. Look to break it down to eight parts, at most.
  • Teacher’s Option: Story Outline – Teachers may require that teams hand in an outline of the story that they will be shooting, for feedback and review
• Further translate the story outline into a shooting plan. If you need to create a storyboard, do that.
  • Simultaneous to these last couple of steps, your team should be gathering images – with all permissions, as necessary, in place – to edit into your live shoot.
• Draft the script. Read it aloud, and re-draft, Repeat and repeat again until you are really happy with the sound, pace, and flow of the script.

 

During Phase III student teams will:

• Pre-produce the shoot:
• Scout locations for shooting (if this is being shot on location).
• Create costumes, props, and other set pieces, as needed.
• Rehearse and time out the whole process. Cut and revise the script as necessary.
• Shoot the video.
• Edit the video, adding stills and graphics as desired.
• Post-produce the video, adding music and sound effects as desired, keeping in mind the power that music and sound can add to your story, when used strategically.

 

 

Meridian Support Resources

Meridian Stories provides two forms of support for the student teams: 1.    Meridian Innovators and Artists – This is a series of three to four minute-videos featuring artists and innovative professionals who offer important advice, specifically for Meridian Stories, in the areas of creativity and production. 2.    Media Resource Collection – These are short documents that offer student teams key tips in the areas of creativity, production, game design and digital citizenry. Recommended review, as a team, for this Competition include:
Meridian Innovators and Artists	Media Resource Collection
Nonfiction – Margaret Heffernan   Multimedia in Theatre – Roger Bechtel   Sound Design – Chris Watkinson   Editing – Tom Pierce	Creative Brainstorming Techniques   On the Doctrine of Fair Use   Creating a Commercial/PSA   Producing – Time Management

Presentation of Learning

Meridian Stories is a proud partner of the non-profit Share Your Learning, which is spearheading the movement of over five million students to publicly share their work as a meaningful part of their educational experience.

The workforce considers Presentational Skills to be a key asset and we encourage you to allow students to practice this skill set as often as possible. These digital storytelling projects provide a great opportunity for kids to practice their public presentational skills. This can be achieved in a remote learning environment by inviting parents to a Zoom/Google/Skype screening of the student’s digital stories.

According to Share Your Learning, Presentations of Learning (POL) promote…

• Student Ownership, Responsibility & Engagement. POLs can serve as a powerful rite of passage at the end of [a project]. By reflecting on their growth over time in relation to academic and character goals, grounded in evidence from their work, students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning. Just as an artist wants their portfolio to represent their best work, POLs encourage students to care deeply about the work they will share.
• Community Pride & Involvement. When peers, teachers and community members come together to engage with student work and provide authentic feedback, they become invested in students’ growth and serve as active contributors to the school community.
• Equity. POLs ensure that all students are seen and provide insight into what learning experiences students find most meaningful and relevant to their lives.

Meridian Stories’ own research indicates this to be a really useful exercise for one additional reason:  Students actually learn from their peers’ presentations – it is useful to hear a perspective that is not just the teacher’s.

It is with this in mind that we you encourage you to plan an event – it could be just an end-of-the-week class or an event where parents, teachers and student peers are invited – to allow the students to showcase their Meridian Stories’ digital storytelling projects. For more free resources that will support this planning, visit Share Your Learning.

Evaluation Rubric – The Passion Pitch

CONTENT COMMAND
Criteria	1 – 10
The Idea	The idea that drives the Passion Pitch is well thought out, practical and aspirational
Community Impact	The Passion Pitch is clearly and creatively designed to positively impact the community
The Shape of the Idea	The shape of the idea – how it starts and evolves, and your role inside of it – is multi-dimensional and clear
STORYTELLING COMMAND
Criteria	1 – 10
Genre	Your command of the genre of storytelling – be it Vlog, PSA or Movie Trailer/Show Open – is both comprehensive and creatively applied
Engagement and Persuasion	The narrative excels at hooking the audience into the key elements of the idea, delivering both information and mystery, leaving one wanting to know more.
Character	Your use of voice and characters to pitch the idea is compelling and thoughtful
The Twist	The integration of the twist into your story is poignant, seamless and entertaining
MEDIA COMMAND
Criteria	1 – 10
Visualization	Your mix of shots and imagery to both convey the idea and persuade us of its worth is exemplary
Sound Design	Voice, sound effects, and music are used to great effect, heightening the tension and storytelling, while illuminating the idea
Editing	The digital story is edited with just the right pacing to result in an engaging viewing experience
HUMAN SKILLS COMMAND (teachers only)
Criteria	1-10
Collaborative Thinking	The group demonstrated flexibility in making compromises and valued the contributions of each group member.
Creativity and Innovation	The group brainstormed many inventive ideas and was able to evaluate, refine and implement them effectively
Initiative and Self-Direction	The group set attainable goals, worked independently, and managed their time effectively, demonstrating a disciplined commitment to the project

Essential Questions

1. Who do you want to be when you reach adulthood?
2. How do you balance practicality with aspirations in order to convey a possible self, a possible and reachable future?
3. How do you actively listen to others to understand their dreams and combine them with yours to create something new?
4. What are the primary elements that go into creating a viable business enterprise that is designed to, partially, positively impact the community?
5. How do you tell a persuasive story designed to engage and elicit further interest?
6. How has immersion in the creation of original content and the production of digital media – exercising one’s creativity, critical thinking, and digital literacy skills – deepened the overall educational experience?

Student Proficiencies

1. The student will deeply explore their future possible selves in terms of who and what they want to be post-secondary school.
2. The student will actively weigh and debate the aspirational with the practical to land on a plan or pathway that is possible for their future selves and community.
3. The student will have an increased awareness of the challenges and rewards of team collaboration.
4. The student will develop and organize an informal business plan for an initiative designed to reflect both their own interests and those of the community.
5. The student will learn how to construct a narrative designed to engage and persuade, inside of a defined narrative framework.
6. The student will utilize key Human Skills, with a focus on creativity, critical thinking, and digital literacy, in their process of transforming personal and career readiness content into an original and constructive plan of action.

 

Curricular Correlations

The Passion Pitch Challenge addresses a range of curricular objectives that have been articulated by two nationally recognized sources:

1. The Common Core Curricular Standards – English Language Arts &; and
2. The National Health Education Standards – This is the CDC set of standards and while ‘health’ is not the explicit objective of this Challenge, the mental health of the student is deeply integrated into this work. As you read the NHES standards below think of the word ‘health’ as referring to ‘mental health.’

 

Below please find the standards that are being addressed, either wholly or in part.

 

Common Core Curricular Standards

English Language Arts Standards

The Standard	8th	9th/10th	11th/12th
RI7   READING INFORMATIONAL TEXT   Integration of Knowledge and Ideas	Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.	Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.	Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
W2   WRITING   Text Types and Purposes	Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.	Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.	Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
W3   WRITING   Text Types and Purposes	Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.	Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.	Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
W4   WRITING   Production and Distribution of Writing	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W5   WRITING   Production and Distribution of Writing	With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.	Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.	Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
W7   WRITING   Research to Build and Present Knowledge	Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.	Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.	Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
SL1   SPEAKING AND LISTENING   Comprehension and Collaboration	Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher- led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.	Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.	Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one- on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
SL5   SPEAKING AND LISTENING   Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas	Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.	Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.	Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
SL6   SPEAKING AND LISTENING   Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas	Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.	Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.	Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
L3   LANGUAGE   Knowledge of Language	Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.	Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.	Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

National Health Education Standards

Standard 4: Students demonstrate effective interpersonal communication skills to enhance health.

 

By the end of 5^th grade…

4.5.3 Demonstrate how to effectively identify and communicate needs, wants, and feelings in healthy ways.

By the end of 8^th grade…

4.8.3 Demonstrate how to effectively identify and communicate needs, wants, and feelings in healthy ways.

By the end of 12th grade…

4.12.3 Demonstrate how to effectively identify and communicate needs, wants, and feelings in healthy ways.

Standard 5: Students demonstrate effective decision-making skills to enhance health.

By the end of 5^th grade…

5.5.1 Identify procedural steps in decision making.

5.5.4 Identify options when making a health-related decision.

5.5.6 Choose a health-promoting option that aligns with personal values when making an effective decision.

 

By the end of 8^th grade…

5.8.1 Examine situations when the procedural steps of decision making are needed.

5.8.8 Choose a health-promoting option when making an effective decision.

By the end of 12th grade…

5.12.1 Analyze situations when the procedural steps of decision making are needed.

5.12.8 Choose a health-promoting option when making an effective decision.

Standard 6: Students demonstrate effective goal-setting skills to enhance health.

 

By the end of 5^th grade…

6.5.6 Implement strategies toward achieving a personal health goal (e.g., tracking progress, setting reminders, taking small steps, overcoming barriers).

6.5.7 Explain that effort, determination, and resilience can help toward achieving a personal health goal.

 

By the end of 8^th grade…

6.8.3 Predict the health and life benefits of reaching a personal health goal.

6.8.4 Develop a detailed plan, with a timeline, for achieving a personal health goal.

6.8.7 Implement strategies toward achieving a personal health goal (e.g., tracking progress, setting reminders, taking small steps, overcoming barriers, and revising the goal based on life circumstances).

6.8.8 Apply effort, determination, and resilience toward achieving a personal health goal.

 

By the end of 12th grade…

6.12.3 Predict the health and life benefits of reaching a personal health goal.

6.12.4 Develop a detailed plan, with a timeline, for achieving a personal health goal.

6.12.7 Implement strategies toward achieving a personal health goal (e.g., tracking progress, setting reminders, taking small steps, overcoming barriers, and revising the goal based on life circumstances).

6.12.8 Apply effort, determination, and resilience toward achieving a personal health goal.