What are the most important 21st Century Skills? This research project finds out by co-designing a board game.

1. A scientific experiment in co-design:
creating collectively a board game
to teach 21st
century skills together
with junior high school students
”Being good in business is the most
fascinating kind of art. Making money
is art and working is art and good
business is the best art.”
- Andy Warhol

2. Research project

This is an outline for a research project to be
done by Nisse Suutarinen, aimed at producing
a PhD thesis in Pedagogical Science
(Kasvatustiede)

Nisse Suutarinen is a M.Sc in mathematics
(graduated in 2005), with pedagogical
qualification to teach mathematics

He also hold a Qualification for Product
Development degree and a Qualification for
Entrepreneur degree

3. Inventor sharing his experiences

Nisse Suutarinen has worked on developing
and commercializion of inventions since 2007

He has filed 4 patent applications and has
arranged 68 000 euros venture capital

At the moment Nisse starts up the company
Kinetricks Oy that commercializes his and his
client's inventions with a born-global strategy

Is there something valuable to share about
these experiences? Yes indeed.

4. The five C's; 21st
Century Skills

Nisse believes the 5 most important skills of 21st
century are:

1) Creativity

2) Collaboration

3) Communication

4) Commitment

And finally: 5) Commercializing

5. Creating a board game

By means of an ”Inventors' Club for Junior High
School Pupils” we can co-design a board game
that teaches those 5C skills

The idea for the board game is given in an
unready form; let the pupils to create a game of
their own!

Business cards are a game object in this game,
other components are free to be invented

6. Getting a touch to the world of
technology

In every Inventors' Club there is a lot of buzz
about technology

In order to give junior high school pupils a
feeling of being a true inventor, the business
cards as a board game object can utilise QR
code and NFC technology

These technologies are an excellent way to
teach software and service design

7. Engaging the audience
- We can have a website www.5cSkills.net (yes
the domain is free) where the project is
happening
- For example, experts interested in the project
can be asked to donate their business card, at
the same time asking if they want to share their
story about 5C skills

8. Documenting the learning process
- In the 5cSkills.net website, all the content
produced by the pupils is documented
- The content produced by the pupils, with the
help of the facilitator Nisse, is also a main
contribution in the PhD thesis
- In the website, it is also possible to show
interaction ideas of the pupils in reality;
assuming some coding resources are available

9. Partnerships
- If the project seems interesting media-wise, it is
possible to create media visibility for the project
- As mentioned, all kinds of experts interested to
support the project are welcomed by allowing
them to give their business card
- http://www.tpuc.fi/ expressed already their initial
interest to support the project; especially
regarding the Commercialization skill

10. The art of multiplication
- There are five classes of assets that can be
multiplied:
1) Physical products
2) Services
3) Content
4) Media formats (such as Big Brother)
5) Software
These classes are taken into account in teaching
commercialization!

11. Business to business
- Young people are familiar with B2C world since
everybody knows what it is like to go to a shop
etc
- On the contrary, B2B world is full of new things
to explore
- Pupils can learn about what kind of consultants
exist (advertising agencies etc)

12. Value chain thinking
- A crucial thing in learning to be a succesful
inventor is to learn to find your right place in
some value chain
- The topic of what kind of value chains exist, is
endless
- How does food end up in stores?
- Using as an example ANY creature we have in
this world, we can teach pupils the art of
commercializing; finding your right place in
some value chain that can make you money

13. The results of the project
- New knowledge about 21st
century skills
- Motivating young people to create and
commercialize
- Producing learning materials for Inventor Clubs

14. Are you interested in collaboration?
- Contact me: Nisse Suutarinen, niansu@iki.fi ,
+358 40 751 6823