PM Summer Camp for Middle Schoolers

I recently completed the second of what I hope will be a long series of Project management Camps for middle school kids. This one was especially nice. All participants had parents deeply involved with project management (engineers, IT professionals, bio-scientists, etc). I had them mornings for a week (afternoons were scheduled for swimming, skating, etc). These kids really caught on! They developed two responses to a proposal to do something regarding the planet Mars. They developed charters, a solid scope statement, objectives, assumptions and constraints. They then worked through a budget and schedule. Although not everything was according to PMBOK, they did understand how it all fits together. On Wednesday of the week, I took them on a field trip to PMI Global Headquarters in Newtown Square, PA. They had a great time there learning about the profession and meeting with several of the staff members. PMI gave them each a jump drive and lots of food. On the last day they presented their plans using PowerPoint to campers, parents, and College staff.  Both plans assumed humans were already colonizing the planet Mars. One group decided to build the first fast-food restaurant on mars; the other a sports stadium that would take advantage of the martian gravity to host extreme sports. Money for that project was expected to be made by selling broadcasts of the events to Earth.

Try doing this where you live. It is a magical, humbling experience and a great way to continue the profession (you can earn PDUs for it, too). Email me for copies of the campers' PowerPoints and some pictures. I can also offer tips on setting a camp in motion (contact me by commenting on this posting or directly to poplos@dtcc.edu).