Year 10 take on the Design Ventura challenge

Recently, 18 IGCSE Design Technology students’ performed outstanding ‘Design Ventura Sales Pitches’ in front of a St Andrews Design Specialist Judges panel. Find out the winners and learn more about the challenge below...

Students made full use of the Jo Adamson Theatre for the daunting sales pitch showcasing their roles in the team, enticing presentations and reasoning behind their final designs.

The pitches were visual, creative and very informative!

What is Design Ventura? 

• This is a team challenge where students set out to design, manufacture, budget, market and brand a real-life product. After manufacturing the final product, teams are tasked with a ‘Ventura Style’ pitching event for their designs.

• This is an international competition where the top ten school teams are invited to a pitching event. The winning team is announced at a Celebration Event at the Design Museum and go on to work with a professional design team to develop their idea and see it on sale at the Design Museum Shop.

Why did we choose Design Ventura? 

We have incorporated this competition into our Year 10 IGCSE Design Technology curriculum, taking inspiration from the Project-Based Learning framework we use at Key Stage 3 (Year 7 - 9). This adapted project has allowed our students to:

• Collaborate and understand what it means to contribute to a team in order to succeed. All students have a role, which means they must focus on their area but aid their teammates and develop their research or designs with other people's views, opinions and ideas in mind. 

• Provide a practical and real insight into how it might feel to work in industry, within the Design and Technology field, or any industry where creative and collaborative working is central. 

• Develop independence, time management, adaptability and resilience. 

The Winners of the STA Design Ventura Challenge

A big well done to Dino Plant - Runn, Susan, Opal, SuBin whose product and portfolio will be submitted to the Design Ventura competition.