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BUSINESS PLAN

I.  Objective

To provide a central site where high school students running elementary school math and science clubs or interested in starting such clubs can share and exchange resources and information.

II.  Target Audience

Science Club Commons's main target audience is high school students interested in science and math.  The website may also be of interest to teachers, companies, and scientists and engineers who would like to support and contribute to the purpose of the site.

III.  Motivations Behind the Website

Through my personal experiences as a high school student starting an elementary school math club several years ago, I began to feel that there could be substantial utility and potential in a website that could bring together resources and materials for such clubs in one central site.

One of the biggest challenges my fellow students and I experienced in running our club was for the several of us to crawl the web and come up with interesting, engaging, and educational worksheets and activities on a weekly basis – especially considering the year-to-year rollover of kids who stayed in the club for multiple years.  At the same time, we were certainly not alone; high school-run elementary school math and science clubs exist all over the country, and many put in the same isolated efforts to create materials for their clubs.  I believe a website that enables such geographically-disparate students to network and exchange materials, ideas, and experiences with like-minded peers can be very valuable, and my hope is for Science Club Commons to provide this service.

In a broader sense, I also hope that the establishment of a site such as Science Club Commons will encourage more high school students to start elementary school-level math and science clubs.  These clubs can have a significant impact on elementary school children in nurturing or inspiring their interest in math and science, and I believe there is great potential for the enormous population of high school math and science students to give back to their community through this avenue, whether individually or as clubs and honor societies.

IV.  Direct Costs

A.  Site Space:  estimated $250 / year
There is currently no cost for site space as Science Club Commons is hosted on my personal Stanford webspace.  However, should this space no longer be available, or should I decide to move the website to an external host for ease of accessibility, there will be an estimated $250 per year (about $20 per month) cost to maintain the site.  I am willing to fund this cost for the foreseeable future; eventually, corporate sponsors or individual donors could also cover the cost.

B.  Maintenance Time: approx. 1-2 hours / week
There can be substantial time involved in maintaining this site, especially if the site grows larger.  In the site’s current state, approximately 1-2 hours per week will be required to check and upload submitted materials, organize the database, moderate the forum, and update site content such as the “club highlight” feature.  This commitment may grow to approximately 5 hours per week if the site expands.  I am willing to undertake the full commitment for the foreseeable future. Eventually, it may be desirable for others to assist with this responsibility, such as personal acquaintances or even select members of the user base itself (see below).

V.  Sustaining a Successful Site

A. Sustaining Site Usage

Site Maintenance:  I am currently willing to undertake the responsibility of maintaining the Science Club Commons site.  For the future, I am considering implementing a “rotating maintainer” scheme where a different high school club from the user base holds this responsibility each year.  At the end of a year, the club passes the responsibility on to another club that applies for the position.  While this scheme has some risks in that it would be highly dependent on the user base, it could also strengthen the self-sustaining ability of the site as a new generation of younger students takes over every few years, and enable users to feel more involved.

Encouraging user activity:

Contributor Levels: I believe a system awarding users different contributor titles based on their contributions to the resource database could encourage user contribution, especially as the site attempts to get established.  For example, clubs who contribute 10 worksheets can be deemed “Pascal Contributors,” and those who contribute 25 worksheets, “Einstein Contributors.”  The title recognition itself can be a source of motivation for users, but as the site develops the titles may come with additional benefits such as scholarship opportunities from corporate sponsors, or “Club of the Month” honors.

Scholarships and Awards: I hope to encourage further user activity through the current “Club Highlight” section and future “Club of the Month” awards for active clubs.  Once companies and individual donors offer support to the site, scholarships and material awards such as books and calculators can also be given to particularly outstanding clubs.

Advertising:  Advertisement through Facebook ads will reach many potential high school-age users, as will word of mouth and mailing lists such as the National Math Honor Society and Science Bowl.

B. Sustaining Site Quality

Site Maintenance:  The goal of the individuals maintaining the site, currently myself, is to ensure the quality of the resources and discussion on the site. These duties include removing inaccurate problems in the “Resource Share” section and inappropriate comments in the forum.

Resource Quality:  One of the site maintainer’s responsibilities is to check the general quality of the materials being submitted to the Resource Share section.  In the future, individuals such as teachers and scientists can also volunteer to help check and edit materials for further validity, and user feedback and ratings can be solicited to provide further information for future users.

User Registration:  The main features of this site (Resource Share and Forum) will be limited to registered users, hopefully establishing a base of more serious users. 

VI.  Comparison with Existing Sites*

There are currently many sites available that have collections of math and science problems or activities.  Some more prominent ones, occuring at the top of Google searches or funded by reputable organizations, are “The Science Club” (http://scienceclub.org) and “The Franklin Institute” (http://www.fi.edu/school/math2/index.html).  The RHL School (http://www.rhlschool.com/math.htm) is more unique in that it provides ready-made worksheets for teachers and parents to use.  However, all of these sites represent one-way flows of information without the dynamic growth potential and multi-way user interaction and exchange that Science Club Commons offers through its online network and community.  Many existing sites are also static collections of data that are not regularly updated. For example, The RHL School has not been updated since 2003.  Finally, these sites typically only have one form of material presentation, either ready-made worksheets or individual problems.  Science Club Commons eventually hopes to introduce multiple options such as ready-made worksheets, individual problems, and even a dynamic worksheet-maker tool that will greatly enhance the user experience.

More importantly, there currently exists no site to my knowledge aimed directly at high school students starting elementary school clubs.  Texas State (http://www.txstate.edu/mathworks/teacher/kidsmath/clubsuggestions.html) gives suggestions to high school students on how to start a math club at their high school, but I was unable to find significant resources for high school students interested in starting a community-service elementary school club.  The sites in the previous paragraph provide useful collections of math and science problems and activities, but none of them are tailored optimally for direct integration into elementary-school level clubs.

Science Club Commons aims to fill this gap, and is unique its encompassment of all major aspects of starting and running an elementary school math or science club.  In one central site, it provides both information on how to start such a club and resources for sustaining the club – presented in a user-friendly way and targeted directly for use in elementary school clubs – as well as a discussion forum and recognition opportunities that offer encouragement, support, and a sense of community for its users.

*Note: A thorough study of Science Club Commons's webspace can be found here: Analysis of Webspace. This study was conducted after the writing of this initial business plan and provides an important supplement to the plan's comparison section.

Page last updated 06.08.08 by Serena Yeung