Kempsey Adventist School student entrepreneurs wow judges at pitching competition

The students won the Startup Coffs Coast Pitch Competition last week and were awarded $2500 to go towards designing their project.

Their project, Real Time Learning, allows teachers an insight into how ready the class is to learn through two connected apps.

One app runs on an iPad at the door to the classroom, the student is presented with the question 'How ready are you to learn?' with the student picking the emotion that best describes how they are feeling.

The app captures their feedback and presents it in real-time to the second app on the teachers phone, the teacher can then gauge whether the class is ready to start the lesson or if the mood needs improving before they open their books.

Students Ellia, Abby, Joaquin, Josh, Rhy and Alara travelled to Coffs Harbour on August 28 to pitch their project to the Startup Coffs Coast Pitch Competition.

The competition is designed for students to pitch their ideas and win prize money to go towards further developing their design.

Deputy Principal of Kempsey Adventist Primary School, Vanessa Baywood, said the students have worked very hard on the project.

"They gave up a number of lunch times and stayed back after school to work on this project. They really have put a lot of effort into it," she said.

"They're very dedicated about this project."

The group of six students pitched their project to a panel of business experts, an audience of other entrepreneurs, small business owners, potential investors, students and community leaders.

The students came away from the competition with first place in the Youth section, along with $2500 and a number of other prizes. The prize money will go towards further refining of their project before they present at the national level of the Young ICT Explorers Competition on December 7.

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