I came by this story, which made me think of Sir Ken's advocacy for group work to promote creativity. The reporters at Planet Money decided that the were going to create and sell a T-shirt from scratch, just as an exercise in how you would do it. They started out by buying some bales of cotton, and then looking for someone to spin them into thread and t-shirts, only to get advice that you want to work backwards from the end product, rather than forward from the cotton.
So going from back to front, they went to work as a group on deciding what the T-shirt should look like. At first, they thought it should say "Planet Money" in a fancy font. But they got more creative, and decided to reference the "animal spirits" term from Keynesian economics (new to me), and next came ideas like the ghost of a bear etc. They ended up with a squirrel with a martini. And with that they went to kickstarter to raise funds. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/planetmoney/planet-money-t-shirt
So they obviously aren't schoolkids and the scope of the project seems larger than you could do in any school, but it seems like a kick, and a pretty fun way to learn your way around the business world.
The podcast: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/04/30/180079862/episode-455-the-planet-money-t-shirt-is-finally-almost-here
I really love this idea and, thinking of about education, how useful art can be as a teaching tool. Bringing in creative and unique projects for students to take on allows for them to dig deep and think critically about the project. Something similar to this would be so fun for a fundraising activity at a school. Maybe instead of creating the entire shirt, there could just be a logo making contest? My elementary school did something similar and everyone was so engaged. Not only did this allow for students to use their creativity and critical thinking skills, but it also helped to build community across classrooms.
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