A group of our Year 9 Business Studies students did themselves proud at Dartmoor Zoo’s Enterprise Challenge last week. The annual event brings together teams from schools and colleges across the region for a competitive enterprise activity which focuses on a realistic challenge centred around the zoo.
As Beth Harper and Charlotte Fewings report, in business, the little things can prove to be very costly...
“Twelve year 9 students from Newton Abbot College visited Dartmoor Zoological Park (DZP) for an educational Business Enterprise competition. The aim of the day was to develop our skills in team-working, finance, data-management and presentation in the context of a business challenge. The challenge was to identify a suitable species to add to the zoo’s collection which could be accommodated within budget and to develop a promotional campaign to accompany the proposal.
When we first arrived, we were given a wallet filled with various things we would need throughout the day: a schedule, a map of the zoo and crucially, information on a variety of species not currently resident at DZP. There were also plans for 4 potential enclosures within the park and a finance sheet which we would need to plan and cost our proposals. Our “budget” was £20,000.
First, we started by selecting our animal, based on a range of criteria. These included public appeal, educational value, conservation value and research value. We narrowed our choice down to three favourites: the Snow Leopard, the Golden Lion Tamarin and the Pygmy Hippo.
Next, we considered a suitable enclosure for each option and calculated the costs of construction plus the cost of each animal’s upkeep and any extra finances. We used these calculations to help us decide on our final choice. We chose the Snow Leopard.
After a short break we had a guided tour around the zoo to look at each of the possible enclosure sites. During this we looked at how the animals reacted to their neighbours as well as their surroundings and listened to the zoo keeper who told us important issues to avoid and what was best for certain animals.
After the tour it was back to the planning and preparation of our presentation which would be made later in the afternoon (in front of the other teams and teachers) to members of the Dartmoor Zoo management team. Quite daunting.
Once each team had made their presentation and submitted their plans and costings, the judges left to make their deliberations. It was a very close decision as to who had the best ideas and unfortunately our team were pipped into second place as we had failed to budget for the cost of an access gate to enable the keepers to get in to the enclosure!
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