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Teacher's Handbook :

UPSHIFT
powered by UNISOLVE

Transforming Schools Into Places Of

Creativity And Innovation
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What is UPSHtm
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We are living in a fast changing world. Rapid technological advancements may have made our
lives relatively easier, yet a multitude of problems persist around us, in our communities.

Every century has a story to tell. And every century brings with it some challenges that demand
our collective attention. For hundreds of years, basic education had been a privilege. Today, even
as many nations around the world are still busy grappling to provide basic access to education to
its citizens, it has become increasingly clear that our children are not supported enough to take
on the world of tomorrow.

Our focus can no longer be limited to achieving literacy and numeracy milestones. Roughly,
seven years ago in the year 2015, the United Nations set up the Sustainable Development Goals
[SDGs] that are intended to be achieved by the year 2030. Of them, SDG 4: Quality Education,
focusses on imparting skills that are relevant to the demands of the contemporary world.
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The aim of UPSHIFT , a digital learning platform, is to help children grow in to self-
sufficient and highly employable individuals with knowledge and skills that are practical and
relevant.
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How does UPSHIFTwork?
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•••

[_________,
•

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UPSHIFT is an online digital platform where students can enrol as a team and learn
the critical skills required to take on the social challenges of tomorrow.
As a part of this program, students between the age groups of 10-15 years have an opportunity
to learn, through a self-paced interactive online curriculum, skills such as critical thinking,
creative problem-solving and design thinking. They are also encouraged to put this newly
acquired knowledge into practice to benefit the surrounding community around them

Students, while being supported by a teacher, will identify problems in their immediate
surroundings/ larger communities and apply different problem-solving techniques such as
research, idea brainstorming, prototyping and other design thinking methodologies to identify
and solve problems in their communities. The best of the ideas submitted will have an
opportunity for further mentorship and financial support to implement it on a larger scale.

The PROBLEM-SOLVING JOURNEY that the students partake in as a part of the course, in
addition to self-confidence, will instil in them the skills that enable them to be the change­
makers of tomorrow.
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What problems will students solve?

The United Nations, in the year 2015, have set up 17 ambitious goals that strive for sustainable
development. All of these goals, called the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs aim for a
greener, healthier, equal and more peaceful development of our planet.

Achieving these goals calls for a greater awareness about them and participation of a wide rage
of audience, from students in schools to politicians and people in power at all levels.
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Through the course modules in UPSHIFT , students will be sensitized to the 17
SDGs (goals). Then, they will be encouraged to work towards a goal of their choice in their
communities.

Let us once look at what the 17 SDGs are

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4 QUALITY
EDUCATION
6 AND
CLEAN WATER
SANITA110 N

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10 INEOUAUTI
REDUCED 12 RESPONSIBLE

....ES . CONSIJ,IPT!O N

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AND PROD U CTIDN

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16 PEACE. JUSTICE
AND STRONG
INSTITUTIONS
SUSTAINAB E

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DEVELOPMENT
G·4 'tALS

Sustainable Development goals

Objective: End Poverty in all forms everywhere.

Brief Description: Many people around us are poor and do not have enough money for
education, health care, house or even food.

Objective: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote
sustainable agriculture

Brief Description: Along with poverty, events such as floods, extreme heat that are
becoming more often which is leading to lesser availability of food for people all
over.
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Sustainable Development goals

Objective: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Brief Description: Lack of awareness of diseases, availability of timely treatment, medicines,

and good hygiene practices is increasing the risk of death.

4 EDUCATION
QUALITY
Objective: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
opportunities for all

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Brief Description: Many children are out-of school and there is a lack of facilities in the
schools for children to get the best quality education. This is leading to many educated
people to end up without jobs.

Objective: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Brief Description: Boys and girls are still not treated equally in many parts of the world and
the opportunities available for girls and women are far lesser than those available for men

Objective: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Brief Description: A large percentage of people in the world do not have clean water to
drink, and many water sources are contaminated with chemicals being dumped into them.
This is spreading diseases at an alarming rate.

7 AFFORDABLE AND
CLEAN ENERGY Objective: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

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Brief Description: Electricity is still not available in many parts of the world, and production

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of electricity produces a lot of environmental waste. The world needs to use electricity

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.... carefully to avoid wastage and become aware of methods that can produce clean energy
(electricity) without polluting the environment.

8 ECONOMIC
DECENT WORK AND
GROWTH
Objective: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive

fil
employment and decent work for all

Brief Description: If too many people are employed in a single industry like the wood or fishing, it
causes these natural resources to be depleted faster and leave millions jobless. Hence, decent
and varied job opportunities should be constantly created for the growth of both people and
planet.
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Sustainable Development goals

Objective: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization,

and foster innovation

Brief Description: Countries should work towards improving access to technology for all
the people and businesses. Children should be able to benefit from improved access to
internet and learn new technologies to develop themselves and their communities.

10 REDUCED Objective: Reduce income inequality within and among countries

.....
INEQUALITIES

=►
Brief Description: There are so many differences between the rich and the poor. This gap

◄
must be reduced, and the poor and disadvantaged communities should be given the same
access that the rich have to everything.

Objective: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable

Brief Description: Increasing population and unplanned development in the cities is

making them unhygienic and unlivable in many ways. All these cities must be made safe,
hygienic and liveable for all people.

12 CONSUMPTION
RESPONSIBLE
Objective: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
AND PRODUCTION
Brief Description: Every natural resource like wood, oil/petrol, air, soil, and water are limited

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on the planet. Overusing them will leave the future generations with very little or nothing of
these, putting their lives in danger. People must reduce, reuse and recycle these resources
whenever possible and prevent their depletion.

Objective: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts by regulating
emissions and promoting developments in renewable energy

Brief Description: Overuse of resources like wood, electricity, petrol, plastic is heating the
planet and creating many disasters like the floods, and extreme heat and cold waves. Action
must be taken to save the planet from disasters caused by the climate change.

Objective: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for
sustainable development

Brief Description: Aquatic life below water is in danger due to human activities like over
fishing and releasing of harmful chemicals and wastes like plastics in to the rivers and
oceans. This could not just destroy the aquatic animals, but all those people who like by
these water bodies.
 ■
Sustainable Development goals

Objective: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems,

sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation
and halt biodiversity loss.

Brief Description: Land belongs not just to humans but to all the animals, birds, and plants
that live on it. Cutting of trees, polluting air, hunting of animals are some of the activities that
are destroying the life on land. All these activities must be prevented.

16 ANDINSTITUTIONS
PEACE. JUSTICE
STRONG
Objective: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access
to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

;
Brief Description: Violence can happen due to differences between peoples religion, culture,

.
gender, or even age. Many people do not have access to justice in their communities. All such
violence must end by strengthening the justice system in the countries and actively promoting
peace in the communities.

Objective: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for
sustainable development

Brief Description: People should learn more about each of the SDGs, what they can do to
achieve them, spread awareness about them in their communities and collaborate by
working together to achieve all the above 16 goals.

Getting closer to the Sustainable Development Goals involves identifying and taking small
actionable steps in our communities within our capacity. Each one of us have the capacity to
contribute towards these goals, including children.

All that our children need is the awareness of this need, tools that inculcate in them the skills to
meaningfully engage with the goals, and mentorship to motivate them to work towards the
goals.

As children participate in this problem-solving journey, it will open for them a unique view of the
world around. And as they engage with the world around, that will build in them more
awareness of the self and inform them of the things they might want to do or contribute towards
to, in the future. That will make them both employable and responsible citizens.
Together, make it a better world
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Program Schedule

Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Teacher preparation Module 3 Module 6

7 days 10 days 11 days

Module 1 Module4 Final Submission

5 days 9 Days 2 Days

Module 2 Module 5 Buffer Days

5 days 9 Days 8 Days
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Role of a
Teacher

For your students, you will be playing a dual role of:

■■■

1. A guide 2. A Mentor
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As a Guide, you can help your students with
the following:
• Register student teams on the portal.
• Give them an overview of the course journey on the

1/1 portal.
• Track individual and team progress by following the
prescribed schedules and time checks.

,.
I • Download the Additional Reading material and
Worksheets to distribute them among the students/
student teams.
\ • Help students navigate through Additional Reading
material in between the videos.
• Guide students in conducting the end of module activities
by scheduling work-time within school premises.

\ • Help students upload all the mandatory worksheets on

the portal and submit their final idea.

As a Mentor, you can help your students with the

following:

■■■

• Execute Mentor Sessions given in this handbook at

specified intervals.
• Conduct timely 'Check For Understanding of
important concepts' at the end of every module and
clear their doubts, if any.
• Accompany students in their community visits and
help them get the necessary permissions from
parents, school or any other authorities.
• Ensure better outcomes by reflecting on the student
performance at the end of every Module
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Teacher Journey Road-map
Guide and mentor
Help the student teams all through
their problem-solving journey • ..
..·•
Register student teams on
the online portal
•·············•.·
·...
. ..·
..
·
··.·•
.·• .. .
·•.·
..
·

Content Overview post-survey

Get familiar with the course ··•... Evaluate course outcomes
•
content and answer the •
··· -. .. and sh ace feedback
online Quiz ··...•
•• · · .. . .
.

·•......
...
. ..

On board student teams

..
.

. ..
·· Explain student teams the course
journey and features
The roll-out
Introduce the program to
students in the school

Week 1,2: Teacher Preparation

Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Teacher Preparation includes the first 4 milestones in the Teacher-Journey:

Milestones .lla.Y-5..ffil.u.iwi
1. Content Overview including online quiz - Week 1 : Day 1,2,3
2. The Roll-Out - Week 1 : Day 4
3. Student Registration - Week 1 : Day 5,6
4. Onboarding Student Teams - Week 2: Day 1
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Content Overview

Content Overview
Get familiar with the course

Each individual student in every student team will be

completing a six module course on the UPSHIFT Powered by unisolve
portal that will take them through a journey of
problem-solving. Let us see what these modules are
and what do students learn in each of them.

Content powered by Upshift

The course modules are based on UNICEF's UPSHIFT Program. UPSHIFT is a highly adaptable social innovation and social
entrepreneurship programme. It combines in-person and online learning journeys, mentorship and, in some cases, seed funding,
to equip adolescents and young people with the skills and resources to identify problems in their communities and opportunities
to build solutions addressing them.

Young People Human centered

Agency design curriculum
Motivates young people by asking them to Teaches them a process and a way of thinking
work on issues they care about the most that seeks to solve complex problems in a
user-centric way

Experimental learning
ENTREPRENEURIAL CHALLENGE
PEDAGOGY & MENTORING
Apart from learning, All students have the
Not lecture-based. Students put the
opportunity to compete and receive seed
knowledge they gain into practice to solve a
funding and futher mentoring support to put
real-world problem and generate useful ideas
turn their project into a reality.

The 4 pillars lead to high learning outcomes for participants, including the development of problem
solving, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and leadership skills.
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Course-modules
for students

give ideas
Brainstorm ideas using
multiple techniques to find
the solution to your problem

Prototype the final selected

feel & find idea and test it with the
Apply problem finding users to gather feedback
techniques and identify and make changes
problems around you
explore
Learn how to get to the roots
INSPIRATION of a problem by exploring
Everyone can be problem­ them deeper
solvers. You just have to
wake up the solver in you!

Together, we can achieve

much. Solving any problem
gets better when you
collaborate.

Course components
A team may consist of anywhere between 2-5 students.

-•
While some components in the module are completed individually by each
team member, others would require them to be done either both individually
and/or as a team.

Individual
¥
Team
Every Module consists of between 2-5 videos that trace the journey of four fictional characters who

✓
set out to solve a problem they observed in their community. Through their journey, students
VIDEOS learn various problem-solving techniques that they can apply to solve a problem identified by
them in their respective community/surroundings.

✓
Every video in all the modules end with 1-3 questions that make the viewer reflect on their
REFLECTIVE
QUESTIONS
learnings and set goals for themselves and their team. These reflective questions have been
designed in such a way that there are no wrong answers to any of them.

✓
Eight crucial concepts per module are picked, and the students are quizzed in these areas at the
QUIZZ
end of every module. In case students get an answer wrong in their first attempt, they are given an
additional 2 chances per concept, after nudging them to re-cap the concept either by watching a
respective video or reading an additional resource material.

✓
Additional reading materials complement the concepts taught in the videos/modules. Students
ADDITIONAL can use these either at the end of watching a video, during the quiz, or while they complete the
RESOURCES worksheets in a team. These will be provided digitally, and the teacher is expected to provide
printed versions to the students.
After all the students in a team, individually finish watching the videos, answering the reflective
WORKSHEET questions and the quiz in a respective module, worksheets are unlocked. The worksheets guide the
team to apply the concepts learnt in the respective module for their community project.

Note: To unlock the next module, project progress is to be reported on the portal by uploading the completed worksheets of the respective module.
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Course brief

Concepts in this course are taught through the story of four students, Aryn, Adila, Shama
and Amir, who set out on a mission to solve a problem they identified in their
community. They seek the help of their teacher and a mentor who is herself a social
entrepreneur. The teacher and the mentor together teach them the required skills that
help them solve the problem.

But what inspired them to take up this problem-solving journey?

Let us find out!
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Module 1: Inspiration

INSPIRATION
Everyone can be problem-
solvers. You just have to
wake up the solver in you! •

It was a rainy day. The teacher steps in to his classroom full of students,
but seems lost in thought for sometime before he shares with his
students about how concerned he sometimes gets whenever it starts to
rain heavily. He further goes on to tell his students the destruction he
witnessed in the country as a result of disasters such as floods.
A group of four friends, on learning that these disasters are a result of
human actions, get concerned if such things will happen more often.

They visit their teacher in the staffroom later, to ask him if anything can
be done about this. The teacher gets inspired by their motivation to do
something and gives them examples of how small actions can make a
difference and encourages them to take up such small Innovative
actions to solve problems that exist around them.
To help them understand what problems exist around, he introduces the
concept of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and asks them to
identify the problems they think need attention in their community.
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Module 1: Inspiration
Key-concepts

Sustainable Development Goals:

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Our leaders around the world have identified few problems to be solved for a better society
for everyone, for all individuals, communities, and societies. These Goals are called
R-11 SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT mJI
Sustainable Development Goals. � Gt:JALS
They aim to solve problems relating to hunger and poverty, lack of water, food, education,
health care, and inequality in various forms and other such goals
for a better world for everyone, including nature and animals

Module 2: Me & us

ME&US
I Together, we can achieve
much. Solving any problem
gets better when you
collaborate.
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Module 2: Me & Us

The four friends study and understand the Sustainable Development

Goals and realize that there are many problems in their community that
need attention. They go back to their teacher, seeking his help in
understanding more about what they can do about it.

The teacher gets delighted to see his four students think about problem­
solving In their community and agrees to help them.

He starts off by explaining to them the importance of working together

as a team to be able to solve any problem effectively. He does this by
engaging them in an activity called 'The Classroom Budget' that
teaches them the advantage of thinking as a team.

The teacher then helps the students explore and understand each
other's strengths that they can take advantage of together as a team, in
their quest for problem-solving.

Module 2: Me & us
Key-concepts
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Module 3: Feel & Find

feel &find
Apply problem finding
techniques and identify
problems around you

' \ I ,

Shame, introduces the team to her elder sister, Farah, who is an

entrepreneur working on solving the issue of plastic waste in the
oceans, by collecting and repurposing the waste to make shoes out of
them.

The team of four students are inspired by Shame"s sister and seek her
help in trying to Identify problems that they can work on solving.
Farah, teaches them how to observe for problems by challenging
them to think about change they would like to see around them. She
calls this challenge the 'I SEE- I WISH'.

On the request of the teacher, Farah, who is also an alumnus of the

same school that the team of four students are studying in, accepts keY.-conceP-tS
to mentor the team in their problem-solving journey. Later, the 1.Problem Finding
students identify a few problems in their community with the help of Techniques
other techniques taught to them by their teacher. 2.Problem
Selection
The students then mark the problems on a community-map and Criterion
decide which problem to work on using a problem selection criterion -'PEAK'
known as PEAK.
 II
Module 3: Feel & Find
Key-concepts

Activity: I SEE -I WISH

I see - I wish is an activity used to find problems in our surrounding. Use 'I-See' statement to
identity the problems that can be seen around us - 'What I see' and the 'I-Wish' statement to
think how it would be better if the problem was not there - 'What I wish to see". Ask the following
questions alongside to identify a problem -
1.ls it wasting or polluting any resource on the planet?
2.ls it causing harm to any living being?
3.ls it creating difficulty or topping any members of the community from leading a better life?
 II
Module 4: Explore
•

••••
explore
Learn how to get to the roots
of a problem by exploring
them deeper

The team decides to work on solving the problem of "Textile Waste" in their
community.

They visit their mentor, Farah, at her home for guidance on what their next
step can be. Farah suggests them to identify stakeholden that are either
contributing to the problem of textile waste or know something about it. The
team takes the help of their classmates to identify the stakeholders to their
problem, and their teacher helps them identify the role of each of these
stakeholders by putting them on a Stakeholder-map.

Next, the students learn to identify how these different stakeholders interact
with each other by drawing connections between them in a Mind-map. This
helps them in applying these learnings to the Problem-tree and Why's­
technlque to investigate and explore the deeper causes of the problem.

Once the key-causes to the problem are identified, Farah teaches them to
write a clear problem-statement that can guide them In generating Ideas for
the solution.
 II
Module 4: Explore
key-concepts
 II
Module 5: Give Ideas
•

give ideas
Brainstorm ideas using
multiple techniques to find
the solution to your problem

The team is now clear about the goal their solution should be able to achieve.

As always, the team sits with their mentor, Farah, to discuss how to come up
with a good solution that can achieve their goal. Farah, ignites the creativity
in the team by engaging them in an activity that teaches them not to be afraid
of thinking different. This builds confidence in the team, who further learn
about different approaches to solve a problem by judging the type of
solution that better addresses the causes.

The students then come up with a slew of solutions after applying various
Ideation techniques taught to them by their mentor by engaging them In
different fun activities.

The team then uses a solution selection criterion-FUSE to pick the best
Ideas and shares them with their classmates and a few stakeholders to get
their feedback. Finally, they improve their solution by modifying their Idea
based on the feedback they gather.
Module 5: Give Ideas
key-concepts
Module 6: Make & Test
•

Prototype the final selected

idea and test it with the
users to gather feedback
and make changes

n •••
,ir�
-
The next day, Farah stops by the school to pick her sister, Shama,
on her way home. The team engages with Farah in a casual
conversation, which reminds Farah of her days in school. As the
conversation builds up, Farah senses an opportunity to teach the
team about an important step in the problem-solving process:
Prototyping a solution. She narrates from her experience how
missing this step proved costly for her when she was working on
her solution to the problem of plastic waste. She goes on to teach
them various prototyping methods, after which the team decides
on a prototyping method for their testing of their idea.

After resourcing for materials needed, they create a prototype ke -conceP-tS

which they test it with the stakeholders for their feedback before
making further refinements to their final Idea. 1. Prototyping
Methods
Finally, the team celebrates their success by thanking their 2. Resourcing
classmates and is overjoyed to learn that they have inspired a few
of them to take up problem-solving in their communities.
 Module 6: Make & Test
key-concepts

Prototyping Method 2: Mock-Up

In this method you use replacement materials like cardboard, clay etc as the real material are
expensive or not easily available. It is helpful in showing the look, design, concept, and style
of an idea to the users when it is not necessary to test usage. It can be used when
prototyping cannot be made as per real size or function. (Ex - real idea may be big - design
of apartments)

Prototyping Method 4: Storyboard

In storyboarding, the solution is explained to people in the form of a story in a comic book.
Kalil ii
-■-■-■
The story shows all the actions that are a part of the process from start to end. However, it
can be used for Product as well as Process-based solutions when the steps involved in the
solution need to be explained.
l.aiilil
-■-■-■
 ti
Module 6: Make & Test
key-concepts

Prototyping Method s: Paper prototype

In Paper Prototype method, a drawing of the solution is made on a white paper with details
and features to explain the solution. It is shown to the users to get feedback.

How does the course play out for Students?

Modular-Journey
MODULE (x)
[IJ ®
· ■a,
Additional Individual
Readings,'11' ,r.,'✓�
I
Task
••
.-.,
Videos

Ell ✓
Team task

®t
Teacher
� Support

1
Before the start of every Module, the
teacher, in their capacity as a mentor,
is required to:
• Help students get familiarized to
the vocabulary of the words

�"�'°"d
(Check glossary provided at the
start of every Module)

,,.IQ
• Fulfil all the Modular
prerequisites as prescribed in
the Handbook Additional
• Provide all the students with Readings f ••
Additional Reading material that

'8) El]./
will aid their learning journey

MODULE (x+l)

• While the reflective questions are answered after each video, the other components (Quiz and Worksheets) are
answered at the end of each module.
• Approximately 25% of the journey is online (videos, reflective questions, quizzes)
• Approximately 75% of the journey is offline (application of learning in the community using the worksheets)
 Teacher's Handbook

UPSHIFT
powered by UN/SOLVE

Transforming Schools Into Places Of

Creativity And Innovation