Teachers have a lot on their plates. They may be handling the curriculum for more than a hundred students, overseeing projects and mentoring after-school clubs. Trying to stay on top of it all is tough, but the Cedar Rapids-based Project BBQ is hoping its management system will make things easier for educators. Project BBQ is currently going through the Iowa Startup Accelerator
How Project BBQ works
Project BBQ’s origin lies with a software called BlueHarvest, which launched eight years ago as a way to track grading standards in classrooms. BlueHarvest was free to use, attracting 20,000 teachers and students across the country. That’s a lot of users for a free platform, and eventually, creator Shawn Cornally shuttered BlueHarvest and co-founded the initiative-based high school experience Iowa Big.
Cornally co-founded both BlueHarvest and Iowa Big and helps code for Project BBQ. The startup is overseen by Iowa Big’s former Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships, Troy Miller. Iowa Big and Project BBQ are distinct organizations, but Iowa Big does utilize Project BBQ.
BECOME A SPONSOR
Join us in championing the narrative of success, resilience, and ingenuity that defines Nebraska’s startup community. Learn more »
“For teachers, Project BBQ lets them create a purely project-based atmosphere,” Miller said. “Teachers and staff fill a project pool with projects and problems, and from that pool, students self-organize their teams, and teachers take on whatever projects they’ll work on those teams with. Project BBQ lets the standards, outcome and criteria be easily tagged to students and builds the students a portfolio throughout the year for their outcomes.”
Working with the Iowa Startup Accelerator
As a part of the 2018 ISA cohort, what Miller wants most is answers. Like figuring out if Project BBQ is even a project worth pursuing. He hopes that being part of the accelerator will help the company figure out if it has a product that educators need.
“We want to figure out what is the market. Is Project BBQ viable? Do we need to pivot?” said Mille. “I work out of the same building as the Iowa Startup Accelerator, so it was a really smooth transition and seemed like a clean fit because we know each other really well.
What comes next?
A startup accelerator is like a macro version of a project-based learning lesson. Not all projects are a success, but students still learn something from them. Miller wants Project BBQ to be a success, but he wants it to be a success because there’s a need for it.
“I just want answers,” Miller said. “I want to know if this is something that we need to spend time and money on. If it’s not, that’s great information to know. If it continues, the question is what it will look like going forward and how will we fund it? I know at the end of this that we’ll have a lot more answers. We’ll either find out if this is a tool the rest of the United States wants, or get on with life.”
––
Joe Lawler is a freelance reporter based in Des Moines.
