Organising a trip - putting phone skills into practice

Does your child know how to make a phone call? 

Could they call someone to find information? 

Could they organise a trip? 

Being able to use a phone is a vital skill these days and we don't all have the confidence needed to use one to get the information we might need.

This is something our FLL (First Lego League) Robotics Team needed to do this week. The students needed to organise a trip as part of their project for the 2012 FLL competition. This year's competition theme is 'Senior Choices' so a call was made to the Anthony Wilding Retirement Village to see if they could visit and learn more about the problems elderly people face. The students already had a little background knowledge, through phoning (with support from a parent) someone elderly that they already knew (usually a grandparent).

This was a first supported effort to make a call to someone they didn't know, and the team was using a speakerphone for the first time. This meant all students in the group could hear the conversation and learn what to do, and the teacher could step in to help if necessary. Students discussed what they would need to say and do depending on who answered at the other end. Notes had been made on a whiteboard for them to follow, so nothing was forgotten. 

Dylan generously volunteered to make the call, even though he was really nervous about phoning someone he didn't actually know. He did a great job!