SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENCOURAGING STUDENT ATTENDANCE
Students are rewarded on a regular basis with collectible cards or other collectible items for satisfactory school attendance. In addition to the characteristics that make the items collectible, they can bear additional information for entertaining and educating students, such as motivational messages and puzzle clues.
The benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/831,291, filed Jul. 15, 2006, is hereby claimed and the specification thereof incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to encouraging behaviors through rewards and, more specifically, to encouraging and motivating children to attend school by providing rewards.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ensuring that children attend school is of great importance to educators and society as a whole. Students' absence from school or tardiness in arriving are detrimental to learning and thus undesirable.
It has been suggested to motivate students to improve academic performance, attendance and other facets of the educational experience by rewarding them with incentives. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0073488 discloses rewarding students with tokens that are redeemable for merchandise.
Although rewarding students for a good school attendance record has been shown to be effective, reward systems that establish too strong an association between good attendance and material rewards, such as an array of merchandise from which a child can choose, can send children the wrong message.
It would be desirable to provide an improved system and method for rewarding attendance that encourages and motivates children to attend school. The present invention provides such a system and method in the manner described below.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is believed that children are best encouraged and motivated to perform well in academic and other settings by providing regular, consistent, immediate positive reinforcement. The present invention relates to a system and method that rewards students for on-time school attendance with collectible cards or other collectible items from a set of such items.
The term “collectible” refers to the innate desire of humans to collect items from a set of items that are similar to each other in some way, such as shape, color, images, theme, etc., yet differ from each other in one or more other ways. For example, baseball or other sports cards are collectible because, for example, all baseball cards are of approximately the same size and shape yet are divided into subsets of different teams, players, years, etc. Collectors are drawn to cards of the same team, player, year, etc. For analogous reasons, people desire to collect artwork, music, crafts, stamps and coins, etc.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, school personnel identify each student having a satisfactory attendance record (i.e., a record of attendance exceeding a predetermined minimum attendance level, such as attending class on time every day for one week), and give one of the collectible items to each such identified student. As used herein, the term “attendance level” can take into account whether a student attended class, whether a student arrived on time, or both. Thus, in some embodiments, the invention can be used solely to discourage tardiness by giving the items to students who arrive on time and not giving them to students who are tardy.
The collectible items can be cards or other suitable items. The cards can bear images of animals or other images of interest to school-age children. Along with each animal image, the card can bear an educational and entertaining fact about the animal.
In the exemplary embodiment, each card in a predetermined set of cards bears a number, corresponding to the week of the school year. For example, in a school district in which the school year has 36 weeks, each set consists of 36 cards. A teacher can be provided with one set of 36 cards for each student in the class. If a student meets the above-referenced minimum attendance level for the week or other attendance period, the teacher gives the student the card bearing the number corresponding to that week.
In accordance with another feature of the exemplary embodiment, each quarter or other selected portion or term of the school year or other term, school personnel can conduct a contest based upon clues or other information contained in the collectible items given to the students. For example, every quarter, e.g., every nine weeks in a school district in which the school year has 36 weeks, each student can examine his or her collected cards and use information gleaned from the cards to attempt to solve a puzzle. School personnel can give an additional reward, such as a toy, school supplies, or other item, to each student who submits a correct solution to the puzzle. Alternatively, the reward can be entering the student in a random drawing to provide the student with a chance to win such an item.
In accordance with another feature of the exemplary embodiment, the reverse side of each card bears a portion of an image, and a student can arrange the collected cards to reveal the image as a whole. The image can be, for example, a herd of animals. The image can also bear an inspirational or motivational message, such as “Stay in School!”
The invention will become more apparent through the following description of one or more exemplary embodiments of the invention.
As illustrated in
Each card 10 in the set bears a unique image 12, i.e., an image different from that of the other cards 10 in the set, of a theme that is typically of interest to children of elementary school age, such as an animal theme. Thus, for example, each card 10 can bear an image 12 of a different animal. Image 12 thus defines at least part of what makes cards 10 collectible or desirable to school-age children, as such students will be interested in collecting a complete set of animals. Each card 10 can also bear an educational and entertaining fact 14 about the animal or other thing depicted in image 12. For example, a card 10 bearing an image of a cheetah can also bear the sentence: “Cheetahs are the fastest mammal in the world.”
As described below, the time period during which the students collect cards 10 can be the entire school year or, alternatively or in addition, a suitable subset or portion such as a quarter or semester, and the methods described below can be performed on the basis of whatever portion of the school year that personnel choose to have the children collect cards 10. For example, the methods described below can be performed once per quarter or four times per school year, using a set of cards 10 each quarter.
Each card 10 in the set also bears a unique number 14, corresponding to the week or other attendance period in which the card 10 is to be given to students, as described below. Although cards 10 are shown for purposes of clarity in
As illustrated in
As further illustrated in
As illustrated in
An exemplary method for motivating children to attend school using the above-described set of cards 10 is illustrated in
As indicated by step 26, after performing steps 22 and 24 for a number of weeks corresponding to the number of weeks in the term (e.g., nine weeks in a nine-week quarter) or number of cards 10 in the set, a student who has collected all cards 10 in the set (e.g., nine cards 10), can arrange them as described above with regard to
As indicated by step 28, a contest can be conducted by collecting students' solutions to the puzzle that they have formulated based upon clues gleaned from the set of cards 10 they have collected. If, for example, a student guesses that the puzzle clues suggest finding a star among cards 10, and the student finds the card 10 bearing such a star, the teacher can provide the student with a suitable additional reward, as indicated by step 30. The additional reward can be in the form of, for example, a plush animal toy, or entering the students who guessed correctly in a random drawing to win such a toy. In other embodiments of the invention, the additional reward need not be a material item but rather simply can be in the form of additional recognition.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to this invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided that they come within the scope of any claims and their equivalents. With regard to the claims, no claim is intended to invoke the sixth paragraph of 35 U.S.C. Section 112 unless it includes the term “means for” followed by a participle.
Claims
1. A method for motivating children to attend school, comprising:
- identifying each child having a record of attendance exceeding a predetermined minimum attendance level; and
- giving a collectible item to each identified child, the collectible item belonging to a predetermined set of a plurality of collectible items.
2. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the identifying and giving steps are performed weekly.
3. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined minimum attendance level consists of attending every day of class during a predetermined time period.
4. The method claimed in claim 3, wherein the predetermined time period is one week.
5. The method claimed in claim 1, further comprising, following a predetermined plurality of times of performing the identifying and giving steps, conducting a contest based upon information contained in the collectible items given to the children.
6. The method claimed in claim 5, wherein the information contained in the collectible items given to the children comprise clues to a puzzle, and the step of conducting a contest comprises receiving proposed solutions to the puzzle from the children.
7. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the set of collectible items comprises a set of cards.
8. The method claimed in claim 7, wherein each card in the set includes an image.
9. The method claimed in claim 8, wherein each card in the set includes an entertaining fact about what is depicted in the image.
10. The method claimed in claim 8, wherein each card in the set includes a image of an animal.
11. The method claimed in claim 7, wherein each card in the set includes a unique number corresponding to a week of class.
12. The method claimed in claim 7, wherein each card in the set bears unique indicia, and the indicia of all cards in the set collectively express an idea when arranged adjacent to one another.
13. The method claimed in claim 12, wherein the idea comprises an image.
14. The method claimed in claim 13, wherein the image is of a group of animals.
15. The method claimed in claim 12, wherein the idea comprises a textual message.
16. The method claimed in claim 15, wherein the textual message encourages children to attend school.
17. The method claimed in claim 7, wherein each card in the set bears a clue to a puzzle.
18. A system for motivating children to attend school, comprising:
- a student attendance indicator having indicia for indicating attendance of each of a plurality of students in a class during each of a plurality of attendance periods; and
- a predetermined set of a plurality of collectible items corresponding in number to the attendance periods.
19. The system claimed in claim 18, wherein the plurality of attendance periods consists of about 36 weeks, and the plurality of collectible items consists of about 36 collectible items.
20. The system claimed in claim 18, wherein information contained in the collectible items comprises clues to a puzzle.
21. The system claimed in claim 18, wherein the set of collectible items comprises a set of cards.
22. The system claimed in claim 21, wherein each card in the set includes an image.
23. The system claimed in claim 22, wherein each card in the set includes an entertaining fact about what is depicted in the image.
24. The system claimed in claim 22, wherein each card in the set includes an image of an animal.
25. The system claimed in claim 21, wherein each card in the set includes a unique number corresponding to a week of class.
26. The system claimed in claim 21, wherein each card in the set bears unique indicia, and the indicia of all cards in the set collectively express an idea when arranged adjacent to one another.
27. The system claimed in claim 26, wherein the idea comprises an image.
28. The system claimed in claim 27, wherein the image is of a group of animals.
29. The system claimed in claim 26, wherein the idea comprises a textual message.
30. The system claimed in claim 29, wherein the textual message encourages children to attend school.
31. The system claimed in claim 21, wherein each card in the set bears a clue to a puzzle.
32. A set of cards for motivating children to attend school, comprising:
- a plurality of cards corresponding in number to a number of weeks in a school term, each card in the set including a unique number corresponding to a week of class in the term; and
- wherein each card in the set includes an image of an animal.
33. The set of cards claimed in claim 32, wherein information contained in each card comprises a clue to a puzzle.
34. The set of cards claimed in claim 32, wherein the number of weeks in the term is about 9, and the plurality of cards consists of about 9 cards.
35. The set of cards claimed in claim 32, wherein the number of weeks in the term is about 18, and the plurality of cards consists of about 18 cards.
36. The set of cards claimed in claim 32, wherein the number of weeks in the term is about 36, and the plurality of cards consists of about 36 cards.
37. The set of cards claimed in claim 32, wherein each card in the set has an obverse side and a reverse side, the obverse side of each card bears the image of an animal, the reverse side of each card bears a portion of a collective image, and the indicia of all cards in the set collectively define the collective image when arranged adjacent to one another.
38. The set of cards claimed in claim 37, wherein the collective image comprises a group of animals.
39. The set of cards claimed in claim 37, wherein the collective image further comprises a textual message encouraging children to attend school.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 16, 2007
Publication Date: Jan 17, 2008
Inventors: William Richard SMITH (Roswell, GA), Michael David Dobra (Sugar Hill, GA)
Application Number: 11/778,229
International Classification: A63F 1/00 (20060101); A63F 1/02 (20060101);