Iowa State students enrolled in a marketing class are gaining real-world experience this semester by conducting research and drawing up marketing strategies for the Des Moines Science Center.

Helena Poist, temporary instructor of marketing, said both the Science Center and the students will profit from the Marketing 443 project.

“The Science Center is a nonprofit organization, and they don’t have the resources for this kind of project,” she said. “The students are also learning something — they’re finding out that this is harder to do than it is in the textbooks.”

The class of 38 students is divided into 10 groups, which will present their different marketing strategies to the Science Center in April. The marketing campaign will make up 50 percent of the students’ grades for the class.

Kay Hyde, director of marketing and public relations for the Des Moines Science Center, said Poist approached the center with the idea for the project.

“This is a great opportunity for us to have so many students supplying information for us,” Hyde said. “It will help us improve the programs to better serve the people of Iowa.”

Poist said marketing students often develop marketing strategies in their classes, but this project is an exception in that it involves a live case rather than one out of a textbook.

She said all of the students in Marketing 443 have already completed most of their marketing courses, and this course provides hands-on experience.

“It’s been a lot more time consuming than they thought it would be,” Poist said.

Jeremy Oppedal, senior in marketing and member of the class, is in a group that is analyzing those who use the center.

“Right now, we’re just trying to find their target market. We’re working with them hand in hand, trying to give them an idea of what they can do better,” he said.

Another goal of the project is to help the Science Center build contacts within the ISU community for future projects.

“We want to involve ISU with the Science Center to jointly promote science in Iowa,” Hyde said.

Hyde said she hopes the marketing class will continue to be involved with the center.

“We alone cannot do this on our own just for the sheer size and time of the thing,” she said. “The continuation of the program would be very valuable for the Science Center of Iowa.”