By Lani deGuia, Curriki Member
The case for entrepreneurship studies in K12 education is strong. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “The U. S. Small Business Administration reports that America’s 25.8 million small businesses employ more than 50 percent of the private workforce, generate more than half of the nation’s gross domestic product, and are the principal source of new jobs in the U.S. economy.” *Research studies show that entrepreneurship education increases student skill set in problem-solving, decision-making, and interpersonal relations as well as improved social-emotional development, academic performance, and interest in school. Moreover, these skills are not just valuable for venturing into small businesses as adults, but are also applicable and desirable for success in every field including medicine, STEM fields, law, service, and education. Here are a variety of open educational resources available to make students ready for the workplace and the ever-changing landscape of all professions.
Youth Entrepreneurs Brings Hands-On Business Education
We’ve partnered with Youth Entrepreneurs which offers free, innovative resources (heavily focused on middle and high school students) to bring business studies to life. Free YE Academy courses cover topics including entrepreneurship culture, mindset, foundations, economics, marketing, and finance among others. Want to have students engage in a simulation of prototyping? Check out Paper Airplane Factory where students engage in rapid prototyping while facing challenges like scarcity and risk. Explore the complex marketplace with The Trading Game . Through several rounds of trade, students will see that the broader their access to trade, and the more choices they have for solutions to their problems, the greater their satisfaction. Teach marketing? In Hershey’s Market Research students will design a simple market research survey and implement the results of the market research survey. There are tons of other hands-on lessons to choose from. Find all of the collections here.
Entrepreneurship Education Gets Students Engaged
One of the goals of entrepreneurship education is to get students prepared for workplace skills to advance the productivity and progress of our society. Learning about business principles and practices is a curriculum in getting students to “do”. It also makes learning real-world and practical for students. The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (CEE) offers interdisciplinary entrepreneurship learning ideas to help you collaborate across content areas to enrich the student experience. How food science and research impacts how we produce food, how we market and sell books, choosing a business location, and calculating costs of bringing a business to global markets are just a sampling of ideas.
Don’t Leave Out Elementary Students!
Students are never too young to learn business foundations. Here is a list from the CEE on ways to integrate entrepreneurship principles into your current instruction. Have elementary students write a business plan through the Out of the Box Factory lesson plan. You can also adjust and modify the unit Bagel Business Basics based off of the children’s book Mr. Belinsky’s Bagels to teach entrepreneurship foundations.
Don’t Miss Our Upcoming Webinar with Youth Entrepreneurs!
We will be hosting the FREE webinar “How An Entrepreneurial Mindset Transforms Students” with Youth Entrepreneurs on Thursday, December 6 at 4 PM EST. You’ll hear how two Detroit high school educators – Jason Filie and Renate Matthews – utilized Youth Entrepreneurs’ free curriculum in their classrooms to engage their students through experiential learning – applying actual market scenarios by playing games and participating in activities. Register here.
*Logic Models and Outcomes for Youth Entrepreneurship Programs, DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation (2001).
Lani deGuia is a Virginia Beach, VA-based Educational Consultant with experience writing and developing curriculum and managing school technology.
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