Entrepreneurship Academy for Middle Schoolers

Students should be randomly assigned to groups of three where, among the standard ice breaking questions, they’ll have to ask each other about at least once challenge each faces.

They need to note the challenges and as a group, decide which one they find the most common among them.

In about 30 minutes, bring all the students back together and have each group of three share the challenge they agreed was the most problematic, or in need of solving.

Students should try to work down to one main problem from the selection before them and to share back some potential solutions in a brainstorming or active ideating session (with students perhaps tossing a small ball back and forth as they discuss potential solutions – or some similar active thinking session) that lasts no more than about 30 minutes.

The potential solutions should be written down on a white board or paper.

Homework: Talk to families, friends, teachers and others about everyday challenges or problems they encounter and be prepared to share when they come back to class.

Students can work together or broken into small teams of 3 again. to explore:

*Local news stories

*Stories and experiences from families and teachers

*Community assessments (if students can go out into the community to do surveys or talk to people – a library is a good place for this type of assessment)

Then, as before, have students work together to narrow down the problem they want to work on together as a team to solve.

The business plan is a simplified business canvas that identifies:

*What problem is being addressed

*Who the customer is

*Budget they have to work with (real or mock)

*Potential associated costs of solving the problem (student hours, materials, etc)

*Timeline for their product development process

*Potential income/investors

The prototyping process can take a couple of lesson days to get through, and shouldn’t be rushed. Students should be allowed to explore a variety of design ideas and use cardboard, paper, and 2D and 3D modeling software to explore product solutions, and can look online for service type solutions, to confirm what’s already being done in the field, and how their solution is different, an important part of the design process for either a product or a service.

The testing process should be documented, as students either apply their solution to the selected problem themselves, or have other test it, which is a more powerful testing method. Ideally, several people outside the student group should test the prototype(s) to identify any shortcomings, or highlight anything special that stands out about the solution.

This is the time to make the final prototype as clean as possible, utilizing 3D printing, good design principles, and user feedback. If time allows, users should have an opportunity to try then finalize prototype design and provide feedback on whether it addressed any shortcomings they had found earlier.

The product story needs to :

• Have a linear narrative from problem to solution
• Include images or video of the product being used or gathering user feedback
• Describe the solution in detail and
• The value to the customer

Students should develop their pitch in collaboration with adult mentors (Toastmasters is ideal). amd decide if they all want to be part of the pitch, or if they feel one or two of their team have exemplary speaking skills and should represent the team. Either way, all team members should have a hand in the final Pitch exercise.

The Pitch should include:

• Introduction of/by all team members
• Introduction of the identified problem
• How the solution was identified or decided upon
• Overall business plan – mission, goals, client, budget
• Demonstration or display of the solution/product.

Ask students what they learned that they didn’t know before, what they might have done differently and how they might approach problems now as opposed to how they approached them before the program.