Entrepreneurship classroom activities

 The significance of teaching entrepreneurship skills is nowadays highlighted by different entities. Innovative ideas, creativity, independent work approach, finding relevant information, self-management, cooperation, team work as well as presentation and communication skills are present in almost every field. This brings challenges to the education system and classroom practices. In several countries the national curriculum recognizes the importance of the entrepreneurship skills and in some cases it has been mainstreamed to the whole curriculum. The number of separate entrepreneurship courses is also increasing.

As entrepreneurship skills can be integrated to all school subjects, there are many possibilities to practice those skills. The multidisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship gives flexibility, but it is also possible to integrate exercises, which strengthen entrepreneurship skills, to the traditional subject lessons. The participative methods and learning by doing are necessary when motivating students to entrepreneurship and lowering the barriers to try something different. In addition, it is important to create atmosphere where mistake is seen as a good opportunity to learn and not to be feared. The creative and successful ideas can be also strange and funny, but there is also risks and surprises which can´t be predicted before seeing the idea in the practice. Good example is Movember: How would you initially predict that growing mustache can lead to successful, international movement which has raised funds to improve the wellbeing of the men with prostate cancer?

To sum up, entrepreneurship skills can be taught in various practices, but continuous effort to encourage students to think independently in every lesson leads to positive attitude which makes the difference. It is advised to perform group work with incidental groups in order to ensure work with unfamiliar and new approaches. Here few examples of participative methods to activate entrepreneurship skills:

1.       Branding our school: The objective is to create a brand to the school and suitable small product (cup, t-shirt, key chain etc.), which can be given to visitors or sold to stakeholders. The starting point is to describe the personality of the school (physically, social atmosphere, people etc.) Separate groups create visual image, slogan, product etc. based on their own ideas.  After presenting all brands, the best one is elected democratically and the product is realized. The exercise can be extended to create marketing plan for the school.

2.       Brainstorming: Use activity to create incidental groups. Orientate students to brainstorming: it is important to create as many ideas as possible without thinking too much. Present the question or theme. For example if you could choose anything in the world what kind of enterprise you would create? In the group everybody participates and tells their ideas. All ideas are written to sticky notes. Then the group chooses the best idea. All groups make presentation of their idea (3 min/group). Discussion and evaluation: Which of the ideas are worth to realize?

3.       The recycling workshop: Collect used material, for example paper, cardboard, plastic, bottles, tins etc. Give the pupils the theme (festivity decoration, sculpture, miniature etc.) which should be created mainly from used materials. Variation: Give every group an imaginative word and task to create that machine or thing with the recycled material. Afterwards groups make presentation which includes explanation how the creation works and why others should buy it. The creation with most votes can get a prize.

4.       Marketing: The starting point is to analyze few existing adverts. What kind of strategies has been used? What kind of image, vision or message the advert wants to transfer? What kind of emotions it raises? How the advert tries to impact you? What kind of people are in the advert? What is the focus in the advert? After discussion give all groups some product and task to create advert about it, for example short video or poster.

5.       Solution based team work: Choose one current problem from the local, national or global level and challenge groups to create solutions to the problem. For example how to increase the healthy lifestyle, responsible consumption, decrease the use of drugs, juvenile delinquency, school absence, littering, depression. Groups have to create campaign, project or presentation. Remember!: It is necessary to touch emotional and social side of the human life to achieve successful impact. The rational reasons have less relevance.

6.       Redesign everyday object: How would you improve the usability of cutlery, coat rack, mobile phone? How would you improve your school corridor, playground or classroom?

7.       Game: Ask groups to create a game, which can be also digital if students have programming skills. Other group has to test the prototypes and give feedback in order to develop the game further. Make so many testing rounds as necessary.

8.       Fund raising event: The students have to create fund raising event or activity for the student union or for study visit. It can be for example musical, artistic or sport competition, theatre show, party with small entrance fee. The simple idea is also prepare something easy (i.e. biscuits) and sell it from door to door. Funny and social media campaigns are also fruitful.

9.       Desert island: First ask everybody individually to list 10 things they would take on a desert island to survive there. Divide students into pairs. They should discuss of their lists and negotiate common 8 things to take on a desert island. Unite students to small groups, which have to reduce the list to 6 things. Then unite bigger groups, which choose 4 things. Then groups present their lists and justify their choices to all class.

10.   Company visits, living library of local entrepreneurs or normal presentation: Prepare with the students questions for the entrepreneurs. It can be also combined to find shared project with the company or the organization.

11.   Short activities in the middle of any lesson for energizing the group:

- Paper tower: Which group builds the highest tower using only 10 pages of paper?

- Drawing, explaining, acting: Write different words on papers and separately 3 action papers with words ‘drawing’, ‘explaining’ and ‘acting’. The classroom is divided into groups. All students are at least once in the front.  They take one paper and one of the 3 action papers without seeing other side. According to the papers, the task is to draw, act or explain the word to all. The first group guessing right gets one point. Points are marked to see the competition. The activity works well in foreign language lessons too.

- Blind team work: Preparation: 15-20m ropes and scarves for all. The students are divided into groups and they have their eyes blindfolded with scarves. The groups have to make different patterns, for example square, isosceles triangle, and star.  

- Legs and arms: The groups (same number of students in each group) have to perform together tasks of increasing difficulty. For example first there can be in total 5 legs and 1 arm on the ground -> 4 legs and 2 arms -> 3 legs -> 2 legs and 1 arm -> 1 leg.