Are you looking for some new ways to engage your campers that are both educational and fun?! Maybe you’re putting on an entrepreneurship summer camp, or perhaps you just need more interactive project ideas… We have a golden opportunity that gives students exposure to entrepreneurial thinking, problem-solving, and idea development with our flexible curriculum that can be implemented for any timeline!
What I Can Expect From This Blog:
Step 1 - Curriculum Format
The type of curriculum format you’re using will likely accompany some common teaching time constraints and goals regarding the campers. Below are just a few examples of common timelines for summer programs…
- 1-week summer camp
- 3-week camp program
- Summer sleep-away camp (6-8 weeks)
Regardless of the type of program you are operating, our curriculum can be crafted to fit into those time constraints and provide students with the most benefit possible! Once you know how you’re going to offer it, then it’s time to determine your pacing strategies!
Step 2 -Teaching Time
Determining what timing constraints you’re working with will make it easier to determine how to pace the curriculum. We provide resources that will help you figure it out, but we recommend starting here with clarifying…
- Will you be allotting time only once per week or will your program be primarily dedicated to the entrepreneurship curriculum on a daily basis?
- Do you prefer to spend only an hour teaching and allow students to use the rest of the time for hands-on individual and group work?
If your camp is only a week-long, your focus will likely be on having your students create a single tangible project. Longer camps have the opportunity to dive deeper into the content that will allow students to produce multiple deliverables.
Take a peak at our master timeline, to get a better sense of the type of curriculum you might want to implement.
Step 3 - Goals for student deliverables
How to make the most of the curriculum depends on what “most” means to you! By that, we mean it’s important for you to determine what deliverables you want students to complete.
We recommend, if it fits with your program, that students complete the following deliverables:
- Business name & logo
- Minimum viable product
- Elevator pitch
- Pitch deck
However, some programs choose to amend this depending on a few important factors...
Decide the skills you want students to walk away with: There are several key skills that come from the curriculum including research, communication, problem-solving, goal-setting/execution, and presentation. If you do not have time to focus on seeing the full curriculum through, then be intentional about what skills you prioritize and which deliverables help students develop said skills.
Determine students' commitment level: This curriculum requires a co-created learning environment that values student voices and ideas as much as the instructors. Therefore, it cannot be understated how we must consider the students' commitment level relative to our expectations for the programming being put together.
For example, if you’re running an entrepreneurship summer program you can expect students to be all-in, while still making the experience fun and easy-going. Suppose you’re using the curriculum as an additional elective within a larger summer camp. In that case, the focus will likely be on acquiring a few new skills but mostly prioritizing the fun and creative aspects of hands-on projects!
Tangible projects past students have created
Here is a slide deck from Pauline! Remind 2 Unwind solves the problem of excess screen time and a lack of awareness about effective breaks that increase productivity. As a Chrome extension, it provides users with healthy, timed break options to help relieve and refresh their minds... These are just a few slides from her presentation but check out the rest of it here!
This is another example of a pitch deck by Sanya. She created Carelp, a company that sends cards to elderly individuals living alone in order to help them combat social isolation. By receiving artwork from youth and partnering with community organizations, Carelp turns hope into meaning. Check it out!
Below you will find 3 different websites designed by students, to help put their ideas into action.
- Ribbonery was created by Vy. She built a student-led initiative that makes handmade hair accessories, with 100% of profits donated to Girls Inc.
- Eunice is the creator of Heads Up Buttercup, a nonprofit organization that strives to educate, provide real-world experiences, and empower teenagers to make a change in their community by hosting webinars, inviting guest speakers, and sharing volunteer opportunities.
- Sandra, created Dear Global Girls, an international and youth-led organization and digital magazine dedicated to inspiring, educating, and empowering girls around the globe. Through articles highlighting current issues, spotlighting incredible youth change-makers, and more, their mission is to encourage young girls around the globe to amplify their voices, demand equal rights, and embrace the power hidden among them.
Look what your campers could be building during YOUR entrepreneurship summer camp! As you can see, these projects show the potential for youth to explore and create something real that aligns with each of their varying passions. It's never too early to become an entrepreneur or to learn the ropes of working with a startup. Entrepreneurship curriculum not only empowers students to dream big but to take action!
Daily activity examples
Looking for a quick activity to pass the time... Here is an example of a 5-15 minute Activity:
#1: Build a Tower from Scratch
In a group, campers must look for anything they can find to build a tower from scratch. They will have 10 minutes to build the tallest tower possible. The group with the tallest, most stable tower wins!
This example highlights an activity that may fill up a larger chunk of time, between 15-30 minutes:
#2: Entrepreneur/Company Jeporady
Set up a Jeopardy board with questions about various entrepreneurs, companies, and business concepts to test campers' knowledge of the content they have been learning!
The final example is for a longer time period, an activity that would generally take more than 30 minutes:
#3: Create an Advertisment
With a group, campers will create an advertisement for a product or service idea that they have been working on, that caters to their target audience! It could be anything from a commercial video, to a billboard ad, or a social media campaign.
Bonus Activity: Educational Movie Day
If you're looking for a break and want to have a movie day that is still educational and engaging for your students, check out our blog post "10 Fun Entrepreneur Movies & TV Shows to Watch with Your Students"
Thinking through your curriculum format, your teaching time, and the goals you’ve established for your program will help you to make sound decisions about how to lay out the learning process. Having these factors determined will make it easier to forge your own path using our curriculum! Regardless, these examples take the guesswork out of the planning stage so that you can skip straight to the fun parts.
If you think this curriculum would be a good fit for you, head to our "Get Started" page and tell us a little bit about your program and what you are looking for. We would love to work with you to implement this curriculum in a way that is most beneficial to your program!
