October 6, 2008

Classroom business program is economic child's play

Classroom Business Enterprise is an economic and entrepreneurship program for elementary and middle schools in 14 north-central Indiana counties. The program provides teachers the training and tools to teach students the basics of starting businesses. As part of the educational experience, students will operate their own classroom businesses.

Teachers will come to Purdue on Tuesday (Oct. 7) to learn more about the program and starting classroom businesses. The workshop includes talks by teachers who participated in the Classroom Business Enterprise pilot program.

The goal of Classroom Business Enterprise is twofold, said Harlan Day, ICEE executive director.

"We want to develop an entrepreneurship spirit in the students," Day said. "Also, students are taught content that meets the state economic education standards."

Receiving instruction that helps meet those standards is important, because a social studies component will be added to the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress  test for students in grades five and seven next spring, Day said.

Three Warren County schools took part in the Classroom Business Enterprise pilot program. The sixth-grade students at Warren Central, Pine Village and Williamsport elementaries raised their own financial capital through loans or "stock" offerings, produced and marketed their products or services, and closed the businesses by repaying loans and shareholders.

The students in the pilot program embraced the classroom business exercise, said Sherry Sarkkinen, county educator, Purdue University Extension Warren County and a program facilitator.

"One class made and sold what they called Cookies in a Jar," Sarkkinen said. "The product contained a complete cookie mix in a decorated jar. The students took orders from parents and also sold their product at a school event. They even had a Web site for their business."

Another class blended three popular candies into a single candy bar they called McCrunch Kats. Still other classes organized a large car wash, made and sold rock candy and manufactured school spirit buttons.

"I had students come up to me and ask if I could come back and help them with a classroom business next year," Sarkkinen said.

About 50 teachers from nine Indiana WIRED counties will attend Tuesday's training workshop, which runs from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Stewart Center, on Purdue's West Lafayette campus.

The teachers and student representatives will return to Purdue on April 20 for a Classroom Business Showcase, Day said.

"Students will display products and their financial results, and possibly offer some of their merchandise for sale," Day said.

WIRED is an economic and workforce development initiative administered by Purdue. WIRED stands for Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development.

The 14 north-central Indiana WIRED counties include Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Fulton, Howard, Montgomery, Miami, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Wabash, Warren and White.

Additional information about Indiana WIRED is available online at https://www.indiana-wired.net

The council for economic education is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the National Council on Economic Education and Purdue's Department of Agricultural Economics. Its mission is to improve the economic literacy of Indiana citizens, especially K-12 students.

To learn more about the council, visit its Web site at https://www.econed-in.org/

Writer: Steve Leer, (765) 494-8415, sleer@purdue.edu

Sources: Harlan Day, (765) 494-8544, dayhr@purdue.edu

Sherry Sarkkinen, (765) 762-3231, ssarkkin@exchange.purdue.edu

Ag Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Beth Forbes, forbes@purdue.edu
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