Lemonade Stand: Youth Entrepreneurship in Wisconsin

Serial entrepreneur Anthony Delmedico is on a mission to revamp the core curriculum for grades 4-12 with his E2 petition for entrepreneurship education, touting the importance of education reform for our country. Entrepreneurship is the driving force for America to become the global leader in GDP, create jobs, and launch new generations of innovators.

As part of their global studies curriculum during the 2010-2011 school year, students in Kimberly Clarkson's 6th Grade class at Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington, D.C. explored ideas related to entrepreneurship. Students participated in and reflected on online simulation activities, researched and discussed mission statements of established businesses, and learned about and experimented with developing basic business concepts, including options for funding and marketing.

There are loads of free lessons here that connect social studies and environmental studies that could easily supplement entrepreneurship or service learning investigation. Free Curriculum: http://www.facingthefuture.org/Curriculum/DownloadFreeCurriculum/tabid/114/Default.aspx Service-Learning: http://www.facingthefuture.org/ServiceLearning/ServiceLearning/tabid/230/Default.aspx The lesson used at the WCSS conference was "Microcredit for Sustainable Development" downloadable here (do a find on the page for "microcredit": http://www.facingthefuture.org/Curriculum/DownloadFreeCurriculum/tabid/114/Agg1389_SelectTab/5/Default.aspx#Download_Curriculum_by_Subject

Visit DPI's web site to download a copy of the Vision for Entrepreneurship Education in Wisconsin -- http://dpi.wi.gov/cte/pdf/eshiplit.pdf -- and find other resources to support entrepreneurship education.

Kiva is a site that allows people to give partial microloans to entrepreneurs in third world countries.

This link was shared at the Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies conference on March 21, 2011.

Marketplace for Kids is a unique educational program offering encouragement for developing young entrepreneurs. It provides young people with a forum to present and explain their projects which are demonstrating entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity.