Launch League

For teachers · Grades 7 and 8

Business exploration pack

Three 40-minute sessions, teacher-led, on paper. Students look for a real problem, work out who would pay to fix it, and talk to an adult who does real work. Nothing is entered into a website, so there is no account, no sign-up and nothing collected from a child. Use your browser's Print command to make a copy.

Teacher guide

  • Goal: students practise noticing a problem, thinking about a customer and pricing something, and hear what real work is like.
  • You need: paper and pencils. A projector is optional.
  • Grouping: pairs work best. Keep ideas to school and town, and keep prices small, so students are not spending money.
  • Safety: students should not contact strangers or take payment. The interview in session 3 is with a classmate, a staff member or a guest you have arranged.
  • What it is not: an accredited course. It is a supplement. It does not meet a graduation, financial literacy or career-technical requirement, and I make no claim about Ohio standards. Your school decides how it fits.

Session 1 · 40 min

What problem could a business fix?

  1. Warm-up (5 min): Name something you paid for this month. Who got your money, and why did they get it instead of someone else?
  2. Notice (10 min): In pairs, list five small problems at school or in town that annoy people. Circle the ones people would actually pay to fix.
  3. Pick (10 min): Each pair picks one problem and finishes the sentence: "We help ___ who struggle with ___ by ___."
  4. Share (10 min): Two or three pairs read their sentence. The class says one thing that is strong and one question they have.
  5. Close (5 min): Exit slip on paper: one thing I learned about what makes a business.

Session 2 · 40 min

Who would pay, and how much?

  1. Warm-up (5 min): Would you pay $1 for it? $5? $20? Show hands. Why does the answer change?
  2. Customers (10 min): Pairs write who has the problem and where they would find them. Decide one question to ask three real people this week.
  3. Cost and price (15 min): Pairs list what it would cost to deliver once (materials, time, anything else), choose a price, and work out what is left over. Teacher checks the arithmetic.
  4. Pitch (10 min): Thirty seconds each: the problem, the customer, the price. The class votes with a show of hands on whether they would buy.

Session 3 · 40 min

Talk to someone who does the work

  1. Warm-up (5 min): What is one job you could not describe in two sentences? Why not?
  2. Prepare (10 min): Each student writes three questions for an adult who works: What do you actually do all day? What did you have to learn? What would surprise me about your job?
  3. Ask (20 min): Students interview a classmate who plays an adult worker, or a school staff member visits, or the optional guest session below. Students write down two things they did not expect.
  4. Close (5 min): One thing I want to find out more about, written on paper.

Student worksheet (paper)

  1. The problem we picked: ______________________________________
  2. Who has it, and where I would find them: ______________________________________
  3. What it would cost to deliver once: ____________ . Our price: ____________ . What is left over: ____________
  4. Three questions I will ask a person who works: ______________________________________
  5. Two things I did not expect to hear: ______________________________________
  6. One thing I want to find out more about: ______________________________________

Keep worksheets in the classroom. Please do not photograph or upload them.

Optional: a guest session

For session 3, I can join your class over video as the adult who runs businesses, with your own staff member in the room. It is free for the first schools in the pilot; see the teachers page. I never contact a student directly.

Launch League, launchleague.us. Free to copy for classroom use. Back to the teachers page.