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The school at the market place |
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Pupils learn to plan their work, distribute tasks, exchange ideas, work in teams, value effort, and are eager to overcome barriers so that their final product can pass the strict quality control regulations they set. |
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Age: 5-12
Duration: One school year
Use of ICT tools: e-mail, websites, video conference, video
Subjects: Languages, mathematics, arts, geography, consumer education, business studies.
Objectives
- Empower pupils to be critical, responsible citizens, able to consciously make their own choices in a consumer-driven society
- Foster team work and collaboration among pupils of different age and skills
- Educate on issues for entrepreneurs so that pupils can consider self-employment as a possibility in the future
- Exchange experiences, customs and traditions
- Foster the European dimension in education
Process
First term: Creating the mini company
Schools work individually to
- Create a co-operative company, decide posts and responsibilities
- Write minutes, noting down all the agreements.
- 3. Decide what they are going to manufacture. The product(s) selected must meet three conditions: easy to make, low cost and attractive to prospective buyers.
- Determine production costs.
- Decide on the number of products they are going to produce. This is related to the company’s production capacity and to the number of prospective customers.
- Buy raw materials. It is important that pupils compare price and quality before taking the decision to actually buy a product.
- Think of a name for their company and design a logo that identifies it.
- Design the labels that will include and meet all information regulations required for each type of product.
Second term: Production and collaboration
At this stage the partners will
- Upload the information about their company in the TwinSpace. Pupils can use the TwinSpace to introduce themselves to the pupils from other countries and get to know one another too.
- Make sample products and list them in a catalogue.
- Share this catalogue with all the partners. The TwinSpace can be used for this purpose.
- Agree on the number of products to send to each partner.
- Now that each class knows its production costs, they need to decide the final price of the product and thus the benefits they want to obtain. Although not all the information has to be shared, their teachers must bear some things in mind:
- The objective is not earning money, but carrying out a practical and attractive activity where pupils are able to learn, have fun and buy each other’s products, and the buying power of pupils is low.
- Note that if the price for the products is the same for the products produced in the different classes, there would be no need to buy them. In this way, costs related to bank transfers will be avoided. Each school involved in the partnership can sell both their own and their partners products.
- All products should go through a quality control process so that no defective product reaches the market. This will be done by the pupils themselves.
- The manufacturing process is the longest. The amount of time pupils can devote to their co-operatives is limited because they will also have to go on working on their everyday tasks. However, the need to master certain tasks in order to have a better company will motivate them to work hard on many classroom activities. Maths, for example, will be seen in a different light now that they need to be able to make precise and fast calculations when selling.
Third term: Market day!
Now is when pupils need to be really creative. Some of the things they can do are:
- Design a publicity campaign: Posters, stickers, bags, stall decorations, product presentations…
- Ask the City Council for its permission to have their stalls for the open market.
- Invite authorities related to compulsory education, entrepreneur education and consumer education to visit their stall.
- Invite the media (press, radio and television) to make interviews both in the classroom and at the market, while they are in action.
- Publish a school newspaper where all pupils who have participated in different companies talk about their experience. This newspaper is a good tool to inform parents about what their children are doing.
Celebrate and Evaluate: The day after
The time to celebrate, reflect and evaluate has come. Pupils
- Scan the press and look for themselves in pictures.
- Read the news. Pupils will experience that sometimes what has been written does not correspond exactly to their experience.
- Share and comment on the anecdotes of the day.
- Check how much money they have earned and decide what thet can do with it (a small excursion, eating out, have a snack, go to the movies or buy a book…) If some money is still left, it is good to spare it as the initial capital for next year’s company.
and share it with their partners.
Products
Different types of products that can be created are:
- Gardening: plants, flower pots
- Food: cakes, jam, chocolates, cookies, doughnuts
- Decorations: flower arrangements, bath salts, small boxes, tablecloths
- Stationery: notebooks, pencils, photo albums
As for ICT products to support the project, some possibilities are:
- Electronic newspaper
- Electronic diary and calendar
- Forum
- Picture galleries
- Web page in the TwinSpace
- CDs
- Videos
Link to more information on use of software tools and guidelines to eTwinning.
Other options
The project can also be carried out by schools in parallel, without buying and selling of products among partners, simply sharing the experience and evaluating the results achieved at every step
Similar projects
You can see here the products some Spanish primary pupils have made to exchange with Maltese pupils
http://eme.valnaloneduca.com/pageme/Catalogo.pdf
Una Empresa en Mi Escuela (EME)
Entrepreneur education for Primary students by the Industry Department in Asturias, Spain
http://www.eme.valnaloneduca.com/
Interesting links
Community enterprise: People, economy and the environment (Learning object on entrepreneur education)
http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/tlf2/
Pupil evaluation
The pupils will be evaluated
From the first day, on their
- Implication in the development of the project
- Interest and participation
- Accomplishment of entrusted task.
Throughout the process, on their
- Self evaluation
- Result analysis and proposal for improvement
- Reflection and argumentation of proposals
- Respect for the opinion of others
- Fulfillment of the norms of hygiene and security in work
- Quality Control of the elaborated products
- Advertising campaign: Labeling, design, creativity and ethics
- Use of recycled materials, when possible
At the moment of the sale, on their
- Design of the stalls
- Product presentation
- Politeness and amiability in dealing with customers
- Ability to make fast calculations
Original idea:
Mª Rosario García Zapico, craaltonalon@educastur.princast.es
Mª Rosario is a teacher at Escuela de Entralgo (Colegio Rural agrupado Alto Nalón) (Laviana), Spain. She has been involved in entrepreneur education projects and participated with her pupils in her village’s market place since 1988, inspiring many other primary teachers in Spain to do the same. Her rural class consists of pupils aged 5 to 12.
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Web Editor: |
Nuria de Salvador |
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Last changed : |
16/02/2007 |
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