Objective
Students will be able to:
- Examine Milton Hershey’s life and identify characteristics of entrepreneurs through his life.
- Compare and contrast the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship.
Standards
Concepts
In this economics lesson, students will examine the life of an entrepreneur to learn about entrepreneurship.
Procedure
Warm-up
Challenge students to list five goods or services they love to consume. Ask them who they would thank for making those goods or services available. We have goods and services in the market because there are people who have taken a risk to produce and provide them. We call those people entrepreneurs. Today we are going to look at the life of an entrepreneur who brought “sweet” treats to the market as we learn the characteristics of entrepreneurship.
Modeling
Display entrepreneur Powerpoint Slide deck. Use the slides to introduce the theme of entrepreneurship: the definition, the characteristics, the risks and the incentives.
Group Activity
Distribute a Milton Hershey statement to each student from the Timeline and distribute the Hershey Year. The years on the timeline can be written on a whiteboard surface or chalkboard. Ask students to read and summarize the fact on their timeline statement. They should post them chronologically on the timeline as they share the summary with the class.
Individual Activity
Have students take a timeline walk of Milton Hershey’s life. Challenge students to identify the one fact that best supports a characteristic, risk or incentive of entrepreneurship in Milton’s life they fill is most important. Record that fact and then explain why they selected it. Challenge students to compare themselves to Milton as it relates to that fact.
Assessment
Divide the class into 2 groups: One group will form a circle, and the other group will form a circle outside the original circle. Directions and stems are provided in Hershey Inside Out Circle. This will generate a great review of the lesson.
Extension
Activity 1
Investigate Hershey Chocolate Company at Hershey.com for products. Find out more about Hershey’s Chocolate. Have students record 3 facts they have learned.
Activity 2
Interview a local entrepreneur.
Each student will interview an entrepreneur and find out the risks and rewards associated with starting a business. Challenge students to find out when and why the entrepreneur decided to start his or her own business. (If it is not easy for students to find entrepreneurs to interview on their own time, invite one to class.)
Activity 3
If I Were an Entrepreneur.
Challenge students to develop a plan for a business they would like to start. Have them identify the product they would provide in their business, their target market, and “how” they would get started in business.
Resources
Miscellaneous Items
- Tape is needed to construct the timeline