Activity 2.1: Introducing the Carnival Concession Stand Challenge

Introduction

Student will work in groups to begin the planning for their concession stand and pitches.

Preparation Needed for the Activity:

• • Prepare a Questions to Consider poster or slide as a guide for the students, and place it where students can reference it as they work in their groups. Include questions like the following:

    • How should you decide what type of food you should sell at your stand?

    • What do you think the Sharks will be looking for in a pitch?

  • Determine the plan for dividing the class into groups of 3-5, depending upon the number of students in your class.

Part 1 - Introducing the Challenge: 10 - 15 min

Divide the class into their groups, and introduce the Challenge. The following is an introduction to the challenge that can be read to the students:

A traveling carnival is coming to town, and has invited young entrepreneurs to open concession stands at the carnival. Each of your groups has accepted the invitation and will plan one concession stand. To do this, you need to decide what food you want to sell. You must use the class data from the "Who Are You?" survey to support your decision. At the end of this challenge, your group will make a pitch to a panel of Sharks made up of your classmates, to try to convince them to invest money in your concession stand. You will only have 2 minutes to make your pitch, and then the sharks will ask questions. Before you create your pitch, I will give you the rubric that the Sharks will use to rate their interest in your concession stand, so you can make sure that you include all the information that you need. I will tell you now that you will need to include more information than just what products you want to sell.

There are things you should keep in mind as you start to think about what you would like to sell at your stand. If all the stands plan to sell the same thing, none of you will make much money. So, you should use the data from the Who Are You? survey to support your plan, but you should start with a couple of ideas and you should be creative. For instance, there are lots of different ways of serving ice cream. What are some? [Allow class response]. I will walk around and talk to you about your ideas, so we will make sure everyone is not planning to sell the same thing.

Part 2 - Just the Facts- Knowing What to Sell: 25 min

In their groups, students should brainstorm ideas for their concession stand, using the Questions to Consider as prompts. They will not make a final decision at this time. Instead, the groups should work to narrow their ideas down to a couple of good ones, and think through what other information they might need to know for each idea (e.g. the cost of ingredients). While they are discussing their ideas, you should circulate through the room listening for duplication of ideas. One or two groups proposing the same food is okay, but you may need to guide some groups to expand their offering or change to a different product line.

Part 3 - Discussion and Reflection: 10 - 15 min

While starting to plan their concession stand, students should begin to address a few basic questions. Conduct a class discussion using the following questions:

• • What products do you want to sell at your concession stand?

  • Why do you think this will be a good product?

  • What share of your stand are you willing to give to the sharks in exchange for their investment?

(Later in the challenge they will compute the money they will need, and explore other investment questions.)

***The Google files below are copy only files. When you click the link you will see a page asking you to click a "Make a copy" button, click the button and it will create a copy of the file in your personal/school Google drive. Once in your drive, you will be able to edit and send the file to your students and view responses once collected.