Everyone loves a good video, especially kids! It’s always amazing to me that they can be somewhat loud and rambunctious and then a video comes on and voila; it’s like magic – they are mesmerized by the world of video, they pay attention and soak it in! That is why when I teach young entrepreneurs (adults seem to like them too), I interweave video with teaching and activities to make for a fun and effective learning environment. Since I’m getting ready for the summer camp season, I thought I would share my top 5 videos for teaching young entrepreneurs.
- Entrepreneurs Can Change the World by Grasshopper, The Entrepreneurs Phone Company. (grasshopper.com) https://youtu.be/T6MhAwQ64c0 This video is a great introduction for a discussion on what an entrepreneur is, what they do and how they can make a difference.
- Channel One News Teen Entrepreneurs Wrap Up from Channelone.com. https://youtu.be/11bOrQG3xMw . This video is a great intro into the students choosing their own business idea. It talks about passion, other businesses and the benefits of starting a business as a young entrepreneur. Channel One News has lots of great information for teens and teachers can use many of the episodes as a fun classroom discussion starter.
- Saturday Night Live’s Pizza Eater Video with Melissa McCarthy. http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/pizza-business/n35040 Melissa McCarthy goes to the bank to get a loan for her new business. This humorous video works great as an example for learning the business model canvas. In addition to being funny it shows that there is one huge flaw in her business idea (how to make revenue). After watching the video, work on the business model canvas as a group and fill in the building blocks based on the pizza eater business. Here’s more information on the business model canvas if you are not familiar with it: http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc
- Lemonaire: Youngest Entrepreneur from Umpqua Bank https://youtu.be/5d2V1LYNBeE .This is my all-time favorite video that I use when teaching young entrepreneurs. It was created by Umpqua Bank as a marketing video but includes so many lessons for teaching young entrepreneurs. It works great to use at the beginning of running a team lemonade stand. It’s great to use for a discussion of a business model, how to get money, how to plan and what can happens when things don’t go as planned.
- The Home Run from Liberty Mutual (the responsibility project) https://youtu.be/C-3QCgVDQGw . This is a true story of a girl’s baseball team and what happens with the team to win the game. It is a great example of ethics and sportsmanship and works well to start a discussion on business ethics and rules.
- BONUS: Life After Death by Powerpoint 2012 by Don McMillan https://youtu.be/MjcO2ExtHso. This is a humorous video is a great example of what not to do in Powerpoint. If the kids are going to do a presentation this will start a discussion on what you should do. The reason this is not in my top 5 is that it does include the word “hell” and it might not be appropriate for younger kids.
Now it’s your turn – I would love to hear what your favorite videos for teaching young entrepreneurs! Please share and comment below.
For more resources on teaching young entrepreneurs visit eseedling.com
