Peace Corps

Starting Your Own Small Business

The Caribbean School Chicken Coop Project

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  • Subject(s): Language Arts & Literature, Social Studies & Geography, Mathematics
  • Region / Country: Latin America & the Caribbean / Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Grade Level(s): 3–5, 6–8
  • Related Publication: Investigation | Starting Your Own Small Business
  • Duration: 1-2 class periods

Overview

Students learn about a small poultry business project that Peace Corps Volunteer Brian Lewandowski began with youth in the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent. After viewing the slideshow Raising Chickens, Empowering Youth, students engage in a math investigation in which they plan their own fictional poultry businesses.

Background Information

Students work in teams to calculate the income of their businesses over four years. Along the way, they make decisions about their businesses and respond to unexpected events. After calculating their net profits over four years, students discuss the challenges of operating a business as well as the potential of small business projects for promoting economic development around the world.

More on Peace Corps and Business Development

  More on St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Objectives

Students work in teams to calculate the income of their businesses over four years. Along the way, they make decisions about their businesses and respond to unexpected events. After calculating their net profits over four years, students discuss the challenges of operating a business as well as the potential of small business projects for promoting economic development around the world.

  • Students will use mathematical reasoning to calculate incomes and analyze data related to a small business project
  • Students will engage in cooperative decision-making
  • Students will consider the potential value and challenges of business development

Vocabulary
  • Balance sheet: A record of earnings and expenses
  • Credit : Money received or earned
  • Debit: Money spent
  • Net profit: Money remaining after all expenses and deductions
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Materials

  • Computer with internet access and audio
  • Calculators
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Procedures

  1. Discuss students' prior experience with business development, such as:
    • Do you know anyone who has started their own business?
    • What kinds of skills and knowledge do you need to start a business?
  2. Introduce Peace Corps. Explain that some Peace Corps Volunteers help communities around the world build skills to start their own businesses and generate income. Students will learn about one Peace Corps Volunteer's business development project in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Then they will engage in a computer-based math investigation inspired by the project.
  3. Open the Starting Your Own Small Business investigation and demonstrate how to navigate the pages. As a large group or in small groups, review the Introduction section. This section provides information about St. Vincent and the Grenadines and presents a slideshow featuring Peace Corps Volunteer Brian Lewandowski's business development project.
  4. Explain that students will develop plans for their own fictional poultry businesses, similar to the business that the class in St. Vincent began. Students may work in teams of 2-3. Distribute the three worksheets (see above) to each team.
  5. In the computer lab, allow time for student groups to work through the investigation independently, providing guidance as needed.
  6. Reconvene as a large group to discuss the reflection questions provided at the end of the investigation:
    • What did you learn from the experience of starting a fictional business?
    • Would you consider starting your own business in the future?  Why or why not?
    • In what ways do you think Peace Corps Volunteers' work in business development helps benefit the communities they serve?

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Extensions

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Framework and Standards

Enduring Understandings
  • Looking at past trends can help inform decision-making for the future
  • Some changes are predictable and others are unpredictable
  • Business development can help improve a community's economic sustainability
Essential Questions
  • How can data from the past help inform economic decision-making?
  • In business projects, what sorts of changes are predictable and unpredictable?
  • How do business development projects help communities in developing countries?
Standards

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics

  • Operations and Algebraic Thinking
    • Analyze patterns and relationships.
  • Measurement and Data
    • Represent and interpret data.
  • Expressions and Equations
    • Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
    • Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations.

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

  • Thematic Strand VII : Production, Distribution, and Consumption
    • Ask and find answers to questions about the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
    • Evaluate how the decisions that people make are influenced by the trade-offs of different options

U.S. National Geography Standards

  • Essential Element II: Places and Regions
    • Physical and human characteristics of places

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

  • History and Social Studies – Key Ideas and Details
    • Determine the central ideas or information of a primary source

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