The Mini-Economy Business Portfolio

How to Use This:

  1. Start your classroom mini-economy using the Project-Based Learning plan below.
  2. Decide which of the assessment items below are right for your students.
  3. Prepare your students for each assessment item by choosing from the supporting lessons. These lessons focus on building content knowledge in economics. Some students will need more preparation than others.
  4. Students should save each assessment item that they complete to add to their growing business portfolio!

“What Does it Take to Be a Successful Entrepreneur?”

The Mini-Economy Business Portfolio uses this compelling question to engage the learning needs of 21st-century students. Each activity uses students’ knowledge of standards to build toward a coherent project goal: the creation of a flourishing classroom business.

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Overview of the Project-Based Learning Plan

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Project-Based Learning Plan:

This pacing guide helps you plan your classroom mini-economy.

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Summative Assignments:

Assignments that tie it all together

Rubrics for all Portfolio Items:

Common rubric All rubrics

Assessment Tasks

  • Save or Spend?
  • What Should Our Business Produce?
  • Do I Have the Resources I Need to Make My Product?
  • What Should I Specialize in?
  • How Can We Get People to Buy our Product?
  • What Price Should We Charge?
  • Why Do Different Countries Produce Different Things?

Save or Spend?

Fannie Farmer, America’s most famous cooking teacher, discovers that precise measurements are a recipe for cooking success in this STEAM picture book that includes two of her classic recipes.

Supporting Lessons:

What Should Our Business Produce?

Students collect data on their classmates’ economic wants. They also investigate how they can make goods and services that address those wants, and then use a decision-making model to decide what to produce.

Supporting Lessons:

Do I Have the Resources I Need to Make My Product?

Students analyze the different uses for natural, human, and capital resources that go into their product. They also evaluate the opportunity cost of using resources for one use instead of another.

Supporting Lessons:

What Should I Specialize in?

In this task, students conduct a simulation/experiment in which they compare two production processes. They hypothesize which will be more effective, and then analyze the results. Students then decide whether they should modify their Mini-Economy business’s production processes using the economic concept of specialization. They then create a diagram of their new production process.

Supporting Lessons:

How Can We Get People to Buy our Product?

Students analyze the purpose and effectiveness of particular advertisements using a series of questions. They then compare and contrast two different ads. Lastly, they deduce design principles for creating advertisements for their own products.

Supporting Lessons:

What Price Should We Charge?

Students survey their classmates as to how many of their products they would buy at different prices. They also create a graph in order to analyze and represent their data. Lastly, they make decisions about how much to produce based on their research. The supporting lessons emphasize a crucial aspect of entrepreneurship: the need to make enough money to cover costs.

Supporting Lessons:

Why Do Different Countries Produce Different Things?

In this case study, students create an example of what someone in ancient China might produce, focusing on resources unique to China. They also explain how China differs from Rome in areas of specialization, and why those countries might need to trade. Note: This assessment item really must be used in conjunction with one or both of the two supporting lessons below.

Supporting Lessons:

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