The BizWorld Foundation
The 28th Annual Entrepreneurship
Education FORUM
Nov 12 - 16, 2010 - Columbus, Ohio
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The BizWorld Foundation inspires children to
be innovative leaders through the teaching
of entrepreneurship, business and finance.
We connect third to eighth grade students to
the real world by providing curricula, training
educators and fostering collaboration between
education and business.
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What Is The Issue We Address?
• Lack of business education creates a shortage of
business-savvy or financially aware adults
• More financially educated adults make better
economic decisions, resulting in greater economic
stability
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Challenges to Global Competitiveness
• Education is the key to an innovative workforce, but faces significant obstacles:
• Only 50% high school graduation rate in our highest need communities
• Only 50% of 8th graders perform at grade level
• Urban boys are more likely to go to jail than graduate from high school
• Girls less interested and proficient in STEM according to recent research
• These education issues have national and international implications:
• National unemployment rate at 10%
• Mortgage defaults at an all-time high
• Record federal deficits and trade imbalances
• U.S. losing it’s competitive edge to other industrialized nations
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The
TheFuture
FutureAmerican
AmericanWorkforce
Workforce
The U.S. must retain its competitive edge in innovation
and continue to focus on highest value creative work:
The Report of The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
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What Change Are We Trying
To Create?
•Systemic: Contribute to cultivating a stronger
presence of business and entrepreneurship in education
•Individual: Contribute to creating a stronger society
of accountable adults: responsible decision-makers,
informed consumers, smart voters
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Why Could This Change Happen Now?
• Education system facing pressure to innovate
• Multiple stakeholders focused on education outcomes
• New education structures create entry points for business learning
• Children possess real economic decision making power
• Business landscape more transparent and in the news
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Why We Need Financial Education Today
• Use the current economic climate as a learning opportunity:
The President of the National Endowment for Financial Education
describes the current financial crisis as “one of the greatest
teachable moments that’s ever happened.”
• Inspire children to become our future economic leaders and innovators
• Ensure an educated and skilled workforce, as well as a financially aware populace
• Challenge our most ambitious students to apply their knowledge to the real world
• Make sure all students have:
• The economic tools they need to succeed
• Knowledge about economic and financial principles
• Awareness of the positive aspects of business
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Why
Business
and Works
Financial
How
BizWorld
Education Matters
The new economic landscape requires that we
prepare students to:
• Analyze and solve problems as part of a team
• Exercise leadership in challenging projects
• Apply their knowledge to real-world situations
• Understand math and economic concepts, and how
they relate to each other
• Effectively communicate verbally and visually with
their team and to an audience
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Solutions That Work
We Can Do!)
(What
• Start business education earlier (high school is already too late!)
• Inspire students to become innovative leaders and financially responsible citizens
• Leverage real-world project-based learning to teach critical life skills
• Engage students with innovative, relevant, interdisciplinary curricula
• Involve teachers, parents and community members in the learning process
• Teach business principles to youth (and educators) in order to create a more
financially literate society
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What BizWorld Believes In
• The power of education to positively
influence children
• Financial and entrepreneurship education
as tools for economic prosperity
• The involvement of the private sector to bridge the gap
between business and education
• The ingenuity, creativity, and ability of children to
create their own opportunities for success
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2010 State of the States Study –Council for Economic Education
Entrepreneurial Education
Why it matters for Ohio
• K-12 economic education standards, guidelines, or
proficiencies have been mandated in Ohio
• Personal finance education is currently only required in
high school
• Ohio unemployment rate – 10%
The BizWorld Foundation
in Ohio
• Program currently being taught in 25 classrooms in Mason City
School District (688 students)
• Teachers have shared best practices through technology like wikis
• Program has been taught in an additional 6 classrooms (165 students)
• Great candidate for fulfilling professional development requirements
for state licensed educators
• Currently working with Ashland University in creating long term
professional development program using BizWorld as the curriculum.
Pilot program to be 25-60 educators
How BizWorld Works
• Developing innovative project-based curricula
teaching entrepreneurship, business, and finance
• Training educators and volunteers
• Connecting classrooms to the real world
• Providing community engagement opportunities
• Sharing best practices
• Emphasizing innovation, teamwork, problem-solving,
creativity, leadership, and other 21st Century skills
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An Introduction to Our Programs
• 3-8th Grade
•Classroom/After School/Summer School
• 10-15 hours to implement
• Effective for all students
• Aligned to standards
• Remedial, gifted, at-risk (RTI)
• Project-based
• Character education
• Real-world math
• Career connections (CTE)
• Naturally differentiated
• Special education
• Interdisciplinary
• English learners
• Experiential
• STEM integration
• Teaches 21st Century skills
• Engages community members/parents
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The BizWorld Curricula
BizWorld
• Integrates business,
entrepreneurship and
finance as students start,
fund, and run a company
in a simulated real-world
environment
• Companies create revenue
stream, deduct expenses,
experience profit/loss,
formulate income
statement, and calculate
company value
BizWiz
• Students form
investment teams that
set a financial goal,
analyze economic
forecasts and create an
investment strategy
• Students participate in
simulated trading
sessions to achieve their
investment goal
BizMovie
• Integrates business and
technology as students
start, fund and run a
movie production
company
• Students produce,
market, and sell tickets
to their animated film
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Setting the BizWorld Stage
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Pitching the BizWorld VC
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BizWorld Design and Manufacturing
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BizWorld Finance
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BizWorld Marketing Campaign
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The BizWorld Sales Bazaar!
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BizWorld’s
BizWorld’sProven
ProvenResults
Results
• Over 270,000 students have participated since 1997
• Over 4,700 educators teaching our programs
• Successful programs in all 50 states
• Taught in over 80 countries (with 4 major international
partners, including Netherlands, Korea, India, and Singapore)
• Alliances with schools, districts, after-school programs,
non-profits, camps, and others
• Students show an average increase of 61% in their
understanding of basic business, math, and economic
concepts after completing the BizWorld program
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Why Educators Love BizWorld
• Embedded learning: “academics in disguise” that are engaging for all
learners (and fun for the teacher!)
• Reinforcement of highly-tested concepts in meaningful context
• Relevant: answers the age-old question, “Why are we learning this?”
• Opportunity for integration of 21st Century skills
• Model of project-based interdisciplinary instruction
• Provides hands-on activities that culminate in a showcase (press release
template to encourage community involvement provided)
• Tool for developing authentic relationships between school, community,
parents, teachers and after-school instructors to close the achievement gap
• Meaningful platform for developing relationships with community partners
for support and sustainability (mentoring/fundraising)
• Inexpensive and reusable
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Why Parents and Volunteers Love
BizWorld
Parents
• Love to see their children
learning life skills
• Enjoy the opportunity to
engage their children in
conversations about what they
do at work
• Appreciate being able to
volunteer in their child’s
classroom in a meaningful way
Volunteers
• Easy to teach (no teaching
experience necessary)
• Flexible (can be taught in as
few as 10 hours)
• Utilizes their skill set (share
time as well as expertise in
business and finance)
• Engagement (can develop
long-term relationship with
school by teaching every year)
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Why Volunteers Love BizWorld
• Easy to teach (no teaching experience necessary)
• Flexible (can be taught in as few as 10 hours)
• Utilizes their skill set (share time as well as
expertise in business and finance)
• Engagement (can develop long-term relationship
with school by teaching every year)
• Fun! The kids love the program and love having
volunteers to support them
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BizWorld Works!
BizWorld
Works!
• “BizWorld programs reach beyond what regular curriculum can
deliver. I support their programs and see the terrific benefits.”
– Don Fisher, Founder, Gap, Inc.
• “I learned that you could do anything in life.”
– Luis, 5th grade, Silver Hills Elementary School
• “I learned that to start a business you need to take risks and be
creative, and I learned to work as a team efficiently.”
– Ananya, 5th grade, Perry L. Drew Elementary, East Windsor, NJ
• “BizWorld is truly a joy to teach because our students learn life
lessons through the program that will stick with them for years.”
– Heidi, Waxahachie Preparatory Academy, Waxahachie, TX
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Who Are We?
• 501c3 non-profit
• Nationwide organization based in San Francisco, CA
• 15 employees (from education, public, and private sectors)
• $1.6M budget
• Major funders:
• Financial institutions (e.g. Visa, Franklin Templeton, NYSE)
• Venture capitalists (e.g. Draper Fischer Jurvetson)
• Banks (Merrill Lynch/Bank of America, Wells Fargo/Wachovia)
• Foundations and individual donors
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How You Can Help
• Bring BizWorld programs to your school or community
• Teach or support the teaching of a class
• Visit a classroom
• Invest in our growth
• Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn
• Sign up for our e-newsletter at www.bizworld.org
• Contact us: 415-503-5880/info@bizworld.org
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