Earn a Field Trip Business Plan

Students learn what it takes to create a business around a sellable product. Program can expand as students sell their products at the Castle in the Clouds gift shop and other local stores in order to use revenue to pay for a field trip to Castle in the Clouds.

• Program is customizable depending on time-limits. This can be a one-day classroom program or expand to a PBL that also gets students on the Castle property and interacting with their local communities as they sell their products.

Lesson Target(s):

• I CAN create and collaborate on a business plan.
• I CAN implement a business plan.
• I CAN plan a field trip using the profits generated by my business plan implementation.

Guiding Question(s):

• How can you measure success?
• What makes your product unique in the current market?

Standard(s):

C3 Curriculum Standards:

• Eco.1.6-8. Explain how economic decisions affect the well-being of individuals, businesses, and society.
• Eco.3.6-8. Explain the roles of buyers and sellers in product, labor, and financial markets.
• Eco.4.6-8. Describe the role of competition in the determination of prices and wages in a market economy.
• Eco.7.6-8. Analyze the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in a market economy.

NH Social Studies Standards:

• SS:EC:6:1.1: Identify the role of the individual in factor and product markets. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs)
• SS:EC:6:1.2: Explain how specialization and productivity are related. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs, G: Science, Technology, and Society)
• SS:EC:6:2.1: Determine the opportunity cost of decisions, e.g., the purchase of an item or the expenditure of time. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs)
• SS:EC:6:2.2: Identify the factors of production, e.g., entrepreneurship, human resources, capital resources, and natural resources. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs, G: Science, Technology, and Society)
• SS:EC:8:2.2: Explain the elements of entrepreneurship, e.g., idea development, risk-taking, or management skills. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs, E: Cultural Development, Interaction, and Change, H: Individualism, Equality and Authority)
• SS:EC:8:3.1: Identify and explain the different phases of the business cycle, e.g., recession or depression. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs, E: Cultural Development, Interaction, and Change)
• SS:EC:8:6.1: Compare the advantages and disadvantages of different payment methods. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs)
• SS:EC:8:6.8: Design a plan for earning, spending, saving, and investing. (Themes: D: Material Wants and Needs)

Castle Theme(s):

• In the years since Tom Plant’s death, the Lucknow Estate has served as a gathering place for families and community members.
• Exploring life on the Lucknow Estate facilitates an intimate understanding of the Plants, their guests and their servants.

Castle in the Clouds gratefully acknowledges these generous funders for their support of our Educational Programming Initiatives:

Marriott Daughters Foundation
The Eppes-Jefferson Foundation
The Foss Family Foundation
The Allan and Gail Gerrish Fund
The Haynes Family Foundation
The Kathleen B. and Charles R. Walgreen III Foundation