Economics of Innovation

Classroom-Ready Resources for Teaching the Future of Innovation

Economics of Innovation provides educators with valuable resources to teach the increasingly popular topic of entrepreneurship. By focusing on key economic principles, the unit helps teachers create engaging and interactive lessons that explore the risks and rewards of starting a business. Participants receive a complete set of teaching materials designed specifically for educators who want to bring economics and entrepreneurship to life in grades 7–12 classrooms. Aligned with core economic principles and entrepreneurial thinking, the curriculum includes ready-to-use lesson plans, hands-on activities, case studies, and implementation guides.

FTE instructors examine some of the topics that future entrepreneurs should learn. A wide variety of issues, such as supply chain considerations, AI, international trade, and business plan creation, will be integrated with economics principles. Hands-on activities will provide teachers with ready-to-implement ideas that blend creativity, critical thinking, and real-world application.  Whether introducing basic economic concepts or guiding students through the process of developing a business idea, these resources make it easy to integrate engaging, standards-based content into any classroom setting.

Prepare your students to think critically, solve problems creatively, and explore the world of entrepreneurship using the economic way of thinking—with everything you need, all in one place.

Lessons are designed to stand alone, or to be used together as the framework for a semester course. Applicable economics content standards are identified. FTE curriculum materials may be copied in whole or part for noncommercial educational classroom use only.

This curriculum is ideal for teachers of entrepreneurship, economics, and general business classes.

Each lesson listed below include links to lesson outlines and presentation slides.

• Lesson 1: Foundations for an Entrepreneur
  • In this lesson students will be introduced to entrepreneurs and the role they play in the economy. 
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• Activity: Entrepreneurship Self-assessment 
  • In this lesson students will take a self-assessment about their Entrepreneurship characteristics and then participate in skill challenge stations as a team. 
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• Lesson 2: Economic Concepts for an Entrepreneur
  • In this lesson students will be introduced to economic concepts that are important to entrepreneurs using mini games/activities. 
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• Lesson 3: Institutions for an Entrepreneur 
  • In this lesson students will be introduced to institutions that affect the choices and 
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• Activity: Destination Start up
  • In this lesson students take on the role of entrepreneurs looking for a place to start their business.  They work with a team to research 4 countries and choose the one that is most desirable for their start-up
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• Activity: In the Chips
• Lesson 4: Pricing for Entrepreneurs 
  • In this lesson students will focus on how supply, demand, and the market affects pricing decisions for entrepreneurs. 
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• Activity: Food Truck Challenge: A game of Supply and Demand
  • In this lesson students will understand and use the concepts of supply and demand to make entrepreneurial decisions in a board game-like simulation.
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• Lesson 5: Business plan for Entrepreneurs
  • In this lesson students will learn what a business plan is and begin writing one for their own businesses.
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• Activity: Creative Destruction–Build a Better Widget
  • In this activity, students will experience creative destruction as they create classroom inventions and then change, modify, and improve others’ inventions.
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• Lesson 6: Understanding Market Structures for an Entrepreneur
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• Lesson 7: Resources and hiring decisions for Entrepreneurs
  • In this lesson students will learn about economic resources and understand how entrepreneurs make hiring decisions. 
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• Activity 7 AI or HI? 
  • In this interactive and fast-paced activity, students will work in teams to solve a variety of challenges across subjects. Through this experience, they’ll explore when artificial intelligence acts as a substitute for human labor, when it serves as a complement, and how limited resources like time and team members shape decision-making.
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• Capstone Project: From Idea to Enterprise–The Entrepreneur Showcase
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