LaunchTN’s Discover Entrepreneurship Program makes innovation and tech education curriculum accessible to more students. The best part? It’s free to high schools and community organizations across the state.
Are you a high school or community youth organization interested in teaching skills essential for today’s innovation economy? LaunchTN and our partners want to help.
Our Discover Entrepreneurship Program — delivered at no cost to Tennessee schools and community organizations — is aimed at making entrepreneurship and tech education curriculum accessible to more Tennessee students.
What we’ll provide:
- In-depth, semester-long curriculum
- Teacher training
- Ongoing support
What you’ll provide:
- Teacher/facilitator
- Dedicated classroom space and time
- Students
Here’s a look at the three curriculum options we’re offering for the 2019–2020 school year.
Launching Bright Ideas
LAUNCH Chattanooga’s youth program, Launching Bright Ideas, provides a simulated entrepreneurship experience. Students form teams around a business idea and walk through each step of growth, from ideation to a fully formed (and well-researched) business model. Students will explore concepts like competitive analysis, customer discovery, intellectual property, and fixed and variable costs, and how each of these applies to the idea they’re developing.
The program is designed to run three hours a week for 14 weeks — but it’s extremely flexible: Teachers can either use the curriculum for a standalone entrepreneurship course (which meets Tennessee Department of Education standards), or incorporate the material into an existing course, such as finance, marketing, etc.
Change Agents
Fathom, a social enterprise organization in Nashville, has created Change Agents, a project-based-learning curriculum aimed at helping young people develop transferable skills for work-life success. Over the course of six modules, students explore topics and produce deliverables to promote personal and professional alignment, civic engagement, and entrepreneurial problem-solving for local change.
While students work to determine their passions and interests, they will also identify a community problem they’d like to solve. This problem and solution form the basis of their business model, which they’ll develop throughout the course.
Similar to Launching Bright Ideas, Change Agents can be implemented as a standalone course (Entrepreneurship or Entrepreneurship Practicum), or used as supplemental teaching material. This six-module course can run for six weeks up to two semesters, depending on how the teacher wants to present the material.
DevCatalyst
Our third curriculum partner is theCO entrepreneur center in Jackson, TN. TheCO has developed DevCatalyst, a coding and holistic tech education platform aimed at incorporating project management, teamwork, and soft skills education in addition to computer coding skills.
The curriculum aligns with the state’s Department of Education standards for Coding I and Principles of Computer Science. But thanks to a comprehensive training program, lessons, and activities, any teacher, not just a computer science expert, can successfully lead students through the course.
Interested in one of our DEP programs? Let us know! Contact morgan@launchtn.org.
