Cool Beans Tech Curriculum guide
Creator Mode
Start a business from nothing: make something people want, then run it for a whole year.
- Who it's for
- Ages 10–15 (grades 5–9)
- Subject
- Personal finance and entrepreneurship
- Length
- 16 sessions of 60 minutes, about 16 hours in all
- Devices
- Any device with a web browser
- Cost
- Free
Overview
Students start and run four businesses over one semester: a video channel, a food truck, a spinner shop and a business of their own design. Each runs for a year of monthly Market Days, where their choices on price, stock, marketing and money play out with clear, honest math. They follow Tennessee's real steps for starting a business, with small made-up amounts.
- What students make
- A real business: a channel, then a food truck, a spinner shop and your own idea.
- Topics
- Value · Profit · Marketing · Running a business
Learning objectives
By the end of Creator Mode, students will be able to:
- Explain value, cost, price and profit, and set a price that covers costs and fits what customers will pay.
- Budget a business's income into expenses, pay, savings for growth, taxes and giving, and explain why money that comes in isn't all money to keep.
- Describe the steps that make a business official, from an LLC and an EIN to permits and sales tax, and why each one matters.
- Compare a loan with interest to an investor who takes a share, and justify a choice for funding growth.
- Plan marketing for a target audience, and explain how awareness, trust and standing out from rivals affect sales.
- Write a system someone else can follow, and review a year of results to decide what's next for a business.
Beyond the subject: Professional communication · Dressing for the setting · Honesty with customers · Planning ahead · Pitching an idea
Scope and sequence
| Session | What students do | Words they learn | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creator sessions 1–5 | |||
| 1 | The big ideaStudents find a channel idea where what they love meets what people in town want, then make their business official with the state and the IRS. | value, LLC, EIN | 60 min |
| 2 | Launch dayStudents spend their first money on gear, launch their first video in September's Market Day, learn fixed costs and break-even, and build a brand. | fixed cost, break-even, brand | 60 min |
| 3 | Getting paidStudents earn their first ad money, learn revenue vs profit, set up money jars and pay themselves, choose a sponsor honestly, and start marketing to the right people. | revenue, profit, sponsor, awareness | 60 min |
| 4 | Rivals and rough monthsStudents face a rival and a copycat, learn to stand out and protect their name, then weather an algorithm change, a copyright strike and burnout. | competition, copyright, burnout | 60 min |
| 5 | Merch and year-endStudents sell their first physical product, feel cash flow and leftover stock, file their yearly paperwork, look back at their year and decide what's next. | stock, cash flow, annual report | 60 min |
| Food Truck sessions 6–9 | |||
| 6 | Back in businessStudents pick a food truck idea from what hungry people in town want, make the truck official (including the health department and the fire department) and run opening month. | spoilage, health permit, commissary | 60 min |
| 7 | Location, weather and helpStudents learn that where and when you sell decide who buys, feel the limit of their own hours, and hire their first employee with a system they wrote down. | capacity, supplier, system | 60 min |
| 8 | Busy season and a rivalStudents market a business that moves, keep a promise they can deliver, pass a health inspection, stand out against a cheaper rival, and apply for a loan to grow. | catering, interest, loyalty program | 60 min |
| 9 | Winter and year-endStudents decide on a loan, plan for a slow season, hand off months to a manager who follows their system, and close out the truck's year. | slow season, manager, delegate | 60 min |
| Spinner Shop sessions 10–13 | |||
| 10 | Design it, source itStudents design a product from what customers told them, pick a supplier, register to collect sales tax, and sell their first batch. | prototype, supplier, sales tax | 60 min |
| 11 | Batches, quality and storesStudents manage stock that keeps, catch defects before customers do, decide whether to buy more capacity, and choose where to sell (including a wholesale deal). | inventory, quality control, wholesale | 60 min |
| 12 | A rival and money to growStudents answer a cheaper rival without losing money on every sale, keep a promise to a customer, and compare a loan with investors before pitching the investor panel. | investor, share, pitch | 60 min |
| 13 | The holiday rush and year-endStudents choose how to fund growth, stock up for the holiday rush, send the state its sales tax, decide whether to scale, and close out the shop's year. | scale, cash flow, valuation | 60 min |
| Your Own Business sessions 14–16 | |||
| 14 | Your idea, your planStudents choose their own business (things, a service, content or a mix), check it with a customer, put it on one card, get the plan approved and launch. | business model, business plan, margin | 60 min |
| 15 | Run it and grow itStudents run their own business through six months, using every tool from the first three runs on their own: marketing, hiring, standing out, handling customers and funding growth. | fixed cost, variable cost, feedback | 60 min |
| 16 | Your year and pitch dayStudents write the system that lets their business run without them, finish their business's year, pitch it, and put together their Founder's Book from all four businesses. | pitch, founder | 60 min |
Standards alignment
National Standards for Personal Financial Educationgrade 8
| Creator | Food Truck | Spinner Shop | Your Own Business | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3 | Session 4 | Session 5 | Session 6 | Session 7 | Session 8 | Session 9 | Session 10 | Session 11 | Session 12 | Session 13 | Session 14 | Session 15 | Session 16 |
| Earning Income 8-5cExplain how taxes impact take-home pay. | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||
| Earning Income 8-9aInvestigate the motivating factors to being self-employed or working as an independent contractor in the 'gig' economy. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||||||||
| Earning Income 8-9bDiscuss why starting a new business could be riskier than other career choices. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||||||||
| Earning Income 8-9cResearch common reasons for new business failures. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||||||||
| Spending 8-1bCreate a budget that includes expenses and savings out of a given amount of income. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||||||||
| Spending 8-2cIdentify misleading or deceptive information about consumer goods or services found in online and print sources. | Yes | |||||||||||||||
| Spending 8-2dDiscuss ways to verify a claim expressed in advertising for an age-appropriate product. | Yes | |||||||||||||||
| Saving 8-2dDiscuss how savings decisions can affect financial well-being. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||||||||
| Investing 8-4bExplain the potential risks and rewards of investing in corporate stock. | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||
| Managing Credit 8-3aDescribe the effect of higher interest rates and longer loan terms on the total cost of a loan. | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||
| Managing Credit 8-6cJustify the use of credit for a specific purchase. | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||
| Managing Credit 8-7bPredict the possible consequences of having a lot of debt payments relative to income. | Yes | |||||||||||||||
| Managing Risk 8-5aGive examples of how people manage the risk of financial loss through risk avoidance, reduction, retention, and transfer. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||||||||
Standards © 2021 Council for Economic Education and Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. Reproduced for noncommercial educational purposes.
Alignments are our own reading of where each session fits, not an official alignment by the standards' authors.
Evidence of learning
What students finish with
- Four businesses, each with a year of monthly results: money in, costs, profit and their best month
- Business forms filed with their teacher, who plays the government office and approves or returns them
- Brand designs: logos, thumbnails, flyers, billboards, menus and packaging
- A Founder's Book with every business's plan, brand, rules and story
How progress is checked
- At every step
- Every choice shows its result: Market Day plays out the month, and a coach names the one reason it went the way it did. Students guess first, so the gap between guess and result is the lesson.
- Teacher review
- Key work goes to the teacher, who approves it or sends it back with what worked and what to try next.
- Exit tickets
- Each session closes on one question, posted by the teacher and answered live.
- Reflections and check-ins
- Students say what they made and how it's going, in their own words.
- Reports
- A progress page for each student, and a program report of how many students worked on each standard, with a spreadsheet.
- No grades or scores
- Feedback is about the work, never a number, so students keep trying.
Support for teachers
- A lesson plan for every session: a warm-up, a timed agenda, words to know, what to watch for and a closing question
- Slides for every session, to present on a projector
- A live class map: who's building, who's done and who needs help
- Hints and notes for one student or the whole class
- Sessions open when the teacher is ready, so a class can stay together
- A printable certificate for every session a student finishes
Safety, privacy and access
- Students sign in with a made-up username and a secret word: no email, real name or age is ever asked
- Only the student and their teacher see their work: no sharing between students, no public profiles
- No ads, no trackers and nothing sold
- Runs in a web browser on Chromebooks, laptops and tablets, with nothing to install, and shared devices are cleared at sign-out
- Designed for access: keyboard navigation, visible focus, readable contrast and calmer motion when a device asks for it
- Free for schools and programs
In Creator Mode: Business forms ask only for made-up company details. Where a real form needs a Social Security Number, students are told to type it only on the real IRS site, with a grown-up.