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11 Engaging High School Business Class Activities (They’ll Ask for Again)

Fun high school business class activities that'll keep things light, engaging, and educational.

Need some engaging ideas for high school business class activities?

business class students looking at front to teacher, text overlay "high school business activities teens will love"

Maybe you’re swamped and have no time to brainstorm. Or, you’re being observed this Friday and want to put your class’s best foot forward.

Or, your students are far more interested in who they’ll be sitting with at lunch, the impending new smartphone policies at school, fill-in-the-blank, than anything business-related and you’re so over that

Whatever the reason, I’m glad you’re here.

I’ve got some fun, and HIGHLY engaging activities to try with your business class students today, tomorrow, and whenever else you need to get them to that next level of business understanding.

High School Business Class Activities

Use these business class activities to shake things up a bit in your business class, or introduce a unit, or as extra credit…anything you want.

1. Duct Tape Product Competition

colorful duct tape rose on white background

Pick teams, and task each team with creating a product with duct tape.

You’ll ask students to price out the cost of supplies (if they were paying for them), decide what problem the product solves, and come up with one core message to grab future customers’ attention to buy it. Then, have them price the product.

Here are a few Duct Tape Creation books that can help:

You can make this into a classroom-wide competition or have a group of teachers on a board where teams present and are judged on different criteria.

What will the winners get? Here are some classroom reward and prize ideas.

2. Biz Bust Bingo Fridays

set of Biz Bust Bingo printables on white background

It’s a reality that around 20% of new businesses fail within their first year (which has been pretty consistent since at least 1994, according to this data).

Instead of being scared about this, I think we should double down on using business failure stories as learning opportunities for budding entrepreneurs.

And one way to do that is to play a round of Biz Bust Bingo (BBB) each Friday.

I’ve created the Bingo cards here, plus a playlist of appropriate videos with business owners explaining how they started and shut down their own businesses.

Hint: Videos are between 9 minutes and 17 minutes long, FYI.

3. Generic Vs. Brand Blind Taste Test

generic marshmallows next to brand marshmallows with free printables to compare

When I was a teenager, my stepmother played a test/trick on us by swapping out our branded Frosted Flakes cereal with the generic version (and dumping the generic one into the branded box). She thought we wouldn’t be able to tell.

<incorrect>.

However, generics have come a looooonnnngggg way since then.

They’re an excellent way to save money on groceries and household items, and for your teens to understand more about businesses, manufacturing, etc.

Go check out this free Generic vs. Brand Blind Taste Test business activity.

4. Play a Round of Country Product Swap

Thinking through how a product that’s marketed and sold in the United States would change its marketing and selling in another country can lead to lots of good learning.

Get a bunch of index cards and make two decks. On one deck, you’ll write a bunch of different countries (one country on each card). On the other deck, you’ll write a bunch of different products (one on each card).

Have your students individually or by group choose one card: a product, and a country.

Then have them answer some of these questions:

  • How would they change the packaging?
  • The product look?
  • The size?
  • The marketing of it?
  • What else to do to make it more desirable for this country’s consumers?

5. Deep Dive into the PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte)

bright pop art hand holding to-go coffee cup

Starbucks has managed to create a product and market it in a way that sells over 20 million per year.

How do they do it? How can you take those lessons learned and apply them to a different seasonal product?

Have your students deep-dive into the marketing behind the Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Start off by having them research the basics:

  • What is the product?
  • What problem(s) does it solve?
  • Where is it sold?
  • How much does it cost?

Then have them research the marketing machine behind this. Steer them with these questions:

  • When does Starbucks start promoting the PSL?
  • What are the core marketing messages around this product?
  • What social media channels do they use when promoting?

Then, start looking into the deeper strategy behind this bestseller. Such as:

Finally, introduce a seasonal product that’s either made up or a real one. And ask students to come up with ideas for how to make it a standout, bestseller with a cult-like fan following, just like the PSL.

6. Friday Business & Finances Game Day

inside of Mystic Market board game box
inside the Big Money board game box on dark table

There are many things students can learn through some of the wonderful and fun business/finance board games out there.

Plus, you can use the motivation of a Business/Finance Game Friday for them to get through some of the other slug work.

  • Snake Oil (The Selling Game): Groups of 3-10 students get to practice their selling skills in this hilarious game.
  • Big Money: Middle School and High School Students learn about assets and investing in this board game.
  • Mystic Market: Students create potions, and then try to sell them. One of the problems is the market prices for supply ingredients keep changing, and students need to adjust to come out with a profit.

Here are 9 additional investing board games for kids.

7. Would this Product Make it Now?

Have students research a product that used to be very popular in the 1930s-1970s, and that doesn’t exist anymore.

Why was that product so popular (what problem did it solve) back then?

Would that product make it nowadays, if it was reintroduced?

What is a good substitute for that product now to solve the same problem, and does it cost money, or is it free?

8. Dollar Tree Product Duds – Why’d They Die?

three products that are thought to be duds from Dollar Tree

Dollar Tree shelves are lined with $1.25 generics, smaller-sized branded products, all manner of knock-offs, and – if you look closely enough – some very interesting discontinued merchandise.

Locate a few “dud” products from Dollar Tree, and let your business students work through the free printable to figure out why these products didn’t sell.

9. Online Factory Tour + Free Printable

Maybe your students can’t do an in-person factory tour, but there are lots of virtual ones.

I created a free printable that has prep questions, and follow-up questions, plus a list of free virtual factory tours they can choose from.

It’s a pretty fun business activity for students.

10. Shark Tank Activity

Shark Tank is such a fun show for anyone, and it can be especially great for business class students.

Here are 14 free Shark Tank activities and lesson plans to use with your business students.

11. Student Bulletin Board Takeover: Showcase Mobile App Ideas

four printable sheets for the create a mobile app activity on a white background

There are currently about 9 million apps or applications available to download on both iOS (Apple) and Android smartphones. Each attempts to solve problem(s) for a customer, and to earn money while doing so.

Put students into groups, and then task each group with developing the outline of a mobile app that will solve a specific customer’s problems.

They’ll need to pick from a list of customers and a list of problems to solve, a list of personas to solve it for, brainstorm the app’s needs and then draw it out visually.

This makes a great business project for students.

You can take it a step further by letting each group of students decorate a bulletin board or wall using their app creation. Rotate through the groups and give each a week or a month on the bulletin board to highlight their app, the problem it solves, their target customer, etc.

Whichever of these business class activities you choose, I'd LOVE to hear how it all goes! What did your students learn? What did they really like (and what did they think wasn't fun at all)? Leave a comment below.

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Amanda L. Grossman is a writer and Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®), a 2017 Plutus Foundation Grant Recipient, and founder of Money Prodigy. Her money work has been featured on Experian, GoBankingRates, PT Money, CA.gov, Rockstar Finance, the Houston Chronicle, and Colonial Life. Amanda is the founder and CEO of Frugal Confessions, LLC. Read more here or on LinkedIn.