Market Madness Brings Endeavor Economics Lessons to Life

Fifth graders at Endeavor Elementary are practically getting paid to go on their spring field trip. Besides the experience not costing the school a cent, every student will walk away with new entrepreneurial skills and $600 worth of products created by other elementary students around the region. 

Called Market Madness, the partnership with the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center empowers students to put their entrepreneurial skills to work and play the role of both producers and consumers. It all culminates in a massive student-led market set up in the middle of UC’s Fifth Third Arena. 

“It’s an amazing opportunity for our kids,” said Endeavor teacher Brittany Stang, who discovered the program eight years ago and never looked back. “It’s true madness, but such a fun experience,” added teacher Maureen Williamson, sharing the program’s natural tie-in to their economics unit in fifth grade social studies. 

Each of their classes is reimbursed up to $150 for the materials required to produce hundreds of the products that their class dreams up and then brings to market. The university also covers the most costly part of field trips - transportation to and from the venue - and even gifts each participating student with $600 in fake money to spend at the market. 

The creative process begins with UC’s team paying a visit to each participating school to interview students who will lead their class’s “company” as the president, operations director, marketing director and other key leadership roles. 

“We have people apply and interview that I would never expect to be interested in a leadership role. That takes a lot of courage to interview with people they don’t know,” said Williamson, who appreciates how the experience breaks down comfort zones and fosters real life skills like interviewing, teamwork and crafting a business plan.

This year, Williamson and her class experienced firsthand the hardship of a failed idea when attempting to create a prototype of their first idea, a seed pop. “We tried and it just didn’t work,” Williamson said. “It’s perhaps the best thing they learned throughout the whole process. It’s a life lesson and they learned what it means to pivot and move on.” 

Williamson’s class moved on to a travel game that combines favorites like Tic Tac Toe and Connect Four into a single to-go game packaged in a small canvas cinch bag. Other fifth grade classes landed on Bengals bracelets, custom bookmarks, stress balls and popsicle stick picture frames, just to name a few. Each set their own fair market price and created marketing materials to help gain attention from other students attending the market.  

At any given time during the on-campus experience, students will participate in one of three rotations. Students will experience the thrill of selling their product, some selling out and others responding to the signal to either raise or lower their price, based on the market response. They will also become the buyer, putting their UC-provided “debit card” to use to purchase the items most appealing to them. 

For Stang, one of the biggest benefits is the third rotation when students have an opportunity to tour UC’s campus. “Some kids have never stepped foot on a college campus to see what their future could look like and get excited about it,” Stang said. 

The energy and enthusiasm filling the fifth grade wing at Endeavor just one week before their doors open for business was signal enough that this experience isn’t one they’ll soon forget.