Effects of a Simulation on Eighth Grade Students’ Business Management Knowledge and Entrepreneurial Intent in an Exploratory Agriculture Course

Entrepreneurship education has historically been part of agricultural education; yet few researchers have studied entrepreneurship-related outcomes for youth in formal and nonformal educational settings. Entrepreneurship education programs develop entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions, but limited studies exist regarding junior high school youth. This quasi-experimental study utilized a business management simulation with eighth grade students and focused on teaching, learning, and outcomes of entrepreneurship in an exploratory agriculture course. Junior high school students had higher business management knowledge when an educational simulation (playing a board game using double-entry accounting and computing financial statements) was used compared to students who were taught using a board game and tracked a cash balance. Students’ entrepreneurship intent was similar between the control and treatment groups after the two-week unit. However, students who previously completing a 4-H animal science project had higher entrepreneurship intent than their peers who did not complete a 4-H animal science project. This study supports the premise that educational simulations can effectively teach business management skills and offers educators an enhanced understanding of how to capitalize on the value of SAEs and 4-H animal science projects when building entrepreneurial skills in youth.