Our Nation®

Our Nation provides practical information about businesses’ need for individuals who can meet the demands of the job market, including high-growth, high-demand jobs. Further, it introduces the concept of globalization of business as it relates to production materials and the need for students to be entrepreneurial in their thinking to meet the requirements of high-growth, high-demand careers worldwide. There are five required, volunteer-led sessions and one optional supplemental session.

The key learning objectives listed beside each session state the skills and knowledge students will gain.

Session One: What’s Your Big Idea?
Students practice being entrepreneurs by turning ideas into businesses. They identify factors needed to create a variety of entrepreneurial ventures and design an advertisement for their product.
Key Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Experience free enterprise and entrepreneurship.
• Identify the key factors in establishing an entrepreneurial business.
• Create an advertisement.

Supplemental Session: Business Organization
Students further explore entrepreneurship by experiencing the three ways a business can be organized.  
Key Learning Objective
Students will be able to:

• Identify the three types of business organizations.

Session Two: What’s a Resource?
Students learn about resources and how they apply to technology, workers, and the needs of businesses and industries.
Key Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Describe resources, particularly human and capital resources.
• Define scarcity and opportunity cost.
• Discuss technology as a capital resource in demand by most businesses.

Session Three: Job to Job
Students examine the skills needed by jobs that are in demand by businesses in a free enterprise system, particularly the skills related to high-growth, high-demand jobs.
Key Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Identify the skills that support high-growth, high-demand needs in the workplace.
• Analyze their own skills to see how they fit in the workplace.

Session Four: A Cluster of Skills
Students learn about job clusters and the background necessary for each job. They are introduced to a simple resume that uses typical resume components.  
Key Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:

• Identify clusters of jobs and the background required by those jobs.
• Create a simple resume.

Session Five: Worldwide Connections
Students are introduced to specialization and competition. They explore how their nation is connected to the global economy. They see how specialization and technology have contributed to free enterprise and their effect on the global business world.  
Key Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to:
• Describe specialization and competition in business.
• Experience the global needs of many businesses.

Our Nation enhances students’ learning of the following concepts and skills:
Concepts–Advertising, Capital resources, Career preparation, Communication, Competition, Corporation, Demand, Employees, Employers, Engineering, Entrepreneur, Free enterprise, Global competition, Goods, High-growth, high-demand jobs, Human resources, Natural resources, Opportunity costs, Partnerships, Price, Products, Profit,  Resources, Resume, Scarcity, Services, Skills, Sole proprietorship, Specialization, Stock, Stockholders, Supply, Technology, Technophile, Technophobe
Skills–Addition and subtraction, Brainstorming, Conceptualizing and designing advertisements, Creative thinking, Critical thinking, Decision-making, Drawing conclusions, Estimating, Evaluation, Following directions, Graphing and graph interpretation, Listening, Map reading, Problem-solving, Reading and writing, Reasoning, Role-playing, Teamwork, Verbal communication, Working in groups

Our Nation is a series of five required sessions and one optional supplemental session recommended for students in fifth grade. The average time it takes to present each session is 45 minutes. Materials are packaged in a self-contained kit that includes detailed session plans for the volunteer and materials for 32 students.

All JA programs are designed to support the skills and competencies identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. These programs also augment school-based, work-based, and connecting activities for communities with school-to-work initiatives.

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