4th year of ESO
Learning Situation
The soap
factory
Introduction
The learning situation is aimed at 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education and pursues two objectives: to bring students closer to the knowledge of the company as a catalyst for economic development, highlighting the generation of value as a fundamental aspect of business activity and integrating the values of corporate social responsibility; and the contribution of value to society that enhances creativity and the spirit of innovation, critical reflection and informed decision-making to design a sustainable business model that contributes to social and economic development.
Stage objectives
• Assume their duties responsibly, know and exercise their rights while respecting other people, practice tolerance, cooperation and solidarity between people and groups, engage in dialogue, strengthening human rights as common values of a plural society and prepare for the exercise of democratic citizenship.
• Develop and consolidate habits of discipline, study and individual and team work as a necessary condition for an effective completion of learning tasks and as a means of personal development.
• Value and respect the difference between the sexes and the equality of rights and opportunities between them. Reject stereotypes that imply discrimination between women and men.
• Develop basic skills in the use of information sources to, with a critical sense, acquire new knowledge. Develop basic technological skills and advance in an ethical reflection on their operation and use.
• Develop an entrepreneurial spirit and self-confidence, participation, critical thinking, personal initiative and the ability to learn to learn, plan, make decisions and assume responsibilities.
Competencies
Operational descriptors
| Linguistic communication competence | CCL1, CCL2, CCL3, CCL5 |
| Multilingual competence | CP1, CP2, CP3 |
| Mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering | STEM1, STEM2, STEM3, STEM4, STEM5 |
| Digital competence | CD1, CD2, CD3 |
| Personal, social and learning-to-learn competence | CPSAA1, CPSAA2, CPSAA3, CPSAA4 |
| Competence citizen | CC4 |
| Entrepreneurial competence. | CE1, CE2, CE3 |
| Cultural awareness and expression competence | CCEC4 |
Specific Competencies
• Biology and Geology: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Physics and Chemistry: 3, 5, 6
• Mathematics: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10
• Spanish Language: 2, 3, 5, 6
• Economics and Entrepreneurship: 1, 2, 3, 5
• Digitalization: 2, 3, 4
• FOPP: 3, 4, 5
Purpose of learning
The overall goal of these learning experiences is to provide students with a comprehensive educational experience that combines theory and practice, promoting scientific knowledge, the development of practical and personal skills, and an entrepreneurial perspective. This approach seeks to prepare students to become involved in business creation through the soap-making process, applying this knowledge in real-life contexts and fostering their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship with a social and environmental awareness.
SDG
• Goal 3: Good health and well-being.
• Goal 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.
• Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production.
Learning Objectives
• Understand the theory of the business as a system, its functions in a given socioeconomic context, and its objectives.
• Understand various criteria for classifying businesses and analyze the main characteristics of different types of businesses from the perspective of their value generation.
• Understand the development of the business within a social and economic environment and in relation to all the agents involved in the system.
• Understand the different business models and their origin as a response to the needs of society in general and consumers in particular.
• Introduce the concepts of innovation and creativityas the basis for generating new products and services that businesses must develop for their creation and sustainability over time.
• Identify the business as an engine of economic development and a source of wealth creation for maintaining the welfare state.
• Integrate knowledge of technology and sustainable development goals as cross-cutting elements of 21st-century business.
• Promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills through experimentation and optimization of the manufacturing process. Students will identify potential problems in the production process and propose effective solutions.
• Introduce basic entrepreneurship concepts, including product planning, production, and marketing. Students will develop a basic business plan for their soap factory, considering costs, pricing, and marketing strategies.
• Raise awareness about the environmental impact of hygiene products and promote sustainable practices in their manufacturing. Students will research and apply methods to make soap more sustainably, using natural ingredients and eco-friendly techniques.
• Promote teamwork and effective communication skills through collaborative projects. Students will work in teams to plan and execute the creation of the soap factory, communicating their ideas and progress clearly and effectively.
• Integrate knowledge from various disciplines such as chemistry, biology, Spanish, mathematics, and economics. Students will apply concepts from different areas of knowledge to solve complex problems related to the development of business activities focused on soap making.
Areas / Subjects
The approach conceived in the materials presented in this Business Classroom, in the form of Learning Situations, contributes to the acquisition of the key competences of the ESO stage in a multidisciplinary and transversal way, involving the curricular subjects of Mathematics, Spanish Language, Social Sciences, Digitalization, FOPP, Biology and Geology, Physics and Chemistry, through the operational descriptors and their respective specific competences.
Furthermore, the contribution of this learning situation to multilingual competence is considered through some tasks included in the subjects.
Basic knowledge
A. The role that the company plays in the economy as an agent generating products and services that meet the demands of society, with this generation of value being the engine of the economy.
- A1. Economic activity and company.
- A2. The functions of the company in the economy.
- A3. The company and the entrepreneur.
- A4. Economic functioning of companies.
B. The analysis of the environment and the agents that intervene in it, as an ecosystem in which a business project is developed generating interrelations between all the actors in the ecosystem, this context being the one that favors the generation of economic models.
- B1. Components of the company.
- B2. Objectives pursued by the company.
- B3. The company and the types of market.
C. The study of business model patterns that are aimed at satisfying the demands of the different sectors of society, responding to the needs that are generated, through the evolution that the market and consumer habits produce over time.
- C1. Types of business models.
- C2. Customer demand.
- C3. Analysis of market trends and consumer behavior.
- C4. Meeting customer expectations through product development.
- C5. The role of technology in understanding and satisfying customer demand.
D. Innovation and creativity tools as the basis for generating value from products or services that already exist and that allow for evolution and even the generation of new products and services generated from scratch and that provoke the generation of new needs that the market is willing to assume.
- D1. Business innovation.
- D2. Tools for business innovation.
- D3. Types of business innovation.
- D4. Business creativity and its relevance.
- D5. Types of creativity.
- D6. Value creation and types of utility.
- D7. Market needs and how to identify them.
- D8. Continuous improvement. Improving the customer experience.
E. The role of the company as a driver of economic development and the impact that its activity and the value generated have on society and its way of organizing itself in terms of services offered to citizens, consumption by society and other factors that contribute to social development and well-being.
- E1. The company as a driver of economic development.
- E2. Added value and its social impact.
- E3. The company-society relationship.
- E4. Factors that contribute to the development of well-being in a society.
- E5. The company and its responsibility towards society.
- E6. The company and its responsibility towards the environment.
Timing
The timing of the material and the learning situation presented in this Business Classroom in the 4th ESO classroom will depend on the subjects involved in its development.
If you work from one or two subjects, the dedicated sessions will depend on the selected activities and tasks and may last about two weeks. If you opt for interdisciplinary work where several subjects are involved as a competency-based project, its duration may reach from two to several months of the school year, given that coordination between the teachers who will teach the sessions will be required.
Final Product
To conclude the work carried out in this learning situation, a final product is proposed consisting of:
- Preparation of a complete portfolio, including all the documents produced in the tasks and activities.
- Writing of final conclusions justifying whether the factory is viable and the added value of the proposal. They must also collect the learning acquired as a self-assessment of errors committed.
- Presentation of the conclusions that each team has obtained to the rest of the class group. To do this, they can prepare appropriate material (wall, poster, slides, interactive presentation, etc.) that will be useful when making the presentation.
Assessment
Considering that assessment can and should be the driving force of learning, it is important that with these Learning Situations we address assessment to regulate both teaching and the learning pursued. The importance of assessment as a continuous process in which students participate is important in this topic of business education. Knowing how, when and how much students are learning is important to regulate strategies and activities.
| Assessment instruments | Tools |
| – Form | All the proposed instruments except the form can be assessed using rubrics provided to the students prior to the development of the work. |
| – Class discussions | |
| – Documents produced: interview, reports, SWOT, market analysis, CANVAS Model, etc. | |
| – Brochure, podcast, video, etc. for dissemination | |
| – Presentation of information to the rest of the class | |
| – Objective test on the contents worked on | |
| – Teamwork with roles: co-evaluation of the work | |
| – Personal self-evaluation of the work | |
| – Final product: portfolio, presentation, etc. |
Methodology
The methodological approach used in this pedagogical proposal is based on the design of Learning Situations in accordance with the current LOMLOE.
Throughout these Learning Situations, the aim is to highlight the relevance of the business world in our society and bring it closer to students, awakening curiosity and understanding about the organization of our business ecosystem, by encouraging reflection on what they already know and stimulating their creativity and ingenuity by proposing final products of their own creation for each Learning Situation.
Classroom work through Learning Situations contemplates different groupings of students in accordance with inclusion, cooperative work and the methodological principles of UDL.
These situations can be addressed either through a single subject or as a multidisciplinary project across several or all of the proposed subjects.
Resources
0. Learning Situation: Possibility of downloading all Learning Situation.
1. Activities: notes, videos and graphics.
- How to make a SWOT (EDEM)
- SWOT Tool (Ministry of Industry and Tourism)
- Market study (infoautónomos)
- Chart creator (infogram)
2. Methodology: UDL, resources for planning and cooperative learning.
- UDL
- Resources for planning (3.0)
- Resources for planning (Google)
- Cooperative learning (Impulso 06)
3. Assessment: rubrics, checklists, objective tests and targets for evaluation.
- Rubrics to evaluate different aspects of learning (INTEF)
- Portfolio creation (INTEF)
- Evaluation targets (UNIR)
- Assessment targets (INTEF)
- Checklists (Teachers Today)
4. Curriculum: rubrics, checklists, objective tests and assessment targets.
