March 2019 | Volume 13 | Issue 1 The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning SPECIAL ISSUE You could hear a pin drop in Mrs. Rey’s ffh-grade classroom as her students signed their names in careful cursive to a loan repayment contract. Tey were getting ready to borrow $10 for each table group to start small businesses and had just calculated that they would need to pay back this loan with 10% interest ($11 total). Teir silence refected their sincer- ity and awareness of the responsibility of taking out a loan as well as their apprehension about repayment. Tese students were accepting a small business loan as part of a project-based learning unit called the One Hen Project. Te One Hen Project (co-designed by the researcher, several classroom teachers, and curriculum developers at One Hen, Inc.) is an elementary economics unit that integrates social studies, English–language arts (ELA), and math. In the unit, ffh-grade students learn about and have the experience of running a social business using a microfnance loan. Tey have to design, advertise, and sell a product that addresses a community need. Economics is the discipline of social studies that is ofen neglected in elementary classrooms. Some economics is taught as part of the expanding communities framework in the lower elementary grades with a focus on personal eco- nomics and basic concepts, but it is not ofen emphasized in the upper elementary grades even as economic themes appear in history and geography (Brophy, Alleman, & Halvorsen, 2012). Despite economics ofen being a required course for secondary students, many teachers feel unprepared to teach it (Ayers, 2016). Ensuring that younger students (even tod- dler-aged) have instruction in economics in particular has increased in the last few years (Finkel, 2010). Today’s eco- nomic climate and fnancial uncertainty has many people calling for students to become more informed about money, economic choices, and how the government and economy work together in a society (Finkel, 2010). Knowledge of macro-economics (e.g., national budgets, international trade) is of critical importance in a world that is becoming increasingly global and interconnected. However, students’ knowledge of microeconomics (e.g., needs and wants, scar- city, opportunity cost) is also vital to the economic and civic health of the country (and world). With excessive credit card and mortgage debt causing problems in today’s economy; a call for students to become more “fnancially literate” about their personal wealth has become crucial (Brophy et al., 2012; Finkel, 2010; Schug & Lopus, 2008). Learning to manage one’s resources to make informed and prudent economic decisions is a critical and lifelong skill. In the discipline of economics, students can have many oppor- tunities to make real-life applications of this content, whether these applications are to their own personal fnances, their local community, or the global community. It is important that more research is done to examine how elementary-age children can make connections to economic content. Tis Elementary School Entrepreneurs Annie McMahon Whitlock (University of Michigan–Flint) Abstract In this paper, I describe the implementation of a project-based economics unit in a ffh-grade classroom in Michigan, titled One Hen. One Hen is a curricular unit designed to teach students about social entrepreneurship as a way for students to learn economic concepts while developing their own civic efcacy by engaging in a project where they design and run their own social business. Tese fndings are part of a larger case study that examines one ffh-grade class’s experience with One Hen and what these students learned about the economic concepts of loans and entrepreneurship. Trough the authentic experi- ences of project-based learning, the ffh-grade students developed a more sophisticated understanding of loans and the role of microfnance in creating a social business. Keywords: project-based learning, social studies, economics, microfnance, social entrepreneurship