How long should an entrepreneurship lesson be for high schoolers?

Q: How long should an entrepreneurship lesson be for high schoolers?

60 to 90 minutes. That window is long enough to fit a full brainstorm, multiple pitches, peer scoring, and a debrief, but short enough to maintain attention. Anything under 45 minutes turns into a worksheet; anything over 2 hours turns into a workshop.

The story

We tested this directly. SideHustle Labs runs a 90-minute classroom format with four rounds of brainstorm, pitch, score, and rotate, with 4 to 5 students per team. Teachers and educators have independently used the free SideHustle game in their classrooms with the same time constraint. The 90-minute window consistently outperforms shorter pilots because students need at least three pitching reps to get past the awkward first one. A business teacher in Vigo County, Indiana used the free SideHustle game with about 400 middle school students during a school open house in a 10-minute format — that works as an energizer but cannot replace a real lesson. The takeaway is structural: a real entrepreneurship lesson needs enough time for students to fail at a pitch and try again.

What it means

If your block is 90 minutes, build the lesson around four rounds. If your block is 60 minutes, run three rounds and skip the longer debrief. Short formats can introduce concepts; only the longer block actually changes how students pitch. For the full method, see the educator guide to teaching entrepreneurship through play.

Try it

• Play free at playsidehustle.com
• See us live: Sept 25 at Pershing Hall in Austin. luma.com/playsidehustle
• Email team@playsidehustle.com