Business Studies Free Stuff

BBC One’s The Voice launched on 24 March 2012, and whilst not well received by critics, it has undoubtedly been successful with viewers in the first few weeks. Indeed, the show even got Simon Cowell and ITV concerned enough to move Britain’s Got Talent to avoid clashing with it.

There’s plenty here that can be used in the Business Studies classroom, and the topic should engage students as many of them will be familiar with the shows involved. It particularly lends itself to looking at how the product life-cycle can be extended, as well as deliberate creativity. Some of the questions that might be asked include:

• Are TV talent and reality shows (e.g. The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent) entering the decline stage of their life-cycles?
• How can you inject new life when an existing product starts to decline? Is it inevitable that shows like these have only a limited lifespan?
• Why have ITV’s competitors responded by buying similar shows?
• How can firms use creativity to improve their competitiveness?

Adrian has written some ideas for activities using talent shows to teach about deliberate creativity and the product life-cycle. 

Adrian Murray taught Business Studies for 17 years and recently became Business Curriculum Leader for OCR.

Download the lesson ideas by clicking the button below.

With exams looming, did you know that each Boardworks KS4 Business Studies presentation includes a set of practice exam questions? To find out more, order your free sample disc today.

And if you’re looking for more assessment solutions, why not check out MyWorks our online homework assessment product? 

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Below is an archive of our most popular free business resources. To download this content all you need to do is click on the links below and you will be prompted to register some additional details with us.

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Head of Business Melanie Green shares some ideas for teaching the issues that surround the current bonus culture.

The recent recession and the banking crisis have brought the ‘bonus culture’ to light, and this provides a great opportunity to teach issues surrounding motivation, ethics and business ownership.

There is a huge amount of information available to students about the current economic crisis, and many are keen to discuss this issue, particularly as they have personal experience of the recession. It is very interesting to find out what students think of the situation and what information and ideas they have picked up from the media, friends and family. I really enjoy getting students to debate the issues involved and share their opinions and experiences. It is interesting to find out how students view the situation and how they feel it affects them. This issue also allows you to cover many other topics, so you can build in revision.

To Melanie's lesson ideas, click the buttons below.

Several of Melanie's lesson ideas involve researching and debating the pros and cons of the bonus culture. With voting charts and opinion panel activities, Boardworks KS4 Business Studies helps spark discussions about important business issues. For a more comprehensive overview of Boardworks Business resources, why not order your free sample disc today?

Or to keep up to speed with our free resources and lesson plans, follow us on Twitter @BoardworksLtd.

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In the current economic climate it can sometimes be difficult to promote a positive view of business to your students. 

To help encourage your students to study Business Studies at GCSE level, we’ve produced an eye-catching poster reminding them that Business Studies can help them:

- Develop the transferable skills that employers value.
- Acquire the knowledge they will need if they want to run their own business.
- Find their hidden potential – they could be the next famous entrepreneur!

To download the poster, click the button below.
 

‘I like the interactive activities in general – they’re excellent for quick-fire sessions and are very good at keeping the students alert.’ (Gurpreet Garewal, Head of Business at Gunnersbury Catholic School) To find out more about incorporating Boardworks Business resources into your lessons, order your free sample disc today!

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“The aim of this lesson is for students to be able to identify the main factors that affect staff motivation, and then to be able to explain the differences between the three main motivation theories [...].”

Although students usually find the topic of motivation management interesting, it can be difficult for them to clearly distinguish between the three major theories of Taylor, Mayo and Maslow.

In this lesson, Business Studies teacher Adrian Murray deals with the three main motivation theories, showing you how to put each one into practice, thereby making them more memorable for your students.

To download the lesson plan and the Boardworks slides, click the buttons below.

The free presentation that accompanies Adrian’s lesson plan features click-and-reveal exercises which help to breakdown difficult theories in a memorable way. To find out more about how Boardworks Business Studies resources can help clarify difficult concepts for your students, order your free sample disc today!

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Excel worksheets are a great way to present numbers, data, lists and more to your business students.

We’ve made a video and step-by-step instruction guide to help you how to embed Excel worksheets into your PowerPoint presentations.

You can insert any Excel worksheet that you’ve prepared into a Boardworks presentation, so that you don’t have to interrupt a lesson to find and open a new file. You can even edit it from within PowerPoint as you teach.

Click on the image below or press play to view the video.

If you can't see the video below, visit:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwNxnsVJtFU

To download the instruction guide, click the button below.

On a different note, did you know that we’re looking for business studies teachers to write paid lesson plans for us? If you’re interested, visit our authors page.