Interactive Manual

Unit 1.1 — Forms of Business Ownership — includes five interactive learning tools built directly into the study guide and quiz pages. This manual explains how each one works, what it's designed to teach, and how students and facilitators can get the most out of each experience.

All five tools are fully self-contained in the browser — no login, no downloads, no internet connection required after the page loads. They work on any device: desktop, tablet, or phone.

How to Play

• 1 Navigate to the Study Guide page and click the 🎮 Games tab at the top. The Match the Structure game loads by default.
• 2 You'll see two columns: Business Structure on the left and Key Feature on the right. Both columns are shuffled in random order every time the game starts or resets.
• 3 Click any item on the left to select it — it will highlight in navy blue. This is the term you're trying to match.
• 4 Click the matching item on the right. If it's correct, both items turn green and lock — they're done. If it's wrong, both shake red, then reset to unselected so you can try again.
• 5 You can also click a different item on the left before clicking the right side to change your selection mid-match.
• 6 Match all 6 pairs to complete the game. The progress bar tracks how many pairs remain. Click Restart anytime for a fresh shuffled set.

Tips & Strategy

Start with what you know

Match the structures you're most confident about first. Each correct match shrinks the pool, making the remaining matches easier to identify by elimination.

Watch the shake

When a match is wrong, the game shakes both items red for half a second before resetting them. Use this feedback: if you were confident about one side of your match, the error is likely on the other side.

Cooperative vs. Nonprofit

The most commonly confused pair. Remember: a cooperative distributes profits to members by participation ("one member, one vote"). A nonprofit doesn't distribute profits at all — surplus goes back to the mission, not the members.

Restart for reinforcement

Each restart shuffles both columns into a new order. Completing the game three times in three different orders is one of the best ways to build genuine recall rather than sequence memory.

How to Play

• 1 Click the 🏪 Which Structure Fits? card in the Games tab. The first scenario loads automatically.
• 2 Read the scenario carefully. Each one describes a real-world business situation in the Birmingham-Bessemer community — a person starting a business, a group forming an organization, or an entrepreneur scaling up.
• 3 Click one of the four answer buttons. Buttons are labeled with business structure names — not letters — so you're choosing directly, not guessing A/B/C/D.
• 4 After clicking, the correct answer turns green and your wrong answer (if any) turns red. A full explanation paragraph appears below, explaining why that structure is the right fit.
• 5 Click Next Question → to advance. After the sixth scenario, your final score and a performance message appear.
• 6 Click Restart anytime to reset to scenario one and try again for a higher score.

The Six Scenarios

All six scenarios are set in or near Birmingham-Bessemer. Here's a summary of what each one tests:

#	Scenario	Correct Answer	Concept Tested
1	Deja opens a nail salon alone, small scale, low startup	Sole Proprietorship	Simplest structure for solo, low-risk start
2	Three brothers open a barbershop, want shared ownership + liability protection	LLC	Multi-owner + personal protection = LLC
3	Pratt City farmers pool equipment, want democratic governance + patronage dividends	Cooperative	Shared participation + democratic control
4	Marcus runs a community food pantry, needs tax-deductible donations	501(c)(3) Nonprofit	Mission-driven + donor tax deductibility
5	Jasmine earns $150K consulting, wants to reduce self-employment taxes via income split	S-Corporation	Salary/distribution split for tax savings
6	Woodlawn graduates start a ride-share where drivers own the company	Worker Cooperative	Worker ownership + profit by labor contribution

Tips & Strategy

Read for the decision factors, not the story

Each scenario embeds three or four decision factors. Train yourself to identify them: How many owners? What's the liability exposure? Is there a social mission? Does the group want democratic control? The right structure always follows from the factors, not the narrative.

The elimination method

If you're uncertain, start by eliminating structures that clearly don't fit. A mission-driven food pantry is never an S-corp. A solo nail technician doesn't need a cooperative. Narrowing to two options makes the final choice much clearer.

Read every explanation — even when you're right

The explanation after each answer is where the deepest learning happens. Even a correct answer may contain nuance you hadn't considered. Students who read every explanation before clicking Next score significantly higher on the Unit Quiz.

How to Play

• 1 Click the ⚖️ True or False card in the Games tab to switch to this game.
• 2 A statement appears in a large card at the center of the game area. Read it carefully — some statements are deliberately worded to catch common misunderstandings.
• 3 Click either ✓ True (green button) or ✗ False (red button). The buttons are large and clearly labeled to avoid accidental taps on mobile.
• 4 After clicking, the correct button highlights with a glow border. If you chose incorrectly, your button fades to indicate the wrong choice. An explanation paragraph appears below both buttons.
• 5 Click Next → to advance to the next statement. The score tracker and progress bar update after each answer.
• 6 After statement 10, a final score screen appears with an emoji, your score out of 10, and a performance message. Click Restart for a freshly shuffled round.

The 10 Statements

Here is every statement in the game and its correct answer, for facilitator reference:

#	Statement (summarized)	Answer
1	A sole proprietor is personally responsible for all business debts	TRUE
2	An LLC protects your personal savings if the business is sued	TRUE
3	In a cooperative, members with the most money get the most votes	FALSE
4	A nonprofit is not allowed to earn any revenue	FALSE
5	An S-Corporation can have an unlimited number of shareholders	FALSE
6	In a general partnership, Partner A can be liable for Partner B's unauthorized debts	TRUE
7	Income and wealth are the same thing	FALSE
8	A worker cooperative distributes profits by labor contribution	TRUE
9	Forming an LLC costs nothing and requires no paperwork	FALSE
10	The cooperative model has deep roots in African-American history through mutual aid societies	TRUE

Tips & Strategy

Watch for absolute language

Statements that include words like "never," "always," "not allowed," or "unlimited" are frequently false — because the real world rarely works in absolutes. Statement 4 ("a nonprofit is not allowed to earn any revenue") and Statement 5 ("an S-corp can have unlimited shareholders") are both false for exactly this reason.

Statement 7 is the most important

"Income and wealth are the same thing" — FALSE. This distinction is the philosophical core of the entire Swanson Academy. If a student gets this one wrong, it's a signal to revisit the Ownership vs. Employment section in the Study Guide before taking the Unit Quiz.

Statement 10 connects to Quarter 4

The statement about cooperative roots in African-American history previews the Heritage-as-Capital content in Quarter 4. Students who understand this connection early will approach Units 4.1–4.4 with greater depth.

The Five Inputs — What They Mean

Every dropdown changes the score of all six structures in real time. Here is what each input measures and why it matters for choosing a business structure:

1 · How many owners / founders?

Ownership count is the first structural filter. A sole proprietorship is definitionally one person. Partnerships and LLCs suit two-to-four founders. Cooperatives are designed for five or more members with democratic participation. Selecting the right count eliminates structures before any other factor is considered.

2 · Primary goal

The three options — Personal profit / wealth building, Community benefit / social mission, and Shared ownership among members — map directly to the three philosophical families of ownership. Profit → LLC or S-corp. Mission → Nonprofit. Shared ownership → Cooperative. A student who selects "community benefit" and sees the nonprofit bar rise is observing the logic of structure selection in real time.

3 · Startup risk level

Risk drives the liability protection question. Low risk (small investment, no employees) makes the simpler structures (sole prop, partnership) more attractive. Medium risk (employees, debt) favors the LLC. High risk (significant investment, potential lawsuits) strongly favors LLC or S-corp, where the liability wall between owner and business is critical.

4 · Expected first-year revenue

Revenue level is the tax efficiency signal. Under $30K — a sole proprietorship's simplicity wins. $30K–$100K — an LLC starts to make sense. Over $100K — the S-corp's salary/distribution split can save thousands in self-employment tax annually. Students should connect this input to the tax content they'll encounter in Unit 3.4.

5 · Planning to bring in outside investors?

Investor plans determine exit trajectory. No investors → simpler structures suffice. Maybe (friends, family, grants) → an LLC's flexibility handles informal investors well. Yes (formal investors, future funding rounds) → an S-corp or eventually a C-corp becomes necessary to issue equity to outside capital. This input previews concepts students will explore deeply in the Money Managers track.

Reading the Results

The Bar Chart

Six horizontal bars — one for each business structure — fill from left to right based on their weighted score. The tallest bar represents the best-fit structure. Bars update instantly as any dropdown changes, so students can explore how a single input shift (say, adding a co-founder) changes the entire ranking.

The Recommendation Box

Below the bars, a navy recommendation box names the top-scoring structure and provides a written paragraph explaining why that structure fits the student's specific inputs. The language of the explanation changes based on which structure wins — there are six distinct recommendation texts, one for each possible result.

When two structures tie

The calculator picks the first in its internal ranking when scores tie. In practice, a tie usually means both structures are genuinely reasonable options — a useful conversation point for the facilitator.

Suggested Exercises

Exercise A — Your Own Idea

Ask students to enter their own business idea into the calculator using their honest answers. Then have them share the recommendation with a partner and discuss: Does the recommendation match your intuition? What surprised you?

Exercise B — Follow the Inputs

Start with all inputs at their defaults, then change one at a time and observe how the bars shift. Students should be able to explain why each bar changed in response to each input — this tests conceptual understanding, not just the ability to use the tool.

Exercise C — BBYM Case Study

Set the inputs to match BBYM's actual situation: multiple founders/staff, community benefit mission, moderate risk, early-stage revenue, no outside investors. The result should point toward Nonprofit — confirming why BBYM operates as a 501(c)(3).

The Quiz Interface — Element by Element

Hero Stats Box (top right)

Displays five live statistics: total questions (20), passing score (70%), retakes (unlimited), best score (tracks your highest percentage across all attempts in the current session), and attempt count. The best score and attempt count update after every submission.

Progress Bar

A sticky gold progress bar sits just below the navigation bar. It shows the current question number, a fill bar that grows as questions are answered, and a percentage. The bar tracks answered questions — not viewed questions — so clicking through without answering does not advance the bar.

Question Dot Map

A row of numbered circles (1–20) plus an END dot. Each dot is clickable — click any number to jump to that question. Dots update color as questions are answered:

• White/outline — not yet answered
• Green — answered correctly
• Red — answered incorrectly

Click the END dot or the "Finish & Review" button after the last question to reach the Submit screen.

Question Card

Each question displays a type tag (Multiple Choice or True / False), the question text, and the answer choices. After answering, the correct choice highlights green, any wrong choice highlights red, and a feedback panel appears below with the full explanation. The student cannot change their answer after submitting it.

Navigation Buttons

Once a question is answered, a Next Question → button appears. A ← Back button appears from question two onward, allowing students to re-read previously answered questions (but not re-answer them). Students can also use the dot map to jump freely between answered and unanswered questions.

Submit Screen

Reached via the END dot or the final question's "Finish & Review" button. If any questions remain unanswered, a yellow warning counts them explicitly ("You have 3 unanswered questions. Unanswered questions count as incorrect."). A "Review Unanswered" button jumps to the first blank question. Click Submit Quiz ✓ to generate the Results screen.

Grading & Results

Scoring

Each correct answer = 1 point. Each incorrect or unanswered question = 0 points. Final score = correct answers ÷ 20, expressed as a percentage. No partial credit, no penalty points beyond the zero for a missed question.

Grade Scale

The Results Screen

After submission, the Results screen displays: an emoji and letter grade, the score fraction and percentage, a performance label, a four-tile breakdown (correct / incorrect / score % / attempt number), a "New Best Score" badge when applicable, and a full Question Review accordion showing every question, the student's answer, the correct answer (when wrong), and the explanation.

How Retakes Work

Click 🔄 Retake Quiz to start a fresh attempt. The engine draws a new random set of 20 questions from the 30-question bank and re-shuffles all multiple-choice answer positions. The best score and attempt count from previous rounds are retained in the session. Students cannot carry scores from one browser session to another — the quiz resets on page reload.

The 30-Question Bank — Topic Coverage

Questions are distributed across the six topic areas of Unit 1.1. No single attempt covers all 30 — the randomization ensures varied review across retakes.

Question Type	Count in Bank	Topics Covered
Multiple Choice	20	All six topics, including liability, taxation, cooperative mechanics, nonprofit rules, and applied scenarios
True / False	10	Common misconceptions, Heritage-as-Capital integration, income vs. wealth distinction

Recommended Learning Sequence

• 1 Assign the Study Guide (independent reading, ~25–30 min). Students read all six topic sections including Heritage callouts and comparison tables.
• 2 Play Match the Structure (5–8 min). Works well as a class warm-up projected on screen, or individually as a check before moving to the harder games.
• 3 Play Which Structure Fits? (10–15 min). Pause after the Pratt City farmers scenario (scenario 3) for a brief Heritage-as-Capital discussion.
• 4 Play True or False (8–10 min). Use as an exit ticket — students report their score. Below 7/10 → re-read Study Guide before advancing.
• 5 Use the Calculator — Exercise A (student's own business idea) + brief writing prompt (15 min). Connects conceptual learning to personal application.
• 6 Take the Unit Quiz independently. Minimum passing score: 70%. Students below 70% should review missed-question explanations and retake once before moving to Unit 1.2.