Through the Eyes of an Entrepreneur: A Look Inside the Second Grade City Project
What happens when second graders are given the space to think like entrepreneurs, designers, and city planners? Over the course of a semester, a group of young learners turned imagination into reality, building an entire city from the ground up, complete with residents, businesses, and purpose behind every decision. What emerged is more than a project. It is a living, breathing example of what is possible when creativity, empathy, and innovation come together at an early age.
This spring, second grade students brought learning to life in a powerful way as they spent the semester creating their own city. While second grade has long explored a project called “Tiny Tampa,” where students built familiar storefronts from home, this reimagined experience took on an entirely new dimension. Through the thoughtful vision of Casslyn Duron, our Elementary Enrichment Specialist, and in collaboration with Director of Entrepreneurship Brendan Brennan, the project was redesigned to more intentionally weave in early entrepreneurial thinking. Designed and built fully in school during their Design Technology class with Ms. Duron, students created everything from the ground up, developing an original city shaped by their own ideas, decisions, and creativity.
As guests entered “Seaside City,” they were welcomed by thoughtfully designed displays that brought every aspect of the project to life, revealing the intention behind each detail. From the very first step inside to the way each element was clearly and purposefully communicated, the experience reflected the depth of student thinking and care. Here, Ms, Duron offers a window into the purpose, process, and pride behind her students’ work.
Their welcome sign proudly shares:
“This city was designed and built entirely by our second grade students. Over the last four months, they have worked together to plan everything. The students imagined our residents, decided what types of buildings and spaces to include, created business plans, worked on the layout, and built all of the buildings you see here today. We are so excited to welcome you to Seaside City!”
Grounded in entrepreneurial thinking, students began by understanding who they were designing for:
“We learned that before creating, entrepreneurs must understand who they are creating for. So we created a community of residents! We practiced empathizing to help us understand the needs of others, then designed our city to meet those needs.”
From there, ideas turned into action:
“Students worked with a partner to plan a business to open in our city. Based on the wants and needs of our citizens, students designed a business. They created a business plan that included thinking about who they would sell to and what need they would meet. Then they designed a logo.”
Following is the perspective of our Director of Entrepreneurship Brendan Brennan, after seeing the Second Grade City Project firsthand. He reflects on what it looks like when design thinking, creativity, and student agency come vividly to life.
A second grader casually dropped the word "persona" into our conversation today. My designer heart instantly melted.
What Casslyn Duron accomplished with the Second Grade City Project wasn't just a great lesson; it was an absolute clinic on the Design Thinking process. To see this level of execution at any grade level is impressive, but with second graders? It was nothing short of spectacular.
These young innovators started their journey by building actual Personas - crafting profiles about people, their motivations, and their interests, demonstrating a tremendous amount of empathy right out of the gate. Using those personas as their North Star, they developed business plans for spaces their personas would actually want to see in their city. Roller coasters, music stores, sports stadiums, hospitals, public parks...you name it.
From there, they entered the prototyping phase, mapping out their visions with 2D drawings before bringing them to life as incredible 3D cardboard models. Today marked the ultimate "testing phase" of the design cycle: they opened their city to other grade levels, inviting their peers to explore the spaces and field questions as the brilliant creators they are.
It was authentic, agentic and messy. Everything design and learning should be.
Whether it is Second Grade City, YED, Exhibition, or the daily excellence our Lower School teachers exhibit in their IB classrooms, these kids are developing a massive amount of velocity as they make their way through Carrollwood Day School.
Witnessing moments like this profoundly inspires me. It is a powerful reminder of why we do what we do, pushing me to help build something truly worthy of the work being done in Lower School and every classroom at CDS. It is a reminder of the responsibility to help these kids build on this incredible momentum so they can seamlessly step into their roles as the next generation of World Builders.
The entire Lower School staff is laying such a rock-solid foundation for entrepreneurship and design at CDS. These kids are coming for it all.
Click HERE to see all of the photos of the Second Grade City Project.