October 9, 2025
Kristy Danilson is a self-assured educator. But even veteran teachers can get nervous, and that’s exactly how she felt earlier this week as she sat on a bus with a full house of Gilbert Middle School sixth graders on their way to Des Moines.
Months of preparation and planning behind the scenes that included rounding up a lengthy group of volunteers to support this venture. Upping the ante, so to speak, with more challenging lesson plans. Asking more from her students in an effort to prepare them for what they would experience on this field trip.
It was a lot, Mrs. Danilson admits. Would it all be worth it? That’s what she silently asked herself on that bus ride as the butterflies churned in her stomach.
“I was so nervous because I wanted it to be successful,” Mrs. Danilson, who teaches sixth-grade social studies at GMS, said. “I don’t know when I’ve ever felt so much pressure.”
We’ll go ahead and end any suspense now — you better believe it was worth it.
Sometimes new adventures and ideas are successful. Sometimes they fail. This easily falls into the former category.
JA BizTown, you were everything we hoped you would be … and so much more.
“I got hugs and emails from the students when we got back, thanking me for letting them do this,” Mrs. Danilson said. “It was so much fun and the students learned so much, and I think that tells you it was successful.”
Let’s back up, prior to the start of the 2025-26 school year.
Mrs. Danilson and her fellow GMS social studies teachers had a vision; they wanted to incorporate more project-based learning into the curriculum where students would truly feel that social studies is relevant in their daily lives. A lot of brainstorming went into this and the group landed on partnering with Junior Achievement of Central Iowa, a nonprofit that inspires and prepares young people for success.
“We visited to see if this was something we really wanted to do, and we fell in love with the simulation aspect (of JA BizTown),” Mrs. Danilson said. “We saw how it tied into the social studies standards, as well as those 21st century skills.”
The teachers pitched the idea to Gilbert Director of Teaching and Learning Carrie Clark, who in turn worked with the Gilbert Education Foundation to secure the funds necessary to embark on this new endeavor.
What exactly is JA BizTown? As Mrs. Danilson shared with families early in the planning, it encompasses important elements of community and economy, work readiness, financial literacy, and business management.
The two visits — half of the sixth graders visited on Monday, October 6, and the other half on Tuesday, October 7 — allowed students to apply what they had learned in class to a realistic setting. Each student assumed a job, produced or sold a product, received a paycheck, worked on a business team, repaid a business loan, shopped, and managed a personal bank account. All along the way, the students used critical thinking skills to work through the different scenarios.
To prepare for the JA BizTown experience, the students went through four weeks of lessons in class. Mrs. Danilson says her classes spent more than a week discussing personal and business finances. There were also lessons on work-based scenarios, vital skills like communication and time management, and lessons about voting, elections, and the rights of citizens.
“I got hugs and emails from the students when we got back, thanking me for letting them do this. It was so much fun and the students learned so much, and I think that tells you it was successful.”
-Kristy Danilson, GMS sixth-grade social studies teacher
In class, students also filled out job applications. They went through simulated interviews. They learned how to write checks, and they learned the differences between things such as checks, debit cards, credit cards, and gift cards.
“It was interesting … the kids reflected on how important things like communication and time management were,” Mrs. Danilson said.
All of this led up to JA BizTown and the different simulated businesses and government entities — city hall, a bank, a financial center, a retail shop, an insurance agency, a publishing center, a construction company, a technology shop, a utility/realty shop, a family foundation, a healthcare clinic, and a farm store.
Each student was assigned to a specific role within one of these businesses. For example, at the retail shop, there was a student CEO, a student CFO, a student sales manager, and a student product manager. Each had their own tasks and they had to work together throughout the day to ensure their business thrived.
Businesses had to take out loans from the bank that needed to be paid back with profits. These businesses needed to make decisions on the types of insurance they purchased, and they were tasked with donating funds to the foundation, and these are only a few examples.
Observers of the day quickly realized how seriously the students took the simulation, and that instantly eased Mrs. Danilson’s nervousness.
“It was just so much fun to hear the kids, on their lunch breaks, talk to each other about the day,” she said.
Only two days removed from the experience, Mrs. Danilson is already thinking about next school year and the minor tweaks that can be made to enhance the JA BizTown experience even more for her students.
“When we came back, students talked about the different jobs and things about those jobs maybe they didn’t like, or something that was hard, or something they didn’t know before going,” she said. “Next year, I’d like to put together a slideshow or something like that with reflections and talk more about how they can connect this to school. Because there was a lot of math involved, there was a lot of writing involved, things like that.”
We cannot thank Mrs. Danilson, her colleagues, and the countless parent volunteers enough for their hard work and diligence in making his project-based learning opportunity a reality. Their passion for wanting to provide these types of opportunities for our students is yet another example of what makes Gilbert Schools special.
And JA BizTown, you were amazing. Gilbert Schools will be back.
