f mathematical problem solving.
- Create and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas;
- Select, apply, and translate among mathematical representations to solve problems;
- Use representations to model and interpret physical, social, and mathematical phenomena.
- JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy
Students will be able to:
- Explain how limited personal financial resources affect the choices people make.
- Identify the opportunity cost of financial decisions.
- Discuss the importance of taking responsibility for personal financial decisions.
- Apply a decision-making process to personal financial choices.
- Explain how inflation affects spending and investing decisions.
- Describe how insurance and other risk-management strategies protect against financial loss.
- Design a plan for earning, spending, saving, and investing.
- Explain how to use money-management tools available from financial institutions
- Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
Benchmarks for Economics
Understands that scarcity of productive resources requires choices that generate opportunity costs
Understands savings, investment, and interest rates
BANK IT OR BUST
The goal of this game is to budget expenses with the aim of saving for a short-term purchase (a car), and to see the results of saving over a long-term for a larger purchase (a home). The player is a teen working a full-time retail job for the summer. The player will develop a weekly budget of expenses, modifying their behavior so as to create savings. Then, the player will move through the ten weeks of summer vacation, with each week presenting an opportunity for savings or spending.
Teachers will need the following supplies:
Students will need the following supplies:
- Computer with connection to a screen or television on which to project the Web-based video clips, or computer stations where students can watch the clips
- Board and/or chart paper
- "Financial Management Terms" Teacher Organizer
- Computers with internet access (for individuals or groups)
- Notebook or journal
- "Dreams for the Future" Student Organizer
- "Debt/Savings" Student Organizer
PREP FOR TEACHERS
- Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom, or upload all links to an online bookmarking utility such as www.portaportal.com.
- Preview all of the video clips and Web sites used in the lesson to make certain that they are appropriate for your students, currently available, and accessible from your classroom.
- Download the video clips used in this lesson onto your hard drive or a portable storage device, or prepare to stream the clips from your classroom.
- Print out the "Financial Management Terms" Teacher Organizer, to copy the terms and definitions on the board.
- Print out the Student Organizers: "Dreams for the Future" and "Debt/Savings," and make enough copies so that each student has one copy of each organizer.
- When using media, provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.
INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY: SETTING THE STAGE
- Open the discussion by asking if any of the students have saved money, or maintain a budget of any kind.
- Write the following terms and their definitions on the board: budget, income, expense, savings, and debt. (see "Financial Management Terms" Teacher Organizer)
- Discuss with the students what each term means, and how savings and debt are a result of different combinations of income and expenses.
- Discuss with the students any dreams they have for the future, and what investments they could make now to achieve those dreams. For instance, if one person would like to play in a band, they may need guitar lessons now to achieve that dream in the future. Ask the students to explain how they might save enough money to pay for the current expense necessary to achieve that dream.
- Pass out the "Dreams for the Future" Student Organizer to each student. A