In-Class Projects
The 10-day integrated curriculum is built around three in-class projects: Needs vs. Wants, My Personal Stuff, and Future Value. Each project is composed of a series of activities, which are introduced within each "Day" in the Teacher's Guide. The three projects are briefly described below and are explained in detail in the Teacher's Guide.
Needs vs. Wants - Project 1
This project will teach students about costs of items, before and after sales tax, which they may choose to purchase if given a certain sum of money to spend. The students will be required to stipulate whether items they choose to purchase are, in their opinion, needs or wants. Students will then perform basic percentage calculations to determine what percentage of their money was spent on needs and what percentage was spent on wants. Based on their percentages, they will be given a pre-determined "diagnosis" to be recorded, along with calculations, on their "Busted" Worksheet. Once all calculations are completed and self-diagnoses are recorded, students will face their classmates for a "majority rules" vote on their spending habits.Purpose: To encourage and hopefully convince students to consider, before purchasing, whether their purchase is actually a need or simply a want. Recognition of the difference between needs and wants will result in more responsible spending and development of better spending habits.
My Personal Stuff - Project 2
This project will be a real eye-opener for most students when they attempt to complete, from memory, an inventory of everything they own - clothes, furniture, CD's, shoes, recreational equipment, and more. Once given the opportunity to update the My Personal Stuff Worksheet at home, students are aware of how inaccurate their estimates are when just done from memory.
Next, students will be asked to envision what their occupation might be and what they intend to own ten years from now. Students will estimate the individual cost of each anticipated belonging and calculate the total of all belongings at "today's" cost. Then, they will calculate the total value of items, ten years from now, after a predetermined rate of inflation has been factored into the formula. Each student will then compute what the cost might be in ten years to insure his or her personal stuff with renter's insurance.
Purpose: To make students keenly aware of the need for renter's insurance to protect, from loss or theft, what they own. Also, to address the impact inflation can have on future prices of items that may need to be replaced.
Future Value - Project 3
This project will actually begin before the 10-day curriculum starts (see Teacher Preparation - page 10). Students will track and record their spending (every dime of it) for seven consecutive days on their Daily Spending Tracker Worksheet. At the conclusion of seven "spending" days, weekly and monthly spending will be calculated. Students will then be asked to estimate to what extent they might be willing to reduce their monthly spending and allocate that dollar amount to saving/investing for a period of fifteen years. Students will be given the future value (at fifteen years) of their saved/invested money, and then they will calculate the projected value of that money at retirement by using the Rule of 72. (Rule of 72 is explained in the Lesson Plan - Day 7.)
Purpose: To expose the actual amount of money being spent by young people and to make students aware of the importance of starting to save/invest early in life. Also, to reinforce the "make money while you sleep" concept addressed in the student book.
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