Sense and Dollars Teachers' Guide Introduction: Just for Teachers

The Sense and Dollars Club was developed to help young people in middle and high school come to grips with some of the basic principles of personal finance and economics, to practice using Internet technology, and to see how the principles they use in mathematics apply to other subject areas.

We chose the target audience for this site—middle and high school students—for several reasons. First, students at these levels make significant choices about money management. They often have first jobs of some sort, and, more importantly, have access to a significant amount of money given to them by their parents or other relatives. Secondly, these students often have limited knowledge about spending, saving, and investing money wisely. National surveys over the past decade tell us this. For example, in a 1997 survey of teen consumer skills conducted on behalf of the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, the average score was 57 percent. Only 5 percent of the teens scored a "C" or higher. Some of their mistakes: Thirdly, these students are on the cusp of financial independence. This may be their last chance to formally think and talk about money in a classroom setting.

To help foster that important conversation, we've included these resources for their teachers: There are two other basic parts of this site. The core of the site is the Sense and Dollars Clubhouse. Here, students can navigate through sets of tutorials about various topics of earning, spending, saving, and investing money. These tutorials were designed to give students a chance to explore some important concepts of personal finance and economics, which they can then apply to engage in three interactive simulations: plan financially for the experience of their dreams in Dream Prom, manage a hypothetical household budget using an interactive check register in Check it Out, or learn about the true costs of credit cards in Charge!. Each of the tutorials and activities can be the basis for or part of short- or long-term classroom lessons.

The second part of the site—Parent's Guide—gives family members some basic background on ways to help their kids become money-smart. You may want to check out this part of the site to see if it would be helpful to your students in their work.

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 A Word (or so) about Standards

An emphasis on active and engaged learning is a core principle in new and evolving educational standards. This is the guiding principle we used in designing this site. Here, we expect students to gather and process information in order to evolve their own ideas and opinions based on their interpretations of the facts. They also have a chance to "try on" different ideas and perspectives in doing this. Our site is not a place for expected answers or unilateral opinions. We hope you will use these tutorials and activities in the same spirit.

To give you an idea of ways in which to do that, we have included the specific standards in economics, personal finance, mathematics, and technology that were the basis for our activities.

 Economics

Excerpted from the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, developed by The National Council on Economic Education in partnership with the National Association of Economic Educators and the Foundation for Teaching Economics.

1. Productive resources are limited. Therefore, people can not have all the goods and services they want; as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.

2. Effective decision making requires comparing the additional costs of alternatives with the additional benefits. Most choices involve doing a little more or a little less of something: few choices are "all or nothing" decisions.

3. Different methods can be used to allocate goods and services. People acting individually or collectively through government, must choose which methods to use to allocate different kinds of goods and services.

4. People respond predictably to positive and negative incentives.

5. Markets exist when buyers and sellers interact. This interaction determines market prices and thereby allocates scarce goods and services.

6. Prices send signals and provide incentives to buyers and sellers. When supply or demand changes, market prices adjust, affecting incentives.

7. Money makes it easier to trade, borrow, save, invest, and compare the value of goods and services.

8. Entrepreneurs are people who take the risks of organizing productive resources to make goods and services. Profit is an important incentive that leads entrepreneurs to accept the risks of business failure.

 Personal Finance

Excerpted from The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy's Personal Financial Management Guidelines and Benchmarks

Personal Financial Management Guidelines - Income
Students will be able to:
A. Analyze how personal choices, education/training, technology, and other factors affect future income.
B. Identify sources of income, including entrepreneurial activity.

Personal Financial Management Guidelines - Money Management
Students will be able to:
A. Identify the opportunity cost of a financial decision as applied to income, spending, and saving.
B. Establish and evaluate short-and long-term financial goals and plans regarding income, spending, and saving.
C. Develop, analyze, and revise a budget.
D. Explain personal financial responsibility.
E. Perform basic financial operations, such as using checking and savings accounts.

Personal Financial Management Guideline - Spending and Credit
Students will be able to:
A. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of spending now and spending later.
B. Evaluate the benefits and costs of using different transaction instruments, such as cash, checking accounts, debit cards, credit cards, money orders, electronic fund transfers, and other financial services.
C. Use cost-benefit analysis to choose among spending alternatives, such as housing, transportation, and consumer durables.

Personal Financial Management Guideline - Saving and Investing
Students will be able to:
A. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of saving now and saving later.
B. Explain the importance of short- and long-term saving and financial investment strategies.
C. Identify and evaluate the risk, return, and liquidity of various saving and investment decisions.

 Mathematics

Excerpted from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (adopted April 2000)

Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to:
  • Understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems

  • Understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another

  • Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates

  • Understand patterns, relations, and functions

  • Use mathematical models to represent and understand quantitative relationships

  • Analyze change in various concepts

  • Build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving; solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts; apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems; monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving.

  • Recognize reasoning and proof as fundamental aspects of mathematics; make and investigate mathematical conjectures; develop and evaluate mathematical arguments and proofs; select and use various types of reasoning and methods of proof.

  • Organize and consolidate their mathematical thinking through communication; communicate their mathematical thinking coherently and clearly to peers, teachers, and others; analyze and evaluate the mathematical thinking and strategies of others; use the language of mathematics to express mathematical ideas precisely.

  • Recognize and use connections among mathematical ideas; understand how mathematical ideas interconnect and build on one another to produce a coherent whole; recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics.

  • 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.

     Technology

    Excerpted from the National Educational Technology Standards, an ongoing initiative of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

    Technology Foundation Standards for Students
    1. Basic operations and concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.
    2. Social, ethical, and human issues: Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.
    3. Technology productivity tools: Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
    4. Technology research tools: Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources; Students use technology tools to process data and report results.
    5. Technology problem-solving and decision-making tools: Students use technology resources for solving problems and making informed decisions; Students employ technology in the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world.

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     Where this Site Fits in Your Curriculum

    I teach Economics or Personal Finance. What Sense and Dollars activities are especially good for my students?

    I teach Mathematics. What Sense and Dollars activities are especially good for my students?

    I teach Social Studies. What Sense and Dollars activities are especially good for my students?

     Economics and Personal Finance

    Tutorials:

    Makin' the Bacon, a chance for students to look at the connection between earning and spending. In this activity, students can use a chart of typical teen jobs to estimate how many hours of work it will take to earn enough to purchase the items they want or need. Kids can also suggest additional jobs to be included in the chart. This experience incorporates the costs of goods and services, budgeting, and the value of work

    Sense and Dollars Clubhouse, conversations with young people who have been successful in business offer their stories.
    Each month, visitors to this site will meet teens from all over the nation who are successfully running their own businesses and raise substantial amounts of money for charity, as well as those holding down entry-level jobs. They will offer their comments in monthly columns, and respond to selected e-mail questions from site visitors. By visiting this part of our site, students will be able to interact with and learn from peers who have become financially successful.

    Am I an Entrepreneur at Heart?, a checklist to see how you rate as an entrepreneur
    Social behaviorists have noticed that entrepreneurs all share some common characteristics. At this part of the site, students will be able to gauge their potential to become one of these self-starters. This activity will help students become aware of some of the ways in which they can play a strong part in the larger economy with which they deal.

    All About the Benjamins, an exploration of the past and present of coins and currency
    From this page, students can link to a wide variety of sites focused on the history of money—from its evolution from a system of bartering to its current state in this country and others. By viewing these sites, students will accumulate an understanding of the relationship between the value of goods and services and the money systems employed over the centuries to represent that connection.

    Budget Basics, a view at balancing income and expenses
    Here, students will briefly explore the basics of budgets, and link to other sites on the Internet to refine their knowledge and accumulate more skills in this practice. Through these experiences, students will be prompted to analyze the difference between wants and needs, and the practicality of planning expenditures through budgeting.

    The Scoop on Credit, an investigation of what credit is and how it works
    This section of the site focuses on credit as a concept and a reality. Students find out about some credit basics here, and then link to other Internet sites to further refine their understanding about what it means to have and use a credit card. As they do this, students will explore concepts such as interest rates and other true financial and social costs of credit.

    Time Warp, an inquiry into inflation and deflation and their direct effect on the value of money, goods, and services.
    This part of the site gives students a chance to experience the effects of differing economic cycles by reviewing the cost of several items used in everyday life, observing the change in their cost, and predicting what will happen to them in the next decade. Students who work with this activity will be introduced to the basic concepts of inflation and deflation, and their effects on the economy.

    Growing Money, a look at simple and compound interest
    This part of the site provides an overview of interest. After reviewing some basic facts about interest and the way it is calculated, students will link to other sites on the Internet to try out a variety of financial calculators to experiment with the concepts introduced here. Through this activity, students will look at the basic concepts of savings and investing, and see how money can actually make more money.

    Show Me the Money, a look at savings and investment options
    This activity helps students look at some ways in which their money can make money, and explores the plusses and minuses of several options open to students. Here, they will explore an interactive chart that offers several investment options, from under the mattress to Wall Street, seeing what would happen to their money if they chose each option. As they work through this activity, students will see how liquidity, inflation, time, and rate of return all impact savings and investments.

    Wall Street 101, a stock market primer
    Students navigating to this part of the site will find a wealth of basic information about investing in stocks and bonds, as well as links to ongoing fantasy stock market investment activities on the Internet. Through this activity, students will be able to synthesize their financial knowledge to experiment virtually with various Wall Street investment opportunities.

    Activities:

    Dream Prom, a virtual prom-planning experience
    In this activity, students will select from a list of options the things they need to make their prom experience everything they want it to be. More importantly, they have to figure out how they will get the money they need to make their dreams a reality. Through this experience, students will balance financial resources against needs and wants to establish a realistic prom budget.

    Check It Out, an interactive check register students can use to plan a hypothetical household budget
    Students who engage in this activity will use an interactive check register to manage a monthly budget—choosing which bills to pay and when to pay them. By working with the flow of money into and out of an imaginary checking account, students will gain experience with budgeting and maintaining a spending account.

    Charge!, an experiment in the true costs of using credit cards to make purchases
    This activity gives users a chance to experiment safely with credit to complete purchases of "must have" items such as tennis shoes or a CD player, using credit cards that compute interest using different annual percentage rates. As they work through this reality-based activity, students will deal with financial concepts such as simple interest, APRs, and credit.

     Mathematics Tutorials: Makin' the Bacon, a chance for students to look at the connection between earning and spending.
    In this activity, students can use a chart of typical teen jobs to estimate how many hours of work it will take to earn enough to purchase the items they want or need. Kids can also suggest additional jobs to be included in the chart. The experience incorporates the costs of goods and services, budgeting, and the value of work.

    Time Warp, an inquiry into inflation and deflation and their direct effect on the value of money, goods, and services.
    This part of the site gives students a chance to experience the effects of differing economic cycles by reviewing the cost of several items used in everyday life, observing the change in their cost over several decades, and predicting what will happen to them in the next decade. Students who work with this activity will have a chance to hone estimation skills, as well as work with whole numbers and percentage of change, seeing mathematical thought as it applies to other subject areas.

    Growing Money, a look at simple and compound interest
    This part of the site provides an overview of interest. After reviewing some basic facts about interest and the way it is calculated, students will link to other sites on the Internet to try out a variety of financial calculators to experiment with the concepts introduced here. These experiences give them an opportunity to use technology in working basic algorithms, using mathematical principles in another subject area.

    Activities:

    Dream Prom, a virtual prom-planning experience
    In this activity, students will select from a list of options the things they need to make their prom experience everything they want it to be. More importantly, they have to figure out how they will get the money they need to make their dreams a reality. Through this experience, students will use mathematical thought in a real-world application to deal with spending and saving.

    Check It Out, an interactive check register students can use to plan a hypothetical household budget
    Students who engage in this activity will use an interactive check register to manage a monthly budget—choosing which bills to pay and when to pay them. By working with the flow of money into and out of an imaginary checking account, students will experience dealing with number and number relationships in a real-world setting.

    Charge!, an experiment in the true costs of using credit cards to make purchases
    This activity gives users a chance to experiment safely with credit to complete purchases of "must have" items such as tennis shoes or a CD player, using credit cards that compute interest using different annual percentage rates. As they work through this reality-based activity, students will deal with percentages and their equivalents to evaluate the best buys in credit.

     Social Studies

    Also check out resources in the Economics and Personal Finance Section.

    Tutorials:

    All About the Benjamins, an exploration of the past and present of coins and currency
    From this page, students can link to a wide variety of sites focused on the history of money—from its evolution from a system of bartering to its current state in this country and others. By viewing these sites, students will accumulate an understanding of the relationship between the value of goods and services and money systems used over the centuries in a variety of cultures.

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     Technology Tips

  • I have no computer in my classroom. How can I use Sense and Dollars activities with my students?

  • I have a computer in my classroom. How can I use Sense and Dollars activities with my students?

  • I have several computers in my classroom, or can work in a computer lab. How can I use Sense and Dollars activities with my students?

     No Computer in the Classroom

    If you find an activity or tutorial you would like to use with your classes, you can print out the pages and duplicate a packet of information for each student. You may want to supplement the Internet resources with excerpts from textbooks or other materials in print.

    Please note that the following activities are best completed online and would not be as suitable for your group:

    Makin' the Bacon
    Where Should I Put my Money?
    Dream Prom
    Check It Out
    Charge!

     Single Computer in the Classroom

    You may want to use the single computer as one in a series of learning stations. Groups of students could circulate through the stations (for example, one with textbooks, one with magazine articles, one with a calculator and paper) to gather information from a variety of sources about the same topic. If you use a group structure, make sure that every student in the group has a specific role (for example, keyboarder, recorder, timekeeper, etc.). Groups should have no more than 5 members, and preferably fewer. Before the students begin to work, you should: A single computer can also be used by individual students on a rotating schedule to review ideas discussed in class, or to get more practice in dealing with them.

    With the help of a display device, such as a television monitor, you can use one computer to present specific sections of this site to the entire class. By using a display device, you can compensate for small computer monitors that are only visible from close proximity. This way, the whole class can observe the same information at the same time.

    If you do not have Internet access through your classroom computer, you can still use Internet resources by using software such as Webwhacker. Using a computer with Internet access, load Webwhacker and similar software. This software can capture pages from the Internet and save them on a portable disk for future use. Once the pages are captured on the disk, you can load them on the computer in your classroom.

    You can also print materials from the tutorials and duplicate that portion of the site for each student to use as a resource.

    Always have a "fall back" plan, in case of problems with the technology. Your plan could be as simple as having the materials the class was going to look at on the Internet printed out before hand.

     Multiple Computers in the Classroom or a Computer Lab

    Students can work in groups at different computer stations. Make sure that every student in the group has a specific role (for example, keyboarder, recorder, timekeeper, etc.). Groups should have no more than 5 members, and preferably fewer. Before the students begin to work, you should create bookmarks for the pages you want the groups to look at, and save the bookmarks in a specific file.

    Before the students begin to work, you should: As students complete their task, you can circulate through the groups, monitoring their work, assessing their progress, and encouraging them when they are "stuck."

    Please note that, sometimes, if a large number of people try to access the same site, they may get error messages, or data transmittal may be slowed. You may want to archive sites on several computers to make sure that the site doesn't hit overload. You can archive, or save the site by using your browser (the program you use to connect with the Internet). Note the location of the saved site and display it for classroom use.

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     Tips and Testimonials

    We're always interested in finding out how you have used the materials at the Sense and Dollars site as you work with students. We'd love to post ideas that have helped you use this site with your class, roadblocks you may have encountered and how you got around them, and successes you'd like to celebrate. Please take a few minutes to let us know how you're doing. We'll post some of your ideas here in the future. In the meantime, here are a few tips and techniques you may want to consider: Back to top



     Other Internet Resources

    Here are some excellent sources for information, lesson plans, and online activities related to personal finance and economic education. Some of the sites are prepared by commercial entities within the financial community. We do not endorse any of these sites or their sponsors, but offer them as places you may find helpful as you and your students explore economics and personal finance.

    General Financial Education Sites
    (Many include extensive lesson plans for use in the classroom.)

    A Sampling of Specific Activity Sites

    In addition, you may want to look at the activities listed under in the Money-Smart Online Activities for Kids and Families section to see if your students would benefit from using any of them in the classroom.

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