Financial Literacy

I’m back, along with my electricity. Good riddance, Irene, and may the rest of hurricane season be uneventful.

Anyway, another goal of mine this year is to increase the amount of instruction spent on financial literacy. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to go about this yet, but I have some ideas, including the possible use of the following resources.

Stock Market Game

There are many versions of the famous stock market game. Some that I’ve come across include Wall Street Survivor, The Stock Market Game, Virtual Stock Exchange, How the Market Works.com, SmartStocks.com, YoungMoney.com, Kapitall.com and Stock Trak. The Stock Market Game is the most established, but it probably makes sense to check out all of the options to see which one works best for you. Also, The FDIC has an excellent free financial education program called Money Smart, MoneyInstructor.com has some excellent resources, and for middle school students, Cindy Slovacek has written an excellent book entitled Open for Business: A Simulation for Student-Run Enterprises. This one is high on my “need to read” list.

Simulation Games

You might also want to consider economics simulation games. Disney has a great one for younger kids called Hot Shot Business and the Sims series is an obvious classic. (Download Sim City Classic here.) And kids of all ages love the tycoon-style games found at GatorGamez and the time management games found at Big Fish Games.

Elementary School Kids

Lastly, for younger kids, Centsables.com is a great place to start for basic activities on financial literacy. In addition, I came across a collection of economics sites geared specifically towards elementary school students. They include Kids Econ Posters, Economics & Children’s Literature, Online Elementary Economics Lessons, Economics for Kids, Lemonade Stand and MoneyInstructor.com – Elementary.

Economics PowerPoint Presentations

Eurasian Trade Routes PowerPoint Presentation focuses on the economic impact of the Crusades.
Portuguese Exploration PowerPoint Presentation focuses on Portugal’s attempt to break the Italian monopoly on trade with the Middle Eastern merchants and introduces the concept of the middle man.
Alexander Hamilton’s Economic Plan PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include debt management, the sale of government bonds and the impact of speculators on the American economy
Settlement of California and Utah PowerPoint Presentation – Focus on the California Gold Rush
Free Enterprise System PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include capitalism, private enterprise, competition, private property, profit motive, consumer sovereignty, corporations, shares of stock, dividends, capital
Impact of the Automobile on the Roaring 20’s PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include the “boom cycle” of the 1920’s, the economic impact of the Model-T, assembly lines and the consumer revolution
Bull Market and Consumer Revolution PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include installment buying, advertising, stock market, bull market, consumer revolution, margin buying, stock market crash of 1929
Farmers and Laborers During the Roaring 20’s PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include the law of supply and demand, scarcity, inflation, strikes and collective bargaining
Causes of the Great Depression PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include the stock market crash of 1929, Black Tuesday, Down Jones Industrial Average, philanthropists, buying on margin, foreclosures
Labor Reforms of the 1930’s PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include labor unions, Wagner Act, collective bargaining, sit-down strikes, Fair Labor Standards Act, minimum wage, defecit spending
Conservative Revolution PowerPoint Presentation – Key concepts include Ronald Reagan’s economic plan (“Reaganomics”), trickle down economics, budget deficits, tax cuts, balanced budgets, recession

The following PowerPoint presentations also deal significantly with economic issues.

This entry was posted on September 2, 2011 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

mrberlin